Guide to Analysing Companies

Narcodollars
Money used to finance the purchase of illegal drugs (dollars to
buy narcotics). It is said that a remarkably high percentage of all
the dollar bills in circulation today in the United States bear
traces of narcotics.
Narrow market
A market in which there is only a small supply of goods or ser-
vices available or being sold. The expression is applied particu-
larly to financial markets (such as stockmarkets) where there
is a shortage, for example, of a particular company’s securi-
ties on offer. If demand for the security outstrips supply, as in
any market, this can have the effect of pushing up the price.
210
02 Essential Finance 10/11/06 2:22 PM Page 210

---

NASDAQ
Short for National Association of Securities Dealers’ Automated
Quotations, a computerised information system that provides
brokers throughout the United States and in certain interna-
tional markets with price quotations on a number of securi-
ties. It includes securities that are quoted on the new york
stock exchange as well as some that are traded over the
counter. nasdaq became a byword for investors in high-
growth companies during the technology boom of the late
1990s; it had big ambitions to expand internationally and set up
offshoots in Japan and Europe (see next entry). When the tech-
nology bubble burst, nasdaq was forced to scale back its
plans, closing its Japanese offshoot. But it remains one of the
main means of trading in shares over-the-counter.
NASDAQ Europe
A pan-European stock exchange, formerly called easdaq,
designed for high-growth companies and modelled on
nasdaq in the United States which, since 2001, has owned a
majority of it. nasdaq Europe is based in Brussels and is inde-
pendent of any national stock exchange in Europe. Much like
nasdaq in the United States, nasdaq Europe provides the
platform for a screen-based market in high-tech stocks. It began
operations in 1996 and is part owned by a lot of financial inter-
mediaries. Since the end of 2001, the exchange has also had
links with the Berlin Stock Exchange, with which it shares a
common trading system.
Nationalisation
The takeover and running of commercial companies by the
state. Because of nationalist rivalries and a temptation to defend
their champions from international competition, the financial
sector frequently has a high degree of nationalisation. This is es-
pecially true of continental Europe. In France and Italy, for