• The Opening and Closing Bell is a ceremonial event that represents The NASDAQ Stock Market's virtual market model.
• Given NASDAQ's electronic model, NASDAQ can be opened remotely from any location and is used to mark important corporate milestones from NASDAQ listed companies and for other celebratory occasions.
• The Opening and Closing Bell events are symbolic ceremonies that represent the open and/or close of the NASDAQ trading day, which brings together investors and market participants from around the world to trade electronically.

• The NASDAQ remote ceremonies are held from locations outside the NASDAQ MarketSite, however, are simultaneously displayed live from NASDAQ's MarketSite broadcast studio and seven-story tower in Times Square.
  • These remote ceremonies capture the essence of a typical NASDAQ Opening and Closing Bell event including:
    • A NASDAQ Market Open/Close podium at the site for the Company Executive to push the electronic bell and sign-into the market.
    • The sign-in on the podium captures an electronic signature, which is a NASDAQ tradition, that appears on the NASDAQ Tower in Times Square from the remote location and is displayed on the MarketSite studio video wall and on NASDAQ's seven-story Tower.

• NASDAQ's first remote ceremony was in August of '05 and marked an important milestone for a NASDAQ listed company at it's headquarters.
• NASDAQ together with Cisco Systems recreated the virtual NASDAQ market open and close experience in San Jose, California, in celebration of Cisco's 20th anniversary.
• The NASDAQ/Cisco remote open and close experience was coined a "Virtual" event given technology built by Cisco Systems to produce real-time data, which included a replica of NASDAQ's studio video wall for real-time NASDAQ data that was displayed throughout the day.

• Dick Robinson, Chairman, President and CEO of Scholastic Corporation, presided over the opening bell in celebration of the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book “Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.” Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, and U.S publisher of Harry Potter, announced an initial print run of 12 million copies of the book, which breaks the record held by the sixth and previous book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which had a 10.8 million first printing in 2005 and sold 6.9 million copies within the first 24 hours.

• NASDAQ President & CEO Bob Greifeld and NIRI Interim CEO Linda Kelleher, presided over the opening bell. NIRI is the professional association of corporate officers and investor relations consultants responsible for communications among corporate management, shareholders, security analysts and other financial publics. NIRI's 4,400 members represent over 2,100 publicly held companies in the United States.

• Thomas Petterffy, Chairman of Interactive Brokers (IBG), an automated global electronic market maker and broker that specializes in routing orders, and executing and processing trades in securities, futures and foreign exchange instruments, presided over the opening bell to celebrate the Company’s initial public offering on NASDAQ.

• NASDAQ is the first-ever U.S. exchange to open it market from China. Chinese companies listed on NASDAQ, including Baidu, China Grentech, Ctrip, Focus Media, KongZhong Corporation, Origin Agritech, Sina Corporation, Vimicro International, Home Inns, eFuture Information, Harbin Electronic, and JA Solar Holdings, rang the NASDAQ opening bell from Beijing along with NASDAQ CEO Bob Greifeld and Ambassador Randt.

• Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (CTSH), a leading provider of IT and business process outsourcing services rang the NASDAQ opening bell from the Company’s techno-complex. Charlotte Croswell, President of NASDAQ International was joined by Cognizant CEO Francisco D’Souza and Cognizant Vice Chairman Lakshmi Narayanan.

• Gordon Ommen, CEO and Chairman of US BioEnergy (USBE) presided over the remote closing bell to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Albert City, IA Ethanol Facility, which began operations in November 2006 and the Company’s recent initial public offering in the NASDAQ Stock Market.

• NASDAQ Executives including Bob Greifeld, President and CEO, Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President, Corporate Client Group, and various listed companies rand the Opening Bell live from Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.

• In 2005, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS), the leader in global electronic-design innovation, became the first dual-listed company to move to a sole listing on the NASDAQ Stock Market. In celebration of this one-year anniversary, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS), President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Fister, rang the NASDAQ opening bell live from their San Jose, California headquarters.

• In celebration of Oracle OpenWorld 2006 and Oracle's 20th Listing Anniversary as a public company, Oracle (ORCL) rang The NASDAQ Closing Bell ceremony live from San Francisco. Oracle OpenWorld is an annual forum held in San Francisco, California for business and technology leaders. It is the world's largest event dedicated to helping enterprises understand the power of information.

• For the first time ever, The NASDAQ Stock Market opened its market remotely from India. On Monday July 31st 2006, Nandan M. Nilekani, Chief Executive Officer, President and Managing Director rang the opening bell from the Infosys Global Education Center in Mysore, India, the company's largest education facility, to celebrate the company's 25-year business anniversary.

• Staples invented the office superstore industry 20 years ago in May and to celebrate this 20th anniversary, it hosted the first remote opening of The NASDAQ Stock Market in the Northeast. Staples Chairman and CEO Ron Sargent and NASDAQ President and CEO Bob Greifeld, rang the opening bell along with hundreds of Staples associates.

• Churchill Downs Incorporated President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas H. Meeker and NASDAQ Executive Vice President Bruce Aust rang The NASDAQ Stock Market Opening Bell celebrating the 132nd running of its famed 'Run for the Roses' and commemorating its 13th year as a publicly listed company on The NASDAQ Stock Market. Joining them at the ceremony was Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

• NASDAQ Global Funds CEO John Jacobs lead the festivities at stadium court along with Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2004 US Open Champion and 2006 NASDAQ-100 Open Champion. This was the first live opening bell ceremony from the tournament to help kick-off finals weekend. Joining them at the podium was tournament chair Butch Buchholz, tournament ambassador Mary Joe Fernandez, tournament director Adam Barrett, ball boys and tournament volunteers.

• United Airlines' EVP and COO, Peter D. McDonald, and Adena T. Friedman, Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Data Products, rang the Closing Bell remotely from San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

• Glenn F. Tilton, Chairman, President and CEO of UAL Corporation (NASDAQ: UAUA), and Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President, Corporate Client Group, The NASDAQ Stock Market, rang the Opening Bell of the remotely from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to celebrate United Airlines selecting NASDAQ to list its new shares

• NASDAQ Executives along with Sir Richard Branson, chairman and owner of the Virgin Group of Companies, Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel Corporation and various NASDAQ listed companies rang the Opening Bell live from Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum's Annual meeting.

NASDAQ executives, along with Morgan Stanley's Head of Equities in Europe, opened the market to kick-off NASDAQ's 16th Investor Conference, which is held in association with Morgan Stanley.

• John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) N-100, and Bob Greifeld, President and CEO of The NASDAQ Stock Market, along with 2,000 Cisco employees, rang the Opening and Closing bell "virtually" to celebrate the closing of its 20-year anniversary on the NASDAQ.