Nasdaq opened as an electronic stock market that could not execute a single trade.
On February 8, 1971, it began showing 1,000 brokerages the dealers’ quotes on 3,000 stocks, and that was all it did. The orders were still placed by telephone, and its computers executed no trade until 1984. As late as 1987 the press, and Standard & Poor’s own stock guides, still called it OTC, over the counter.
Nasdaq on Brandseum