what is the fundamental difference between NASDAQ and NYSE?

Akram Ayyash: what is the fundamental difference between NASDAQ and NYSE?
There is a difference but I can’t seem to understand it. So can a regular person walk into NASDAQ and buy a stock as opposed to the need of a broker in NYSE? Is this the ‘over the counter’ difference? There is also the issue of ‘electronic market’ so do people trading in the NYSE buy and sell shares using paper and pen contracts not electronic transactions?
And an important question is why do companies choose to enlist in NYSE not NASDAQ or vice-versa?

Answers and Views:

Answer by champ_85
Good question. As an ex-president of a publicly run company listed on NASDAQ, I was going to provide you with some answers, but I believe this article below is much more informative than I could have been. The NYSE has always been considered the Premier exchange, and until recently only NYSE stocks made up the Dow Jones 30 Industrials. Also, NASDAQ was considered and easier exchange to become a member of. Additionally, the NYSE was considered appropriate for more brick and morter type companies, while the dot-coms and penny stocks lingered in NASDAQ. With the emergence of companies such as Intel and Microsoft, the NASDAQ became known for technology stocks. Hopefully the information below provides you a more well rounded understanding of the difference between the two exchanges:

The location of an exchange refers not so much to its street address but the “place” where its transactions take place. On the NYSE, all trades occur in a physical place, on the trading floor in New York City. So, when you see those guys waving their hands on TV or ringing a bell before opening the exchange, you are seeing the people through whom stocks are transacted on the NYSE.

The Nasdaq, on the other hand, is located not on a physical trading floor but on a telecommunications network. People are not on a floor of the exchange matching buy and sell orders on behalf of investors. Instead, trading takes place directly between investors and their buyers or sellers, who are the market makers (whose role we discuss below in the next section), through an elaborate system of companies electronically connected to one another.

Dealer vs. Auction Market
The fundamental difference between the NYSE and Nasdaq is in the way securities on the exchanges are transacted between buyers and sellers. The Nasdaq is a dealer’s market, wherein market participants are not buying from and selling to one another directly but through a dealer, which, in the case of the Nasdaq, is a market maker. The NYSE is an auction market, wherein individuals are typically buying and selling between one another and there is an auction occurring; that is, the highest bidding price will be matched with the lowest asking price. (For more on different types of markets, see Markets Demystified.)

Traffic Control
Each stock market has its own traffic control police officer. Yup, that’s right, just as a broken traffic light needs a person to control the flow of cars, each exchange requires people who are at the “intersection” where buyers and sellers “meet”, or place their orders. The traffic controllers of both exchanges deal with specific traffic problems and, in turn, make it possible for their markets to work. On the Nasdaq, the traffic controller is known as the market maker, who, we already mentioned, transacts with buyers and sellers to keep the flow of trading going. On the NYSE, the exchange traffic controller is known as the specialist, who is in charge of matching up buyers and sellers.

The definitions of the role of the market maker and that of the specialist are technically different; a market maker creates a market for a security, whereas a specialist merely facilitates it. However, the duty of both the market maker and specialist is to ensure smooth and orderly markets for clients. If too many orders get backed up, the traffic controllers of the exchanges will work to match the bidders with the askers to ensure the completion of as many orders as possible. If there is nobody willing to buy or sell, the market makers of the Nasdaq and the specialists of the NYSE will try to see if they can find buyers and sellers and even buy and sell from their own inventories.

Answer by Jeffy
No one can walk into the NASDAQ because it is an electronic exchange that works through brokers/dealers.
The NASDAQ quotes technological stocks.

The NYSE is located in NY, you can actually go there although the majority of trades are done electronically now. The NYSE use a “specialist” to “make the market”.

To enlist in the NYSE or NASDAQ you have to fulfill different requirements.
For the NASDAQ: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/121.asp

For NYSE:

Answer by pegasusaig
Stocks can be listed on exchanges subject to the exchange requirements, but you can buy or sell them through any brokerage.

NYSE has higher size and value minimums than NASDAQ, and tends to have larger companies but slower changing, less volatile stocks.

All now conduct online transactions electronically in about a second.