Nasdaq Reaches Milestone at 5,000 
By Ianthe Jeanne Dugan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday , March 9, 2000 
Alex Beck
Period 5
February 8, 1971: Nasdaq opens for trading.
1994: Surpasses NYSE in share volume. 
July 17, 1995: Nasdaq closes above 1000.
July 16, 1998: Nasdaq closes above 2000.
November 2, 1998: Nasdaq/AMEX complete merger.
November 3, 1999: Nasdaq closes above 3000. 
December 29, 1999: Nasdaq closes above 4000. 
March 9, 2000: Nasdaq closes above 5000. 
	The Nasdaq composite index closed above 5,000 for the first time ever today, symbolizing the rapid shift from the old economy to the new. It also symbolizing the transfer of power from huge investors to small ones.
	Investorswent on a buying spree that pushed up the Nasdaq 154.2 points to close at 5047.39. Blue-chip went up driving up the Dow Jones industrial up.
	In January 1999 the NAs was at 2500 increasing 100% in barley over a year. While the Dow has barley been going up.
	"Until recently, folks in Silicon Valley understood there was a radical shift in the economy, but people in other parts of the United States thought it was California hype," said Boris Feldman, a partner in the Palo Also securities law firm Wilson "Now, people everywhere are beginning to believe this is a new revolution."
	Many professionals are even beginning to watch the Nasdaq as a barometer of the economy.
	"Considering that the Dow Jones industrial average was created in 1896 as a functionary of the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the last century, could we introduce the suggestion today that, as time passes, the Nasdaq is growing to represent the new technological revolution?" asks Louise Yamada, a Salomon Smith Barney analyst.
	I share the belief that the Nas. will be the functionality of the new tech. revolution, because It will probibly not stop or slow for another century for the market for computers will not cease because of its limitless potential.

The divergence underlines a broad acceptance that the Internet and high-technology will propel the economy in the future. Though skeptics say that this new milestone is evidence that the bubble is about to burst, many investors can't dump money fast enough into high-tech stocks and many are borrowing to do it.
The index itself never would have reached this milestone without the new wave of technology that has put trading in the hands of small investors. With computers and more borrowed money for stocks than ever, small investors have been a powerful force in driving the Nasdaq to where it is now.
"Until recently, the individual investor was allowed to take part in the market only through brokers and mutual funds," said Stephen Killeen, general manager of Raging Bull, one of the most popular electronic salons for investors. "Today, investors have this huge power to buy the smaller stocks that populate the Nasdaq."
Consider Jim Fulton, a retired General Motors engineer, who opened his first online trading account just six months ago. Since then, he has purchased 60 initial public offerings, doing all his research on the Internet. He pays $14.95 a trade through Fidelity and makes about 50 trades a month. He also handles his 86-year-old mother's investing, often using borrowed money, or margin loans, to make trades.
"I have her 100 percent in high-tech stocks," he said. "And I margined her heavily. She has no expenses, so why not roll the dice?"
"In retrospect, everybody wishes they had played it – even me," said David Dreman, a money manager who has been oft-quoted for more than a year that the bubble was about to burst. "I've been blasted for 'not getting it'," he said.
But he still believes that if the tech stocks don't dive, at least the old-economy companies will roar back. "You can't have a new economy without the old economy," he said.
Many professionals are even beginning to watch the Nasdaq as a barometer of the economy.
"Considering that the Dow Jones industrial average was created in 1896 as a functionary of the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the last century, could we introduce the suggestion today that, as time passes, the Nasdaq is growing to represent the new technological revolution?" asks Louise Yamada, a Salomon Smith Barney analyst.