The stocks' weights in the index are based on their market capitalizations, with certain rules capping the influence of the largest components.

[7] The index set highs above the 4,700 level at the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, but fell 78% during the stock market downturn of 2002.

[8] After a gradual 5-year recovery to an intraday high of 2,239.51 on October 31, 2007, the highest reached since February 16, 2002, the index corrected below the 2,000 level in early 2008 amid the late-2000s recession, the United States housing bubble and the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

Panic focusing on the failure of the investment banking industry culminated in a loss of more than 10% on September 29, 2008, subsequently plunging the index firmly into a bear market.

[citation needed] Amid quantitative easing (QE) from the Federal Reserve and optimism that the financial crisis was ending, the index embarked on a volatile four-year climb higher, closing above 3,000 on May 15, 2013, for the first time since November 15, 2000.

[citation needed] While the composition of the Nasdaq-100 changes in the case of delisting (such as transferring to another exchange, mergers and acquisitions, or declaring bankruptcy, and in a few cases, being delisted by Nasdaq for failing to meet listing requirements), the index is reconstituted once a year, in December, when Nasdaq reviews its components, compares them with those not in the index, re-ranks all eligible companies and makes the appropriate adjustments.

[citation needed] As of June 2024, all companies are ranked by the size of their market values as of the last trading day of November.

[13] Prior to June 2024, there were two tools the Nasdaq used to determine the market values of companies for the annual review: To determine the new composition of the index: The top 75 components that meet Nasdaq's standards are automatically included in the index as of the end of the third Friday in December.

[19] On December 22, 2008, Nasdaq added the following companies to the Nasdaq-100 index: Automatic Data Processing, First Solar, Life Technologies, Ross Stores, Maxim Integrated Products, Illumina, Pharmaceutical Product Development, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Urban Outfitters, J.

Hunt and Warner Chilcott, replacing Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Cadence Design Systems, Discovery Communications, Lamar Advertising Company, Leap Wireless International, Level 3 Communications, PetSmart, SanDisk, Sirius XM Radio, Virgin Media and Whole Foods Market.

[20] On January 20, 2009, News Corporation was added to the index, replacing Focus Media Holding, which did not meet the minimum monthly weight requirements.

[22] On December 21, 2009, seven stocks joined the Nasdaq-100 index before the market open: Vodafone, Mattel, BMC Software, Mylan, Qiagen, SanDisk and Virgin Media.

These stocks replaced Akamai Technologies, Hansen Natural, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Liberty Global, Pharmaceutical Product Development, Ryanair and Steel Dynamics.

On December 19, 2011, five companies joined the Nasdaq-100 index due to the annual reranking of the index: Avago Technologies, Fossil Group, Monster Beverage, Nuance Communications and Randgold Resources, replacing FLIR Systems, Illumina, NII Holdings, Qiagen and Urban Outfitters.

Kraft Foods was the fourth component of the Nasdaq-100 to also be included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, joining Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, but was removed from the DJIA when it subsequently split into two companies.

On Wednesday December 12, 2012, Facebook, Inc was added to the index, replacing Infosys, which transferred its listing to the NYSE.

[32] On August 22, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters returned to the index, replacing Life Technologies.

[34] The five companies that were dropped were Fossil Group, Microchip Technology, Nuance Communications, Sears Holdings and Dentsply.

[39] Nasdaq announced on December 11 that seven companies would be replaced in the index on December 21 due to annual re-ranking: Ctrip, Endo International, Expedia Group, Maxim Integrated Products, Norwegian Cruise Line, T-Mobile US and Ulta Beauty, replacing C. H. Robinson Worldwide, Expeditors International, Garmin, Keurig Green Mountain, Staples, VimpelCom and Wynn Resorts.

[43] On April 18, Liberty Media established two tracking stocks (BATRA), (BATRK) to follow the performance of its investment in the Atlanta Braves.

[44] On June 20, Dentsply Sirona returned to the index, replacing four Liberty Media tracking stocks (LMCA), (LMCK), (BATRA), (BATRK).

They were ASML Holding, Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Take-Two Interactive and Workday These companies replaced Akamai Technologies, Discovery Communications – both classes listed in the index (DISCA) (DISCK), Norwegian Cruise Lines, Tractor Supply and Viacom.

[56] On November 5, NXP Semiconductors rejoined the index following its failed acquisition by Qualcomm, replacing CA, which merged with Broadcom.

[58] On December 14, Nasdaq announced that 6 stocks will join the index on December 24: Advanced Micro Devices, lululemon Athletica, NetApp, United Continental Holdings, Verisign and Willis Towers Watson, replacing Express Scripts, Hologic, Qurate Retail Group, Seagate Technology, Shire and Vodafone.

[60] On December 13, Nasdaq announced that as a result of the annual re-ranking of the index, six companies would join December 23: Ansys, CDW, Copart, CoStar Group, Seattle Genetics and Splunk, replacing Hasbro, Henry Schein, J.B. Hunt, Mylan, NortonLifeLock and Wynn Resorts.

They replaced BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Citrix Systems, Expedia Group, Liberty Global (both classes of shares), Take-Two Interactive and Ulta Beauty.

They are Airbnb (ABNB), Datadog (DDOG), Fortinet (FTNT), Lucid Group (LCID), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), and Zscaler (ZS).

[80] Additionally, SeaGen was dropped after its merger with Pfizer was completed on December 14, and was replaced by Take-Two Interactive.

[82] On June 24, Arm Holdings replaced Sirius XM as the company no longer met minimum weighting standards.

[83][84] On July 22, Supermicro replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance as WBA no longer met minimum weighting standards.