The spreading of the money invested across a range of assets (e.g. shares) but without examining the risk-return features of each share or the interrelationships between how these shares would be expected to perform. For example, investing in the shares of twenty companies may be constituted as diversification but if the twenty companies are all high-street retailers the diversification is naïve.

A US stock exchange based in New York City. NASDAQ is an acronym for National Association of  Securities Dealers Automated Quotations.