NEW YORK, Aug. 25 -- Ask what the Nasdaq did on Monday and there are four defensible answers, because four different things carry the name.

The Composite, which holds roughly three thousand listings, fell 0.76 per cent. The Nasdaq 100, which holds the largest hundred non-financial companies, fell 0.97. The September futures on that index were quoted 0.77 per cent below their previous settlement. And Nasdaq, Inc., the company that owns the exchange, publishes the indices and licenses them to the funds that track them, rose 0.58 per cent to $98.79.

Three of the four fell. The fourth is the only one you can hold a share certificate in, and it is 2.9 per cent below its 52-week high while the index it publishes is 5.7 per cent below its own....