Volume of stocks traded over the counter expected to beat Big Board in '84

Trading volume of securities on the NASDAQ system will surpass the volume of the New York Stock Exchange by early in 1984 if trends of the past five years continue, officials of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) predict.

NASDAQ (the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System) serves the over-the-counter market for trading stocks, a market relying largely on the telephone to make trades. NASDAQ provides information on bid and asked prices offered by securities firms making a market for the various stocks.

A record 6.69 billion shares of NASDAQ securities were traded in 1980, an increase of 83 percent over 1979, also a record year, according to I. C. (Jack) Petersen, chairman of NASD and presidebt if Kirkpatrick, Pettis, Smith, Polian Inc., an Omaha, Neb., broker-dealer.

"In 1980, NASDAQ share volume was more than four times that of the American Stock Exchange and nearly 60 percent that of the NYSE," Mr. Petersen said. "Thus far in 1981, average daily volume of NASDAQ is more than five times that of Amex and well above 70 percent of the NYSE figure."

Mr. Petersen said NASDAQ is in the midst of a six-year bull market. The NASDAQ industrial average, which closed 1974 at 56.46, stood at 243.79 at the end of last week. "During those six years, the price of the average NASDAQ stock has more than quadrupled, while the Dow Jones industrials -- the big NYSE stocks -- increased by only 52 percent," he said.

"During the past five years, volume of NASDAQ shares traded has increased at an annually compounded rate of 36.92 percent -- nearly double the NYSE growth rate of 19.29 percent," he added. "A continuation of this five-year trend will mean that by the third week of January 1984, volume of NASDAQ shares traded will r egularly exceed that of the NYSE."