And then there were three.
Welcome to Y’all Street, Nasdaq Texas, a new exchange building on Nasdaq’s existing presence in the state.
Nasdaq is announcing its intention to launch a dual listing venue based in the Lone Star State at the eighth Annual Permian Basin BBQ Cook-Off Wednesday in Midland.
The announcement comes at the end of a landmark year for capital markets in Texas. Earlier this year, competitor the New York Stock Exchange launched NYSE Texas, while the upstart Texas Stock Exchange declared itself in 2024 before receiving approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange six weeks ago.
Nasdaq may seem last to the party, but Rachel Racz, senior vice president and head of listings for its Texas, Southern U.S. and Latin America division, insists it was the logical next step for a company with deep ties to the state.
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“I‘m viewing this as really an extension of the investment that we’ve already made in the state and that we’ve been making over the past two decades,” she said.
Racz is a Houston native who first met the Nasdaq team while moonlighting as a rodeo announcer. The company was on the brink of doubling its presence in Texas by acquiring divisions of Thomson Reuters that turned many Texas oil and gas companies into Nasdaq clients. The Nasdaq team, at the rodeo, asked her to interview to be a relationship manager, and in her first seven years with the company, she grew the relationship management team before running listings in the state.
Now in her second act with Nasdaq after an extended stint in her first love, the oil and gas business, Racz is leading the next major push in Texas.
Rachel Racz, Senior Vice President, head of listings for Nasdaq’s Texas, Southern U.S. and Latin America division speaks as moderator SMU Cox Finance Professor Darius Miller listens during TexCap 2025, a capital markets conference, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, at James M. Collins Executive Education Center in University Park.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
It started in September 2024, when Nasdaq brought Racz back in to run a new regional management division out of its Irving offices. Then, in March, it announced a new regional headquarters in Dallas. That’s where the idea for Nasdaq Texas was born.
Nasdaq had been a bit of a lone wolf in its apparent disinterest to chase the rush for Texas exchange medallions, instead opting to focus on its core customer service principles. But Racz said clients were so excited by Nasdaq’s physical presence in Dallas that it made the company “change our perspective” on their approach to Y’all Street.
“We’re not watching really what our competitors are doing. We really try to listen to what our clients care about,“ she said. ”So we want to build something a lot bigger for [our clients] to use to connect with investors, connect with their company, to their shareholders, to their clients.”
Nasdaq Texas will be based out of the Dallas regional headquarters, and Racz shared that Nasdaq, which operates 135 exchanges, will reincorporate one it owns, the trick NYSE used to get NYSE Texas, formerly NYSE Chicago, launched so quickly. That still requires the involvement of the SEC, which was affected by the government shutdown, so Nasdaq Texas is expected to open for business pending regulatory approval in 2026.
The goal is to help connect Texas companies and beyond to Nasdaq’s network of services, like data, advisory and more, while empowering companies get in on the growth of Texas.
And while there are greater hopes for Nasdaq Texas than simply hosting dual listings, a dual listing on a Texas stock exchange means even more now, thanks to laws passed by the latest Texas legislative session.
Senate Bill 1057 raised the threshold for shareholder proposals for public companies headquartered in Texas or listed on a Texas stock exchange, while securities taxes are now constitutionally banned in the state, among other pro-business legislation.
Still, there’s now plenty of competition for those benefits. While the Texas Stock Exchange won’t begin trading on its platform until 2026, NYSE Texas is not just up and running but also already in possession of dozens of dual listings from Texas giants like AT&T and power generator Vistra.
But, compared with the glitzy AT&T Stadium bell ringing for NYSE Texas, Nasdaq’s Permian Basin BBQ launch, alongside Daniel Energy Partners and other oil and gas leaders, says a lot about how it hopes to differentiate itself.
“I think it’s such an incredible way to highlight how Nasdaq can bridge the gap between energy and technology,” Racz said. “It’s a head nod to the state of Texas and how we can do that here. We have the infrastructure, we have the power, and it’s coming from the Permian Basin.”
Ultimately, Nasdaq Texas is about connecting capital to the Texas and its economy and, for Racz, helping empower growth in her home state.
Nasdaq already has more than 200 listed companies in the state, representing nearly $2 trillion in market cap, along with around 800 clients across Nasdaq’s other services. But outside companies are also looking to do business here, and in total, the Texas economy is the eighth-largest in the world, larger than Russia, Canada and others.
“I’ve always thought Texas has been on the map and the greatest state in the nation, but it’s really done something where, not just Texas companies, but companies that are doing business in Texas are looking at this and wanting the opportunity to be a part of it,” Racz said. “And so I view this as our way to help companies be a part of what’s happening in Texas.”
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