Stock symbol or ticker is a short abbreviation, used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. The stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or combinations thereof. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols, which were printed on the ticker tape of the ticker tape device.
History of US stock symbols
In the United States, modern tickers, consisting only of letters, were developed by the Standard agency & Poor’s (S&P), to introduce a national investment standard. Previously, one company could have many different tickers, as they varied across dozens of individual stock markets. Term "Ticker" refers to noise, published by ticker tape machines, which were once widely used on stock exchanges.
System S&P was later standardized in the securities industry and modified over time. Preferred stock symbols are not standardized.
Examples of US stock symbols
- A – Agilent Technologies
- C – Citigroup
- BAK – Bank of America
- BRK.B – Berkshire Hathaway (class B shares)
- KO - Coca-Cola Company
- HNZ – The HJ Heinz Company
- MSFT is Microsoft
- VAG – Walgreens
- TGT – Target Corporation
- WMT – Wal-Mart
- MMM – 3M Company
- HPQ – Hewlett-Packard
- INTC - Intel
- TXN – Texas Instruments
In the past, looking at the U.S. stock symbol and the codes attached to it allowed an investor to determine, Where the shares are traded; However, in July 2007 The SEC Approved the Rule Change, allowing companies, moving from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq , save your three letter characters; DirecTV Group was one of the first companies, who took this step. When first implemented, the rule change did not apply to companies with one or two letter characters, [ 2 ] but subsequently any stock could switch from NYSE on Nasdaq without changing its symbol. CA Company, Inc., which is traded under the symbol CA, Moved with NYSE on the Nasdaq in April 2008 of the year, keeping its two-letter character. [ 3 ]
Single letter ticker symbols
- Answer: Agilent Technologies
- B: Barnes Group
- C: Citigroup
- D: Dominion Resources
- E: Eni S.p.A.
- F: Ford Motor Company
- G: General Pact
- X: Hyatt
- I open)
- J: (Open)
- TO: Kellogg
- L: Loews Corporation [ 4 ]
- M: Macy’s, Inc.
- N: NetSuite, Inc.
- ABOUT: Real Estate Income Corporation
- P: (Open)
- Question: Qwest Communications International Inc.
- R: Ryder System Inc..
- With: Sprint Nextel
- T: NAME&T
- IN: (Open)
- V: Visa, Inc.
- IN: (Open)
- X: US Steel
- Y: Allegany Corporation
- WITH: (Open)
Interpretation of the symbol
Stock symbols are unique identifiers, assigned to each security, traded on the market. Some companies use a well-known product as their ticker symbol. Anheuser-Busch, beer manufacturer Budweiser, used the three letter code "BUD" until then, until the company was acquired by InBev in 2008 year, which symbolized its main product. Her competitor, Molson Coors Brewing Company, uses a similar symbol, beer related, «TAP». The same way, Southwest Airlines pays tribute to its headquarters at Love Field in Dallas with the "LUV" symbol. Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, operator of large amusement parks in the USA, uses "FUN" as a symbol, and Steinway Musical Instruments uses the symbol "LVB" in honor of composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven. Yamana Gold uses "AUY", because in the periodic table of the elements, "Au" is the symbol for gold. With 27 august 2007 G. Sun Microsystems uses the "JAVA" symbol for its Java programming language.
Prior to the merger with Mobil Oil in 1999 Exxon used the phonetic spelling of the company "XON" as its ticker. The symbol of the company after the merger was "XOM". AT Ticker Symbol&T is just "T"; respectively, on Wall Street the company is simply called "Telephone" (the T symbol is so famous, what, when the company was bought by SBC, she took the name AT&T, capitalizing on its history and keeping the desired one-letter character. ).
From system trading
After the merger of Hewlett-Packard with the Compaq computer, the new firm received the ticker "HPQ". (Former firms were HWP and CPQ.)
| NYSE "Behind the Dot" or Nasdaq Five-Letter Codes and Other Special Codes. | ||
|---|---|---|
| BUT – Class "A" | K – without the right to vote (general) | IN –Units |
| B – Class "B" | L –Miscellaneous | V – Forthcoming and distributing |
| C – Continuation – or Nasdaq exclusion | M – 4 class – preferred shares | W – Warrants |
| D – New release | N – 3 class – preferred shares | X – Mutual Fund |
| E – Overdue SEC filings | ABOUT – 2 class – preferred shares | Y – American depositary receipt ( ADR ) |
| F – Foreign | P – 1st Class Preferred Shares. | Z – Different situations |
| G – First convertible bond | Question –Bankruptcy | Special Codes |
| H – 2nd convertible bond | R –Rights | .PK — Pink Leaf , Indicating, what is sold without a prescription. |
| I – 3rd convertible bond | S – Shares with beneficial interest | SC – Nasdaq small cap |
| J – Share of voice – special | T – With warrants or rights | New Mexico – Nasdaq National Market |
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, up to 1996 year stock codes were known as EPIC, named after the London Stock Exchange computer, informing about exchange prices (for example: "MKS" for Marks and Spencer). After the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996 EPIC was renamed to Trading instruments display mnemonics (TIDM), but they are still commonly called EPIC. Stocks can also be identified by their daily official stock exchange listing number (SEDOL).
International
Stock symbols are indispensable for the operation of the stock market in non-European countries. In countries, Where the Arabic script is used, as well as in East Asia, Translated versions of company names, written in the Latin alphabet, can be confusing to an inexperienced Western reader; Standard symbols provide a simple means of clear communication in the workplace. Many Asian countries use numeric or alphanumeric characters instead of symbols to facilitate international trade.
- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – 1398.HK [Hong Kong]
- HSBC – 0005 [Hong Kong]
- DBS Bank – D05 [Singapore]
- Jardine C&C – C07 [Singapore]
- TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK – 5012 [Japan]
- Toshiba Corp – 6502 [Japan]
- China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd – 601998 [Shanghai to China]
- Hubei Golden Ring Co Ltd – 000615 [Shenzhen to China]
- ASUSTEK – 2357 [Taiwan]
- Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd – 2412 [Taiwan]
The most common standard, used in international trade, is an International Securities Identification Number (RAY). ISIN uniquely identifies a security. Its structure is defined in ISO 6166. Securities, for which ISINs are issued, include bonds, commercial paper, shares and warrants. The ISIN is a 12-digit alphanumeric code, which does not contain information, characterizing financial instruments, but serves for a single identification of a security during trading and settlements.
Securities, with which ISIN can be used, include debt securities, stock, options, derivatives and futures. The ISIN identifies the security, Not an exchange (if there is one), on which it is traded; It's not a ticker. For example, Daimler AG shares are traded on twenty-two different stock exchanges around the world and are priced in five different currencies; each of them has the same ISIN, but not the same ticker. In this case, the ISIN cannot specify a specific transaction, and in addition to the ISIN, you will need to specify another identifier, Usually a three-letter stock code. The London Stock Exchange SEDOL Board is currently reviewing its own standards to address this issue.
Recommendations
- ^ Preferred symbols and ticker names –
- ^ UPDATE 1-SEC Allows Nasdaq to List Three-Letter Tickers.
- ^ CA Announces Move to NASDAQ
- ^ Loews Dials the Coveted One-Letter Ticker – mergers, takeovers, venture capital, hedge funds – DealBook – New York Times
- Eckett, Steven (editor) (2004). UK Stock Market Almanac, 2005 year . Petersfield: Harriman House. ISBN 1-897597-46-0.
External links
- Nasdaq Glossary
- List of shares, traded on the London Stock Exchange
- Search for stock symbols - Yahoo
- Search for Stock Symbols - US Companies on MSN Money
- Stock Symbol Search – AlphaTrade
- Stock Symbol Finder – AOL Finance
