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A stock symbol or ticker symbol is a shorthand code used to uniquely identify shares of a publicly-traded corporation on a particular stock market.A stock symbol may either be comprised of letters, numbers or a combination of both.
1 U.S stock symbol history
In the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard and Poor's (S&P) to bring a national standard to investing. Previously, a single company could have many different ticker symbols as they varied between the dozens of individual stock markets. The term ticker refers to the noise made by the ticker tape machines once widely used by stock exchanges.
The S&P system was later standardized by the securities industry and modified as years passed.
1.1 Examples of U.S. stock symbols
Currently a glance at a U.S. stock symbol and its appended codes can tell an investor where a stock trades and may give insight to the company's performance.
1.1.1 See Also
- List of U.S. ticker symbolsA Agilent Technologies AA Alcoa AAPL Apple Computer AIG American International Group ALA Alcatel ( ADS) AMR AMR AXP American Express BA Boeing BAB British Airways ( ADS) BUD Anheuser-Busch C Citigroup CAT Caterpillar DCX DaimlerChrysler DD DuPont DE John
1.2 Interpreting the symbol
For most stock symbols, the letters are simple identifiers. One- or two-letter symbols always trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), three letter codes may trade on either the NYSE or American Stock Exchange (AMEX), Four- and five-letter codes trade on the Nasdaq, although five-letter ticker symbols are usually a special class of stock. For example, the ticker symbols of mutual fundThe central idea of a mutual fund is to enable investors to pool their money and place it under professional investment management. The manager makes the trades, realizing a gain or loss, and collects the dividend or interest income. The investment procees must be five letters long and end in "X".
1.3 Influence
Sometimes the stock symbol has become more recognizable than a company's real name. For instance, more people knew the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing CompanyThis article is about the American company, for the Russian company involved in a pyramid scheme, see MMM (pyramid 3M Company ( NYSE:MMM) (originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company is an American corporation that produces a widely diversified by the way its three-letter ticker ("MMM") is pronounced on Wall StreetFor the 1929 and 1987 movies, see Wall Street (movie Wall Street is the name of narrow thoroughfare in lower Manhattan running east from Broadway downhill to the East River. Considered to be the historical heart of the Financial District, it was the first, " 3M," leading to an official name change in 2002. Likewise, International Business Machines officially changed its corporate name to " IBM" to match its ticker symbol.
| NYSE "behind the dot" or Nasdaq 5th-letter codes and other special codes |
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A - Class "A" |
K - Nonvoting (common) |
U - Units | |
B - Class "B" |
L - Miscellaneous |
V - Pending issue and distribution | |
C - Continuance - or Nasdaq exception |
M - 4th class - preferred shares |
W - Warrants | |
D - New issue |
N - 3rd class - preferred shares |
X - Mutual fund | |
E - Delinquent in filings with the SEC |
O - 2nd class - preferred shares |
Y - American Depositary Receipt (ADR) | |
F - Foreign | P - 1st class preferred shares |
Z - Miscellaneous situations | |
G - First convertible bond |
Q - In bankruptcy |
Special codes | |
H - 2nd convertible bond |
R - Rights |
.PK - Trades over the counter | |
I - 3rd convertible bond |
S - Shares of beneficial interest |
SC - Nasdaq Small Cap | |
J - Voting share - special |
T - With warrants or rights |
NM - Nasdaq National Market |
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