Basics of Ticker Symbols
Different exchanges have different rules for ticker symbols. While New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has symbols with 1 to 3 characters (eg: T for AT&T and VZ for Verizon), NASDAQ has 4 or 5 letter symbols (eg: MSFT for Microsoft). It is common to have different symbols for same company stocks. Usually it is the exchange which provides a symbol (at random) to a newly listed stock, or the company can suggest the market to offer a particular symbol (which reflects their name/brand) available for its company stocks (eg: JAVA for Sun Microsystems and GOLD for Randgold Resources). Companies can also contract the exchange to change its ticker symbol if necessary.
Sometimes additional letters are added to ticker symbols of listed stocks to indicate some specific information. Nasdaq adds A and B to class A and B stocks respectively, D for new listed stocks, E if the company not filed it forms with SEC, Q if the company undergoing bankruptcy, F for foreign stocks, Y for ADRs, C for temporary qualification exceptions, etc. This helps the traders to identify the status of stocks quickly.
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