Stock ticker symbols are used to identify individual stocks with three to five letter codes. These letters are usually alphabets. Many novice investors don't know the fact that many secrets are hidden in these symbols. By just looking at these symbols you can know about the company, it's nationality or it's parent country, where it gets traded like NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX and others and most important the financial health of the company. In the past each stock exchange in US had its own stock ticker symbols. This would confuse investors and traders a lot. Standardized symbols were introduced by Standard & Poor as a way to clear that confusion when referring to stocks. Hey, this is the same Standard & Poor that maintains the S&P 500 Stock Index, considered to be the barometer of US economy. With standardization came ease of recognition. Now when you see the ticker symbol MSFT on Bloomberg TV or CNBC or for that matter any financial channel or publication, you immediately recognize Microsoft. In the same way, some days back there was breaking news about GOOG. You will immediately recognize it as GOOGLE when GOOGLE announced that it might pull out its operations from China after an unsuccessful hack attach there! In 2007, things changes again with a new SEC ruling. Previously, the length of the stock ticker symbol would tell where it got traded. For example, NYSE or AMEX had a three letter stock ticker symbol system. NASDAQ had a four to five letter stock ticker symbol system. What this new SEC ruling did was it allowed the companies to change the exchange where it's stocks got traded while keeping the old ticker symbol. Now, you will find the stock exchange also listed with the stock ticker symbol. For example you will often see ticker symbols like these NASDAQ:MSFT. This symbol tells you that the microsoft stocks get traded on NASDAQ. Sometimes, you will come accross stock ticker symbols that have five letters. Why this is done? This is an important clue for the investors that something is going on with that company that is not good and beyond the norm. For example, if you see the stock symbol for Microsoft listed as MSFTE, it means that the Microsoft Company is delinquent in filing with SEC meaning that the company's financial health is questionable. NYSE doesn't give detailed information about it's companies through their stock ticker symbols. Instead of using an additional letter, NYSE uses behind the dot codes that follow the regular ticker symbol and a period. Penny stocks that trade over the Pink Sheets or Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) also take the fifth letter code when applicable.
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