Stock market symbols

Shares of companies traded on the stock exchange are identified by stock market symbols.

Such stock market symbols are known also as a stock ticker. This is a mnemonic to identify shares of a publicly traded company.

Example: MSFT is ticker for shares of Microsoft Corporation traded on NASDAQ.

A symbol is unique for one stock exchange. It means that MSFT is the ticker for the NASDAQ stock exchange. But Microsoft shares traded on Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt, Germany have the ticker MSF.

NASDAQ and the NYSE indicate their stocks with a series of letters. NASDAQ has symbols of four characters (MSFT, YHOO, EBAY...), and stocks primarily listed on the NYSE have tickers from one to three characters (A, PG, BAC, etc.)

This doesn’t mean that stocks listed on the NYSE are not traded on the NASDAQ exchange. Today, all stock exchanges in the U.S. are interconnected, and you can trade NASDAQ listed stocks on the NYSE or Amex stock exchanges and also NYSE listed stocks on NASDAQ.

If you aren’t sure what the stock ticker is for any company, use free tools like the Yahoo finance or Quote.com sites.

You can also ask your broker or any real-time data providers should allow you to search for a stock ticker in their software.

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