Ticker Symbol - U.S. Stock Symbol History

U.S. Stock Symbol History

In the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & 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. Stock symbols for preferred stock have not been standardized.

Read more about this topic:  Ticker Symbol

Famous quotes containing the words stock, symbol and/or history:

    I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.
    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

    The horse, the horse! The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action, in man.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    [Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.
    Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)