Guide to financial terms. Glossary and definition of the most used terms in the world of finance.
Code that is used to uniquely identify a listed company. This code can be made up of letters, numbers, or a combination of both. Every Country and stock exchange is a different one convention in the use of tickers. For example, the number of letters used to identify a company can vary: the New York Stock Exchange uses one or two letters while the NASDAQ uses four. The ticker name comes from the tape used in the past, until the end of the sixties of the last century, on which all the information relating to the abbreviated names of the companies and prices were transcribed. Before using this tape system, all information was communicated aloud by financial brokers and over time the problem of disseminating information arose. With the introduction of tickers, trading has become faster and companies can be easily distinguished from each other. However, it must be kept in mind that for a Stock Exchange the names of the tickers are unique while it could happen to find combinations of the same or similar letters which indicate different tickers in other financial markets. For example, TSCO represents Tesco Plc on the London Stock Exchange, while on the NASDAQ it is the ticker for Tractor Supply Co. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure which stock exchange you operate on and what the type of action is.