Investing 101 » Making Your First Trade http://101-investing.com Learn How to Invest | Beginner Investing | Investing for Dummies Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:28:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 What are Stock “Ticker Symbols”? http://101-investing.com/2009/10/what-are-stock-%e2%80%9cticker-symbols%e2%80%9d/ http://101-investing.com/2009/10/what-are-stock-%e2%80%9cticker-symbols%e2%80%9d/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:57:24 +0000 admin http://101-investing.com/?p=13 Before you can trade and invest in stocks, first you need to become comfortable with “ticker symbols” and use them to look up stocks in which you have an interest. All stocks have a trading symbol that is the name they use in stock markets.

Stock ticker symbol names contain only letters and are usually between one and five letters long. Only the biggest companies get to have only one letter as their stock symbol: X (U.S. Steel), T (AT&T), and C (Citigroup)

Ticker symbols for some of the largest companies in the world include XOM (Exxon Mobil), WMT (Wal-Mart) and DIS (Walt Disney). Some ticker symbols have a sense of humor like LUV (Southwest Airlines), and YUM (Yum Brands) which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Stock ticker symbols are usually 1 to 5 letters long.  (Occasionally they contain a  “.” or a “-“ to designate a subtle difference or class of shares). Some of the oldest and biggest companies have only one letter as their stock symbol:

If you click on any of the links above, you will be able to join Wall Street Survivor where you get a free Practice trading account to look up stock ticker symbols and practice investing in stocks, risk-free. Everything is totally free for you.

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