When you see pictures of the stock exchange on the television you often
see a jumble of confusing numbers and letters moving across a board
above the room. Some of these symbols have simple explanations and
other symbols have multiple meanings. The following is a guide to some
of these symbols.
Non-common stocks require a special symbols different from
regular stocks, called preferred stocks. In the case of preferred
stocks you need to attach a hyphen at the end to indicate it is a
preferred stock. For example MFG-. If there is a special class to this
preferred stock then you need to attach the class after the hyphen. For
example MFG-A.
For special classes of stock the stock letters are followed by a period
and then their class letter. For example ICI.A. The letter R is used
for the rights of the class. For example ICI.R.
When dealing with
mutual funds you always have five symbols that end with an X pattern.
Money funds also have five symbols but are distinguished by an ending
with XX. A mutual fund chart will down the net asset value and a money
fund will show the yield.
When dealing with
future contracts there is a specific format that must be followed. The
symbol plus the month code plus the year. A second format is the symbol
followed by a four digit date. The month code for future contracts is
as follows:
January F
February G
March H
April J
May K
June M
July N
August Q
September U
October V
November X
December Z
Then there is
continuous contracts which come in two forms, non-adjusted and
adjusted. Continuous contracts are listed by showing the root symbol
with 1600 added on the end for non-adjusted contracts and 1700 for
adjusted contracts.
A new
instrument in the stock market is single stock futures. There are only
two exchanges for these types of stocks, the NQLX and One Chicago. The
symbols for this stock is the stock symbol (SSF) plus the exchange
letter of either N or O for the two locations above followed by the
year and then the month.
When using symbols
for stock options the first three characters are the root. This may not
always look like the stock root. For example the root symbol of IBM is
IBM whereas the root symbol of Apple Computer is AAQ. Next comes the
month/type which is any one of twenty-four different alphabetic
characters. This is the fourth character in the symbol and it will also
show if it is a put or a call. In addition it will show what the month
expiration is. For example, .AAQP which means it is an April put. The
fifth character in the symbol is the strike price. A list of these
symbols usually depends on the company using them and a full list can
be found online.
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