Tickers

Tickers, in finance, refer to ticker symbols—short codes that identify specific securities traded on a particular exchange. A symbol is used in quotes, order entry, and recordkeeping, allowing traders to distinguish between companies, classes of stock, or derivatives. In the United States, most equities list with four or five letters (for example, AAPL for Apple, MSFT for Microsoft on NASDAQ; IBM on NYSE is IBM). In the U.S., BRK.A and BRK.B denote Berkshire Hathaway's Class A and Class B shares. International markets use a mix of letters and numbers; elsewhere a suffix such as ".TO" or ".L" may indicate the listing exchange.

Ticker symbols are assigned by exchange operators and feed into data feeds, trading platforms, and financial news services. They enable real-time price quotes, historical charts, and automated trading algorithms. The concept extends to other securities such as options and ETFs, which have unique tickers.

Historically, a stock ticker was a device that printed price quotes on a paper tape, enabling rapid dissemination of prices; the "ticker tape" era preceded modern electronic feeds. In broadcasting and online media, a ticker also refers to a scrolling line of text along the bottom of a screen that provides news headlines, financial quotes, or sports scores.

Tickers are a core element of market data infrastructure and regulatory aims include standardization, accuracy, and timely dissemination of quotes to prevent mispricing or manipulation.