Glossary
Ticker Symbol
The short code that identifies a security on an exchange, such as AAPL for Apple or MSFT for Microsoft.
Company names are long, repeat across countries, and change. A ticker is a short unique code assigned by the exchange so that a security can be named without ambiguity, in an order, on a chart, or in a search box.
Tickers are unique per exchange rather than globally, so the same few letters can mean different companies in different countries. A company listed in more than one place may carry a different symbol in each, and the symbol can change after a merger or a rename.
Some companies have several classes of share with different voting rights, and each class gets its own ticker, often with a suffix. The same firm can therefore appear twice with two prices that do not match, which is a fact about the share classes rather than an error.
Learn this properly
Lesson 1: What a Stock Actually IsA share is a small piece of a real company. Here's what you own, where the price comes from, and why it moves.
Related terms
- StockA share of ownership in a company, which makes the holder a part-owner of the business rather than a lender to it.
- ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund)A fund holding a basket of investments that trades on an exchange, bought and sold like a single share.
- Market Cap (Market Capitalization)What the whole company is worth at today's share price: the price per share multiplied by the number of shares.
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