Fifth-Letter Identifier

Let’s talk stock symbols for a sec. On the NASDAQ, most stock symbols are four letters long. Microsoft is MSFT, Netflix is NFLX, and eBay is—and this’ll blow some minds—EBAY. But every once in a while, we’ll see a NASDAQ symbol with an extra letter attached to the end of it. We call that letter a fifth-letter identifier.

So what does it mean when our fave NASDAQ symbol suddenly shows up sporting a fifth-letter identifier? Well, it means there’s something going on with that company that might impact how its stock is performing. For example, if a company’s code has a Q at the end of it, the company is in bankruptcy. If it has a V after it, the stock is expected to split. Who knew one little letter could tell us so much?

There are currently 26 fifth-letter identifiers—one for every letter of the alphabet, get it?—and if we see a fifth-letter identifier tagging along with a stock we’re interested in, it’s definitely worth finding out what the code means and why it’s there.