Stock Symbol (Tickers)

See: Ticker Symbol.

GE. DIS. KO. GOOG. AMZN. RDS.A, RDS.B. KHZ. NKE. PG. JNJ. PEP. Know any of ‘em? They’re all stock symbols. A few letters that represent hundreds of billions of dollars in market value.

Why do we even have symbols? Well, in the olden days, stock prices were delivered on paper—printed with a letter printing “hammer” like an old-timey manual typewriter. It took forever to get the prices out, especially on busy days. So rather than write out “International Business Machines” for IBM, it was, well...way less hammering for 3 letters than tons. Hence the advent of the symbols.

It’d be cooler if you could smash them together at band practice, though.