P: For first-class preferred shares, which have the most liquidity because the dividend guarantee is the strongest.

O: Signifies second-class preferred shares, which have the second-strongest guarantee of the dividend being paid.

N: Denotes third-class preferred shares, for which guaranteed dividends are paid ahead of fourth-class preferred shares.

Preferred shares are a type of fixed-income security that pays a guaranteed dividend, unlike common shares.

M: For fourth-class preferred shares, which are preferred shares that have the fourth-highest dividend payment priority in the event of a cash shortfall for a company.

L: Somewhat of a 'miscellaneous' catch-all and used differently by different exchanges.

K: Used by the NASDAQ exchange in the same context to denote the absence of shareholder voting rights.

J: Used by the NASDAQ exchange to denote, in relation to shareholder votes, which stocks have voting rights.

I: Denotes third convertible bonds, which are convertible into stock and paid third and last in the event of bankruptcy.

Second convertible bond owners are paid second in the event of liquidation or bankruptcy.

H: For second convertible bonds, which also are convertible into stock.

First convertible bond owners are paid first in the event of asset liquidation or bankruptcy.

G: For first convertible bonds, which can be converted into shares of stock at a specified stock price.F: Reserved for companies listed on foreign exchanges.E: Assigned to companies that are delinquent on filing with the SEC.D: Signifies newly issued shares or a reverse stock split.C: Indicates that a company no longer meets the listing requirements of a stock exchange but has not yet been delisted.B: Denotes the Class B version of a stock, which generally confers fewer rights and privileges than Class A stock, or it may be priced to be affordable to individual investors.A: Denotes the Class A version of a stock, which confers certain rights and privileges to shareholders that may not be available to holders of other classes of a company's stock.Most of the variation is caused by the modifiers, which below are explained from A to Z: While every stock exchange has its own rules for ticker symbols, it's helpful to understand broadly how stock tickers can appear. This way, investors still receive something for their investment, but management maintains control over decisions. Modifiers can be used to express the type of security, such as a mutual fund the type of stock, such as preferred stock or the class of stock, which denotes shareholder privileges.Ĭompanies create different classes of shares to allow the management team to hold a higher percentage of the vote than they do equity in the company. Some stock ticker symbols also include modifiers, which are additional (usually fifth) letters or letters following periods in the symbols. The New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE) allows up to four letters, and the NASDAQ allows up to five letters. As previously noted, most stock tickers are three or four letters, and some stock exchanges allow numbers. Types of stock tickersĮach stock exchange sets the rules for the length and format of its stock ticker symbols, which is why variations in stock tickers exist. 'NFLX' is customarily referred to as the company's ticker despite being only the symbol representing Netflix on the NASDAQ exchange. This information taken together, including the stock price and information about its recent movement, is the stock's ticker - at least in the strictest sense. The stock exchange it trades on is the NASDAQ (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC), and the streaming entertainment company's ticker symbol is NFLX.

The company's legal name, which is the same name the company uses to file documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is Netflix, Inc. Let's use Netflix ( NASDAQ:NFLX) as an example. Reading a stock ticker is usually pretty easy.

The ticker stock