Stock ticker symbols -- who chooses them?

Factual Questions
1

Do companies get to choose (or request) their stock ticker symbol, or is it given to them by some outside agency?

Many abbreviations seem straightforward and/or clever:
PALM = Palm, Inc.
KKD = Krispy Kreme Donuts
SBUX = Starbucks Corp.

Others seem less obvious:
AWE = AT&T Wireless (where’s the E from?)
AAPL = Apple Computers (two As?)
DCX = DaimlerChrysler (X?)

I’m sure there are stock market conventions at play in the latter group, but I don’t know what they are. More info, anyone?

2

The company chooses the symbol. As long as someone isn’t using it, they can use any combination.

I’ve always been partial to Seagram’s symbol: VO It seems mysterious, but it’s really quite obvious where that came from ;).

There are some conventions: A NASDAQ stock has to have four letters (which is probably why there are 2 A’s in Apple). NYSE and AMEX stocks can be one to three letters. I have heard that the NYSE has unofficially reserved M just in case Microsoft decides to switch.

3

Companies sometimes give a lot of thought to their symbols before going public. I’ll bet some of them have hired consultants to come up with the symbol. Like vanity license plates or radio station call letters, it provides a challenge to creativity because of the severely restricted namespace.

Some more info:

http://www.secapl.com/secapl/quoteserver/ticks.html

A couple points from that article:

NASDAQ symbols may have a fifth letter, which is a modifier having meaning.

Five letter symbols ending in X are used to denote mutual funds.

One thing that article doesn’t mention is the use of the leading caret for market indices and composites, such as ^DJI for the Dow-Jones Industrial average.

4

M reserved for microsoft on the NYSE - could be, I suppose. It appears that I and M are the only two untaken single letter symbols at this point. Some of the single letter ones are quite recent - A is Agilent, for instance.

I suppose the exchange reserves the right to refuse a symbol, too. I’ll bet your four letter NASDAQ symbol couldn’t be a “four letter word”.

I wonder what their policies are on reuse of symbols when companies go belly up and are delisted.

5

The symbol I is being reserved for Intel.

6

Indeed. A few years ago, out of sheer boredom, I searched the Bloomberg database for all sorts of “four-letter word” stock symbols. I didn’t hit on anything even remotely obscene or derogatory.

7

Heh. If there were, Mike would probably censor it. Ever try to send the word “fuck” or any other dirty word using the MESSAGE function?

8

pldennison:

I’ve always thought of “WORK” as a four-letter word…:wink:

(symbol for Workflow Management, Inc., in case you’re seriously wondering)

9

Indeed. One great example: Anheuser Busch’s symbol is BUD.

Regarding new single-character symbols, these were most likely owned by some other company that went out of business or was taken over. Perfect example: C used to be Chrysler, now it’s Citigroup.