What is a Stock Symbol?
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A stock symbol is a symbol that uniquely identifies a company on the stock exchange. It is a way of looking up a company with a short identified instead of having to look it up using the whole company name. Typically, the stock exchange dictates the length of the symbol. The NYSE symbols are three characters or less. The NASDAQ symbols are four characters but can have a fifth character that tells you something about the company.
Think about the short ticker that identifies a company instead of its full name. NYSE symbols run three letters or fewer; Nasdaq uses four (sometimes five).