Ticker's Tale

Financial Literacy Month 2018 Edition Volume 24 Issue 2 | April 10, 2018 Ticker’s Tale By Bill Dickneider

ots of people look for me but can’t find me. Sometimes they even Lconfuse me with someone else. But I’m not hiding out, and I’m not a lost cause. Who am I? My name is Ticker, and I’d like to tell you my story.

Tick, Tick, Tick ... into special symbols. Here’s where I came in because I represent all these symbols. y story begins a long time ago As we ticked our way out of these little when I was a kid in the ‘60s. No, not M machines, people began calling us ticker the 1960s. The 1860s. In those days, we symbols. That’s how I got my name, Ticker. had no telephones or televisions, but we did have a “tele-something” that had just Of course, the telegraph and stock tickers been invented. It was the telegraph. eventually went the way of the dinosaur. But we ticker symbols are still here doing The telegraph may seem like a weakling our job. Even with computers and fiber compared with cell phones and e-mail optic cables, we still make it easier to today, but it was the Internet of the communicate stock quotes. nineteenth century. Consider how it changed the stock market after Thomas Today, there is an electronic ticker tape Edison and others perfected a little that streams information about stock machine called the stock ticker. Suddenly, trades during the open hours of the stock The New York market. Maybe you’ve seen one of these Stock Exchange stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange could be telegraphed across at the bottom of your TV screen. We began using many miles and printed out by these symbols make this electronic reporting stock tickers in machines ticking away at their task. much simpler and faster because we 1867. Why were communicate information with only a few there no stock But sending information on a telegraph letters. How many letters depends on the was awkward. Someone had to use special stock exchange. Some companies like symbols before code to enter stock prices on a telegraph, the Ford Motor Company have a ticker that date? so it made sense to shorten stock names symbol that is only one letter (F). Other companies like the Comcast Corporation have a ticker There were a lot of symbols that appeared so the team symbol five letters long (CMCSA). did a little more research to confirm that KO was the right symbol. We symbols try to help investors by making ourselves easy to find. But people still have trouble locating There’s a second reason why investors might have us. Sometimes they confuse us with the names and trouble finding a symbol on the web. A company may abbreviations that newspapers put in their stock tables. I also have other stocks besides the common stock don’t like being confused with a newspaper name, but a you’re trying to find. These other stocks would be ticked off Ticker I’m not. various kinds of preferred stock. What’s a preferred stock? Here’s a brief explanation: No Newspaper Names ost newspapers don’t publish stock tables STOCK Manymore. However, those that do give companies (A share of ownership a special “newspaper name” instead of using us tickers. in a company) It makes it easier for investors to find the right quote COMMON STOCK - Most stock is common stock, which is for their company. For example, do you know which the basic ownership of a company. Common stockholders company has KO as its ticker symbol? The company own most of the company’s profits and bear most of its would appear in a newspaper stock table as CocaCola. losses. They usually have voting rights. On the web, people look us up by typing in the PREFERRED STOCK - A preferred stock receives a company’s name and searching for its ticker symbol. fixed share of a company’s profits as a dividend. Payment You can find ticker symbol searches on most stock of dividends on this stock come before any dividends on market and financial news websites. The SIFMA common stock, so it gets preferred treatment. This stock Foundation’s Stock Market Game team portfolio site has no voting rights, and does not share most of the has symbol lookup tools on its Welcome screen and company’s profits (or losses). trade pages. If you see a symbol with lines, odd characters, or more Searching the Web than four letters, it’s probably a preferred stock, not the common stock you’re searching for. If your search yields ven on the web you might still have trouble no results at all, try entering parts of the company’s Efinding us. There are two reasons why. First, name or do a general web search for us instead of a the business you’re searching for might own other symbol search. companies (called subsidiaries) with similar names. So when you type in a company name and click on “symbol lookup,” you could end up with a list of possibilities. How do you know which one to pick? Write Now Let me give you an example. Not long ago a Stock Do you have a favorite website Market Game team logged into their portfolio to for looking up ticker symbols? Create instructions for a friend find the ticker symbol for The Coca Cola Company. on how to find a company’s They typed in “Coca” and clicked on “search company ticker symbol on that site. name.” What appeared on the screen looked If you don’t have a favorite something like this: site, use your Stock Market Game portfolio site. Be sure to include hints to make finding a company’s symbol easier for your friend.