For example, since March of 2008 Visa Inc. In the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. The symbol of the firm after the merger was 'XOM'.

Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a phonetic spelling of the company 'XON' as its ticker symbol. Symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. For example, the bank HSBC's stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005.

In Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non- Latin scripts. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes for example, Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA. traded on the NASDAQ exchange has the symbol AAPL, while the motor company Ford's stock that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange has the single-letter ticker F. For example, US-based computer company stock Apple Inc. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the company name where possible. The allocation of symbols and formatting conventions is specific to each stock exchange. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, and to make it easy to recognize by traders and investors. A stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock.

Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market.

2.4.2 Single-letter NASDAQ ticker symbols.

2.4.1 Single-letter NYSE ticker symbols.

What is whatsapp stock symbol