Finding Stock Symbols Made Easy

You've decided to explore the exciting world of trading stocks. At first blush, it appears nothing but a mishmash of letters, numbers and symbols. To a novice the market can certainly appear quite intimidating and scary. There is much to learn. Let us start off with the basics by first discussing finding stock symbols. The three or four letters you see many times flashing across the bottom of the screen of your television are a symbol which represents a given stock. There are many variations, but most commonly a stock symbol has either three or four letters. One can decipher an initial tidbit of information from this. Those with three letters typically trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). After a recent merger with a European counterpart this exchange is actually now called NYSE Euronext. Many major corporations trade on this exchange including some of the largest in existence. Many large NYSE stocks have been commonly referred to as "blue chip stocks" signifying the highest quality. Stocks with symbols containing four letters typically trade on what is called the NASDAQ. This exchange mostly exists in cyberspace. It is an electronic exchange matching buyers and sellers without the assistance of a human in between. The NYSE many times has a person in the middle facilitating the given trade. NASDAQ traded stocks can also be large multinationals, or they can range down to the tiniest of "microcap" stocks. A "microcap" stock is generally defined as one worth under 100 million dollars in totality. There is a very large universe of stocks to select from. Most of the new and "trendy" technology stocks mostly all trade on the NASDAQ as opposed to NYSE. So you notice a hot new product at the store, or a great service you saw online, and you now want to know about that company's stock. The first step is to figure out the symbol which represents it. Today, online, this is easily done. You can go to virtually any finance web site or portal and use what is commonly termed the "symbol lookup" function. This allows you to type the company's name in a box and the system will respond with the appropriate symbol. Keep in mind, some stocks can have multiple symbols for different classes of stock. You need to pay attention to which one you desire to select. Once you have the right symbol you are then able to enter it into your "watch list". This is a list provided by most brokerages on your account that you can use to track the price of your stock as it moves hopefully up. There are many difficult parts to the markets. However, finding stock symbols is an easy step. Anyone can do it. Go to a few sites, pick a few companies and see if you can find the right stock symbol. Once you are fluent in this exercise you are ready to move to the next step towards profiting in today's markets.