Ticker

The term, “ticker” pertains to an abbreviation or a symbol that is used to identify the shares of a particular stock market that is being traded publicly. This particular type of symbol may contain alphanumeric characters.

Ticker symbols or stock symbols are one-of-a-kind identifiers that are designated to each security that is being traded on a particular market. The length of these symbols, originally, is economized in such a way that they can be printed on a ticker tape. These days, the ticker symbol is shortened only for them to be easily recognized by traders and investors.  

This symbol allocation and formatting is specific to each exchange. For instance, in the United States, stock tickers are just between 1 and 4 letters and aim at representing the company name.