Unlike the other exchanges, all the tickers on a NASDAQ have four letter codes (unless they have five!) If a stock traded on the fifth letter, it means that the company has different types of shares, that fifth letter carries a special meaning and today I saw an article by the Motley Fool on the front page of Yahoo Finance! that only pointed out what some of the more common ones are and what they mean… but that’s not good enough. I want to know them all! 
After a little bit of digging, which led to Nasdaq’s glossary page, I found all of them. Here is the complete list (with minor editing):
- A, B – Class A or Class B shares
- C – Issuer qualifications exceptions, indicates that the issuer has been granted a continuance in NASDAQ under an exception to the qualification standards for a limited period.
- D – New
- E – This means a company is delinquent in required filings with the SEC!
- F – This is a foreign company.
- G – First convertible bond
- H – Second convertible bond, same company
- I – Third convertible bond, same company
- J – Voting shares.
- K – Nonvoting shares.
- L, Z – Miscellaneous situations, such as depositary receipts, stubs, additional warrants, and units.
- M, N, O, P – Fourth, third, second and first preferred shares, respective, of that company
- Q – The company is currently in bankruptcy proceedings!
- R – Rights (not sure what this means)
- S – Shares of beneficial interest
- T – With warrants or with rights
- U – Units
- V – When-issued and when distributed
- W – Warrants
- Y- ADR (American Depositary Receipt)
So for example, if you look at the ticker for Comcast (CMCSA), the fifth letter is A so CMCSA are the Class A shares of Comcast Corporation. If you check out ACS Motion Control Ltd (ACSEF), a component of the Nasdaq, you’ll see that it’s located in Israel.
Ever wonder why people quote the Dow performance each and every day? The Dow was up today, the Dow was down today, why does it matter? I mean the Dow is made up of 30 stocks! What about the Nasdaq Composite or the S&P 500? At least with the Nasdaq Composite you get a hundred companies and with the S&P 500 you get, well, 500 companies. Ever wonder the origins of these indicies and who decides what companies get in? Well I did and it has nothing to do with showing off your stack underneath the buttonwood tree.
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