Bloomberg Composite and Exchange Tickers for U.S. Stocks
Summary
The document explains why one listed security can have more than one Bloomberg ticker. It distinguishes an exchange ticker, which identifies a security’s prices on a specific venue, from a composite ticker, which aggregates quotes across venues. For example, an exchange ticker can return prices from a particular exchange, while the composite source reflects the most recent trade and the best available bid and ask across exchanges. The ticker suffixes generally signal this distinction: a country code is commonly used for the composite, while Bloomberg’s venue code identifies the exchange.
The examples contrast Apple and IBM identifiers and identify NASDAQ as the venue represented by one Apple suffix. This is a practical guide to understanding price-source differences when looking up securities. The explanation is general rather than an exhaustive identifier reference: suffix conventions and data availability may vary, so users should verify a specific instrument’s Bloomberg pricing source when accuracy matters.
Key ideas
- An exchange ticker refers to a security’s prices on a particular exchange.
- A composite ticker aggregates pricing information across possible trading venues.
- Composite quotes can use the latest trade and the best available bid and ask across exchanges.
- Bloomberg ticker suffixes can distinguish composite sources from exchange-specific sources.
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# Difference between the two Bloomberg codes # Difference between the two Bloomberg codes Bloomberg always have two codes for the same instruments. For example, for Apple, Bloomberg has AAPL US and AAPL UW. I am wondering what is the difference between these two codes? As far as I can tell, if the stock is a US one, there will always be a code of the form "xxxx US". [Update] So after working on the equity tech team for a year, now I have a much better understanding of it. Bloomberg has two types of identifiers, one called Bloomberg Exchange Ticker, one called Bloomberg Composite Ticker. The Exchange vs. Composite is the pricing source concept mentioned by others. The Bloomberg Exchange Ticker is relatively simpler to understand - it just stands for a security on a particular exchange. So if you go to Bloomberg terminal and ask it to give prices (last, bid, ask) for a Bloomberg Exchange Ticker (IBM UN for example), Bloomberg will give you the price only for that particular exchange (NYSE). The Bloomberg Composite Ticker will combine prices from all possible exchanges and gives you an aggregated feed. For example, the last/bid/ask retrieved for IBM US will be: - most recent last price happened on any exchange - current highest bid on all exchanges - current lowest ask on all exchanges Usually the composite ticker will end with country code: IBM US, AAPL US, 1 HK etc. The Bloomberg exchange ticker will end with Bloomberg allocated exchange code: IBM UN (NYSE), AAPL UW (NASDAQ) etc. ## Answer by nelpler (score 11, accepted) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/17160 UW = NASDAQ Global Select Market US = US Composite source : http://bsym.bloomberg.com/sym/pages/pricing_source.xls see also : http://bsym.bloomberg.com/sym/
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