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Interpreting Punctuation Suffixes in Nasdaq Security Symbols

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Kevin Peterson
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Summary

The document addresses punctuation marks appended to security symbols in a Nasdaq feed, with examples such as plus signs, asterisks, equals signs, and hash marks. The response identifies these marks as part of Nasdaq ticker symbol conventions for CQS securities and points readers to Nasdaq's convention reference for their meanings.

The practical lesson is that trailing punctuation in this context is standardized exchange symbology rather than arbitrary decoration. The source does not reproduce the definitions of individual marks, explain how to parse them programmatically, or compare conventions across exchanges. It therefore serves as a pointer for interpreting feed symbols, with the official convention documentation needed to resolve any specific suffix.

Key ideas

  • Punctuation suffixes in the cited feed follow Nasdaq conventions for CQS securities.
  • The marks are standardized symbol information rather than unexplained ticker text.
  • Use Nasdaq's symbol convention reference to determine the meaning of a particular mark.
  • The discussion does not enumerate the individual suffix definitions.

Tags

EquitiesMarket microstructureUS markets
Full text
# Are special condition identifiers (e.g. AIG+) standardized?


# Are special condition identifiers (e.g. AIG+) standardized?












Suffixes indicating class, preferred, new, etc., are well defined for NASDAQ and NYSE, but I can't find anything documenting the meanings of the trailing punctuation. For example, here's some that I saw in today's feed from NASDAQ:

- OHI-D*

- REN+

- RTN+

- SGS=

- F+

- AIG+

- BLL#

- AA-

## Answer by AnonQuant (score 7, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/382

What you are seeing is the Nasdaq Ticker Symbol conventions for CQS securities. You can essentially translate them at the below link:

http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=CQSSymbolConvention

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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.