NYSE Trader

Four- and Five-Character Symbol Test

02 Dec 2008

On November 6, 2008, the SEC adopted a plan that will establish a uniform system for the selection and reservation of securities symbols. The result of this plan, which will become active 60 days from the above date, will mean that the allocation and use of symbols can be from one to five characters in length across all SROs. What this means for the New York Stock Exchange is the potential for NYSE Listed Companies to have a four- or five-character symbol as their ticker identifiers.

This may be the case for both Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) or for transferring listings from competing market centers. The NYSE currently does not have any Listed Companies that trade with four- or five-character symbols, however Exchange systems can accommodate and trade securities that wish to adopt or keep a ticker with four or five characters.

The NYSE recognizes that most of our Member Firms and vendors can send order flow in symbols with four or five characters to the Exchange, but would like to provide the opportunity for member firms to test with the NYSE. In order to accommodate firms who wish to test, the Exchange has established a User Acceptance Test for firms to test with using specific four- and five-character test symbols created by the Exchange. The test system will be operational 9am-5pm, Monday - Friday and will be available from Monday, December 8, 2008 until Tuesday, December 23, 2008. Firms wishing to test should send an email message to firmtesting@nyx.com.

For more information or if you have questions regarding this new SEC plan, please contact your Relationship Manager.