Symbol Help Guide

Instrument Types

Prepended Character Instrument Type
"^" Index
"@" Option
"!" Interest Rate
"/" Futures
"$" Foreign Exchange Rates

North American Equities and Indices

Symbol Suffix Exchange
:CC or (none) TSX and TSXV Canadian Consolidated Quotes (CCQ)
:TSX TSX Exchange
:TSV TSXV Exchange
:APH Alpha Exchange
:ALX Alpha-X and Alpha-DRK
:ARC ARCA
:CC Canadian Consolidated Quotes (CCQ)
:CNX Canadian Securities Exchange (CNSX)
:PUR Canadian Securities Exchange Pure ATS
:BZX CBOE BZX Exchange
:EGX CBOE EDGX Exchange
:IEX IEX Exchange
:ICX Instinet Canada (Dark Pools)
:LQN Liquidnet Canada (Dark Pools)
:NSD Nasdaq
:CXB Nasdaq Canada Basic
:CX2 Nasdaq CX2 ATS
:CHI Nasdaq CXC ATS
:CXD Nasdaq CXD (Dark Pools)
:AQN Cboe Canada ATS (NEO-N)
:AQL Cboe Canada (NEO-L)
:AQD Cboe Canada Dark (NEO-D)
:NYE New York Stock Exchange
:AMX NYSE American
:LYX TradeloqiQ: LYNX ATS
:OMG TradelogiQ: Omega ATS
:TCM TriAct Canada Marketplace (Dark Pools)
:US US Equities and Indices Exchanges

Note that NYE, NSD, ARC, AMX, BZX and IEX show the regional quotes for that marketplace. If you want the full consolidated quote use the default US symbol without a suffix or with :US.

Options Exchanges

Options symbols are broken down as follows:

Example: 2011 Jan 22 36.00 Call for Bank of Nova Scotia.

Symbol : @BNS   110122C00036000

@ : All Options begin with the " @ " character.

BNS (and three spaces) : Six character option root symbol using any prefix/suffix as defined by the OSI definition; left-justified, space-padded.

11 : two least significant digits of the Contract Date year

01 : two-digit Contract Date month

22 : two-digit Contract Date day of month

C : "C" for CALL or "P" for PUT

00036 : five-digit whole portion of the strike price; right-justified and padded with zeros on the left; for instance, if the strike price is $26.50, then this field would contain 00026

000 : three-digit fractional portion of the strike price; left-justified and padded with zeros on the right; for instance, if the strike price is $26.50, then this field would contain 500

Possible Exchange suffixes are:

Symbol Suffix Type
:CA or (blank) Montreal Options Exchange
:AOE American Options Exchange
:BOX Boston Options Exchange
:BTO Cboe BZX Options Exchange
:BXO NASDAQ OMX BX Options Exchange
:C2O C2(Chicago) Options Exchange
:CBO Chicago Board Options Exchange
:EGO EDGX Options
:GMI ISO Gemini Exchange
:IOE International Options Exchange
:MCY ISE Mercury Options
:MIO Miami International Securities Exchange (MIAX) Options
:MPO MIAX PEARL Exchange
:NSO NASDAQ Options
:NYO New York Options Exchange
:PHO Philadelphia Options Exchange
:US Composite US option quote

= options that are "in the money"

Special Classes of Stocks (Class stocks, preferred stocks, warrants, etc.)

TSX/TSXV Exchanges - Equity Classes, etc.

Symbol Suffix Type
(none) Common
.A or .B or .C Class
.PR or .PS or .PF Preferred
.PR.CLASS or
.PS.CLASS or
.PF.CLASS
Preferred Class
.M Booms
.H NEX (Junior Venture Market)
.N Subscription Receipts (second issue trading)
.S Special US Trading Terms
.U US Dollar
.Y Redeemable Common
.NT or .NO or .NS Notes
.RT Rights
.DB Debentures
.E Equity Dividend
.W When Issued
.I When Issued (second issue trading)
.L Legended Shares
.P Capital Pool (Venture)
.R Subscription Receipts
.O Subscription Receipts (third issue trading)
.T Special US Trading Terms (second issue trading)
.V US Dollar (second issue trading)
.UN Units
.WT or .WS Warrants
.IR Installment Receipts

NYSE Exchanges - Equity Classes, etc.

Symbol Suffix Type
(none) Common
.A or .B or .C Class
.P Preferred
.P.CLASS Preferred Class
.W When Issued
.WS Warrants
.WS.W Warrants When Issued
.WS.A Warrants Class A
.R Rights
.R.W Rights When Issued
(none) Debentures and Notes
.EC Emerging Company Marketplace
Symbol Suffix Type
.P.W Preferred When Issued
.P.A.W Preferred "A" when issued
.A.W Class "A" when issued
.WD When Distributed
.P.WD Preferred When Distributed
.CL Called
.A.CL Class A Called
.CV.CL Convertible Called
.P.CL Preferred Called
.P.A.CL Preferred Class A Called
.U Unit
.PP Partial Paid

Mutual Funds, Money Market Funds

Canadian Mutual Funds utilize the common fund family code with a numeric fund code. They have no suffix or can include the suffix :CA (for Canada). For example, the AIM American Growth fund is represented by AIM793 or AIM793:CA.

US Mutual funds and Money Market funds have a similar symbol format similar to common stocks. Mutual funds are represented by four characters followed by the letter X. For example, the Fidelity Blue Chip Value fund is represented by FBCVX:US.

US Money Market funds are represented by three characters followed by two XXs. Fidelity Cash Reserves fund is represented by FDRXX:US.

Canadian Futures

Symbol Suffix Exchange
:NGX ICE NGX Futures
:CA (or None) Montreal Exchange (TSX)

Futures always begin with the "/" character and have the form:

/(root)(month code)(year code)

root:

A root symbol assigned by the exchange, eg. "1"for the ICE NGX AECO Natural Gas Future.

month code:

F = January
G = February
H = March
J = April
K = May
M = June
N = July
Q = August
U = September
V = October
X = November
Z = December

year code:

The year code is a one digit number representing the year. For example, year 2018 is represented by "8". For NGX Futures in Canada, use two digit number representing year, eg. "18" for 2018. To illustrate: /1J18:NGX for ICE NGX Phys FP (CA/GJ) AB-NIT Apr 2018.

US Futures

Symbol Suffix Exchange
:NMX Nymex Exchange
:CMX Comex Exchange
:US Other US Futures Exchanges

Futures always begin with the "/" character and have the form:

/(root)(month code)(year code)

root:

The root symbol is assigned by the exchange. For example, Gold is represented by "GC".

month code:

F = January
G = February
H = March
J = April
K = May
M = June
N = July
Q = August
U = September
V = October
X = November
Z = December

year code:

The year code is a one digit number representing the year. For example, year 2010 is represented by "0" and year 2011 is represented by "1". To illustrate: /GCH0 for Gold March 2010 and /NGZ1 for Natural Gas December 2011

Front Month codes (spot price symbols):

For popular US Futures symbols, a spot price (constant) symbol may exist. Remove the month code and year. For example, /GC for Gold futures and /NG for Natural Gas.

Spot Metal Markets

Always begin with the "/" character and have the form:

/(metalroot)SP(currency)

metalroot:

/GC = Gold
/SI = Silver
/PL = Platinum
/PA = Palladium

currency:

USD = US Dollar
AUD = Australian Dollar
EUR = Euro
GBP = Great Britain Pounds
HKD = Hong Kong Dollar
CHF = Switzerland Francs
ZAR = South Africa Rand

As an example, the Spot Gold in US Dollars is represented by /GCSPUSD.

Forex/Currencies

Foreign exchange rates always begin with the "$" character. For example, the foreign exchange rate symbol for US Dollar vs. Euro is represented by $USDEUR.

International Exchanges

Symbol Suffix Country
:AE Nasdaq Dubai Exchange
:AR Merval, Argentina
:AS Amsterdam
:AT Athens, Greece
:AU Sydney, Australia
:BE Berlin, Germany
:BR Brussels, Belgium
:BV Bovespa, Brazil
:CL Santiago, Chile
:CO Copenhagen, Denmark
:CZ Shenzhen, China
:DB Xetra, Deutsche Boerse
:DU Dusseldorf, Germany
:FF Frankfurt, Germany
:HA Hanover, Germany
:HI Helsinki, Finland
:HK Hong Kong
:HM Hamburg, Germany
:IE Irish Stock Exchange
:LN London Stock Exchange and FTSE UK Indices
:LS Lisbon, Portugal
:MA Madrid, Spain
:MB Bombay, India
:MI Milan, Italy
:MU Munich, Germany
:MX Mexico
:NKK Japan, Nikkei
:OS Oslo, Norway
:PA Paris, France
:SG Stuttgart, Germany
:SH Shanghai, China
:SM Swiss Market, Switzerland
:ST Stockholm, Sweden
:STOX STOXX, Dow Jones
:VX Virt-X, Switzerland