Where Did Stock Stock Exchange Symbols Come From?

It all starts in the 1800s when Thomas Edison invented the telegraph machine. This made the trading easier, where information was now able to be sent straight to the stock brokers. So, with the invention of this machine, also came the invention of stock exchange symbols.

Now, we all know of the word stock ticker, but where does the "ticker" part come from? Well now you know that stock tickers came about with the telegraph machine. It just happens that the telegraph machine made a ticking sound and that is where the "ticker" of stock ticker comes from.

We also know that a stock ticker is a short one to five letter symbol that represents a company. Well, that begs the question, just...

Why Not The Whole Company Name?

So, why exactly is an abbreviation of the company name used?

In actuality, it isn't.

At times the stock exchange symbols associated with a company takes the first few letters (Disney: DIS) or the first letters and the last letter or maybe even (if its a multiple-name company) the first letter of each of the words. But, its not always like that. Sometimes it's something associated with what the company does, such as with AT&T's first stock ticker, T (for telephone).

But back to my main question, why not the whole company name?

Simple answer really...

When the stock market was first starting out and all the rules were being made, they were using the telegraph. And since technology was just getting developed, we didn't have enough bandwidth to transfer the whole company name over the wires.

As you can see today, we still have the same system. But why?

Simply, convenience. Its easier to just memorize the stock symbols because you can view more in the same period of time.