A ticker symbol is a shortened version of a company's name or stock that is used to identify it in financial news and market data. It is also known as a stock symbol, trading symbol, or simply an abbreviation. Ticker symbols are unique identifiers for each security listed on an exchange, allowing investors to quickly track the performance of their holdings or potential investments. The term "ticker" refers to the early 20th-century technology used by exchanges to disseminate stock prices via a continuous stream of letters and numbers that could be read by telegraph machines.