On Wall Street, ticker symbols are used as shorthand for company names to announce stock movements and news. Many American companies try to be clever with their ticker symbols, such as Harley-Davidson Motorcycles using ticker symbol: HOG, while others are simply assigned one by the exchange they trade on. Sometimes this ends with disastrous results.
Check out some of the more interesting ones we found:
1.) POON- This downright vulgar reference is used by the Ukrainian company, Poltavaoblenerho VAT which deals with generation and distribution of electric and heat power. The company operates out of the Poltava region of the Ukraine, and they're a bunch of disgusting perverts.
2.) CRAP - Stands for CRCAM Alpes Provence, which is a French regional bank. A completely innocuous shortening of the company name into ticker symbol form, but with horrible consequences. The bank provides financial and insurance products for students, farmers, small businesses, and local communities. However, these frogs have a ticker symbol that paints them as being full of it.
3.) DIC - Dubai Investments uses this one. They operate investment services in a wide range of business sectors, from manufacturing, to agriculture, to retail, and plenty of financial services. I would make more jokes about this one, but I'm pretty sure these very powerful guys own almost everything I use on a daily basis. But seriously, DIC?
4.) TIT - Telecom Italia. This Italy-based telecommunications group operates international information and communications technology for companies inside and outside of Italy, mainly in the Mediterranean area and Latin America. On the exchange floors I'm sure there are a lot of buy rumors when TIT upgrades its measurements.
5.) HOEN - Another Ukrainian-based company, Khersonoblenerho EK VAT, makes the list with a poorly selected ticker symbol. These guys work with generation, transmission and distribution of electric energy, but I think they are looking to sell. Check them out on your local street corner and talk to their pimps for details.
6.) ANALABS- Analabs Resources Berhad. This Malaysian company specializes in repackaging chemicals, recycling products, and offering investment services. Unfortunately, they also sound like a workout video I don't want to get behind.
7.) SUKIX- Another exceptionally inappropriate symbol here which stands for SEI Asset Alloc Divr US Stock 1, a Pennsylvania-based investment fund seeking long term capital appreciation with a domestic equity strategy. That's very ambitious of them, but they need to learn how to ask in a much more polite way. Maybe throw on a 'please' at the end of their symbol? Also did the inspiration for this symbol have something to do with 1997-era professional wrestling taglines?
8.) 6969- On the Japanese stock exchange, companies are assigned numerical symbols according to which industry they operate in. Matsuo Electric Co., Ltd., a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of electronic components, had the unfortunate labeling of a double euphemism sex act. They also sound like the ending of every 14-year-old kid's screen name.
9.) COK- This belongs to Cockatoo Coal limited, an Australian coal exploration company that owns four mines in Queensland, Australia. They seem like the types that are always bragging about the length of their mine shafts.
10.) VAGIX- Value Line Aggressive Income, is a New York-based investment fund that seeks fixed income securities to invest in. It appears their yeast-infection-fighting formula has really helped them find undervalued stocks.
Are there any we may have missed? Think we gave POON a raw deal? Let us know in the comments section.
Google Finance: Ticker Symbol Information, April 28, 2008
Apparently old people are driving around with 'WTF' license plates and now they aren't happy about it.
