Kurt Vonnegut, the late, great (and fairly cynical) fiction writer, actually incorporated a unique stock-picking system in his early book The Sirens of Titan.  In the book, a character named Noel Constant builds a huge fortune by investing in stocks that he picks because their ticker symbols match the letters that form words in the Bible.  His first investment was a stock called International Nitrate.  His last was Sonnyboy Oil, which he chose because “SO” formed the last word of Genesis 1:16.

International Nitrate and Sonnyboy Oil don’t exist, of course.  IN is the symbol for Intermec, a tech company in Washington state.  SO is the trading symbol of a Georgia energy company called Southern Company.

But the idea that symbols ought to have some kind of power is a popular notion.  I imagine the number of parents and grandparents who buy lottery tickets based on their offspring’s birth dates is enormous.  (Personally, I prefer the numbers that appear on the slips inside Chinese fortune cookies, but they haven’t produced the big win yet.)

I also haven’t bought any Procter & Gamble (PG), even though its trading symbol matches my initials.  I’ve been tempted by Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), whose symbol happens to be my wife’s initials, but not because of that.  Chipotle is just a good growth company.

Anyhow, I’ve been fascinated by the symbols that represent companies on stock tickers and I thought I’d do a little research and report my findings.

It turns out that companies can choose their own trading symbols, which should make for some interesting meetings around the Board of Directors’ table.  Those thinking about listing on the Nasdaq can reserve up to three symbols up to two years in advance.

I would have thought that single-letter symbols would be hugely popular, but it turns out that there are seven single letters (H, I, J, P, U, W and Z) that aren’t in use.  U used to be the symbol for U.S. Airways until its bankruptcy in 2002.  Plus, for every single-letter symbol that represents a grand old company (F for Ford, K for Kellogg, X for U.S. Steel), there are others that aren’t that familiar.  (What do you know about Eni SpA that trades under E, or the Realty Income Corp. that uses O?)  C used to be Chrysler, now it’s Citigroup; Gillette used to have G, which now represents Genpact; Sears Roebuck was once R, but now R is Ryder System.

Some symbols just feel right.  I’m sure Randgold Resources is quite happy to trade under GOLD, and AU is periodically correct for Anglogold Ashanti.  But who decided that SXC Health Solutions was SXCI?  And wasn’t there anyone to warn Tongxin International that TXIC was a little too close to toxic?

Your chosen stock can be FREE, HOT, HIT, BIG, BEST, REAL or GOOD.  It can be medical like MD, RX or, in the spirit of overkill, MDRX.  You can trade a CAT, DOG, COW or DEER, but not many other animals.  You can even buy NFL or MLB.  And I’m sure a sufficiently creative person could write a story using only stock symbols, as someone did with California vanity plates a few years back.  But it won’t be me.