What Is the "OB" on the Stock Ticker?
"OB" is an abbreviation for "Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board," an interdealer quotation system used by many U.S. stock issuers who are not listed on any national securities exchange.
The OB is owned and operated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), although FINRA has been attempting to sell the system as of 2010.
FINRA will continue to act as the primary regulator even if a sale goes through.
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Ticker History
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Ticker-tape machines were first developed in the 1860s. They were a natural outgrowth of the telegraph. By the 1880s, two corporations competed in selling such machines in the financial district of Manhattan. Competition kept the price low and created pressure for innovation. Eventually, after 1903, what was then known as the "self-winding stock ticker" came to be associated with Western Union.
Survival of the Symbols
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Since the only "bandwidth" involved was a narrow piece of paper tape, the tickers had to employed very economical abbreviations.
Although that original justification for the standard abbreviations may seem quaint in the early 21st century, traders still want to economize space on their screens, and many old abbreviations live on, still called "ticker symbols."
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ECRY.OB
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For example, eCrypt Technologies, an information-security firm based in Boulder, Colorado, is known by the ticker symbol ECRY.OB. The first four letters abbreviate the company's name, and the last two, after a dot, abbreviate the system in which it is traded.
This is the symbol that might scroll along on the bottom of your television screen if you are watching one of the financial news networks that uses the simulated "tape" display.
In other formats, though, the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board is often given the more expansive abbreviation: OTCBB.
The Full Quote
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A ticker display will typically begin with the stock symbol (ECRY.OB for example), then provide the number of shares traded in the most recent transaction, or "tick," the price at which those shares were traded, and an arrow up or down (to indicate whether this price was higher or lower than the preceding tick in that stock). The display will conclude with the change amount.
The color of the display also conveys information. A green display indicates that this stock is trading at a higher level than the closing price of the previous business day. A red display indicates the opposite.
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References
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