On what is apparently a slow news day, Wall Street & Technology is talking about the extensive systems development and testing Nasdaq did just so they can offer shorter ticker symbols to companies as a marketing gimmick.

From the article:

Though trading systems have recognized OTC stocks as having four-character symbols, Nasdaq said it will now offer one-, two- and three- character symbols to companies that switch their listings as well as those going public for the first time and to existing Nasdaq issuers.

I hope I’m not showing off my naiveté, but do companies really care about this kind of stuff? I mean this a forgivable marketing stunt from Nasdaq, who is obviously responding to increasing competitive pressure between the exchanges. But if I ever hear about a company actually taking advantage of this, and switching stock exchanges so they could get a better ticker symbol, I will break land speed records getting to a phone to short the stock.