E

What is ‘E’

A temporary fifth character suffix to a symbol for a stock traded on Nasdaq, indicating that the issuer is delinquent in regulatory filings. The “E” suffix is currently only used for Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) issues. For Nasdaq National Market and SmallCap securities, the “E” suffix has been replaced by the Financial Status Indicator field since February 2006.

Explaining ‘E’

Having used fifth character symbol suffixes such as “E” and “Q” (for bankruptcy situations) for many years, Nasdaq had considered expanding the temporary suffix for all listing deficiencies. However, Nasdaq decided against it because of complaints received over the years from traders and investors that the issue symbol changes made it difficult to track the trading history for a given security. Nasdaq therefore replaced the symbol suffixes with the Financial Status Indicator Field so as to ensure that market players had access to both financial status information and trading history for a given security.

Further Reading