3 ms·
Sorry for the off topic but what’s this thing that I only come across in Hacker News about referring to a company by their stock exchange name (APPL, MSFT, etc)
by Xenoamorphous 2y ago
Sorry for the off topic but what’s this thing that I only come across in Hacker News about referring to a company by their stock exchange name (APPL, MSFT, etc) outside of a stock context? It seems really weird to me.
- rashabd 2y agomerriam-webster.com/dictionary/brevity
- Xenoamorphous 2y agoWriting APPL instead of Apple doesn’t get you any fewer keystrokes.
- justinsaccount 2y agoalso, the symbol for apple is AAPL.
- SilasX 2y agoUgh. Similar (huge) pet peeve about people who say "n.B." instead of "note".
- oarsinsync 2y agoTechnically it’s one fewer keystroke (and it’s AAPL). It’s a lot fewer keystrokes for MS (Morgan Stanley), GS (Goldman Sachs) and MSFT (Microsoft) than it is for AAPL, but it’s a force of habit for some. Once you’re used to referring to firms by their ticker symbols, you do it all the time. E.g. an ex trader friend still says “spot” instead of “point” when referring to decimal points, even if talking in other contexts like software versions.
- 082349872349872 2y agoTangent: Not fewer like F (Ford) or H (Hyatt Hotels). Unfortunately we don't have a full alphabet, missing {I, N, P, Q, Y}. I guess if we allowed the first two letter ticker symbol for the missing singles, we could send messages by mentioning a bunch of company names. Eg "Buy: Dominion Energy, Agilent. Hold: Nano Labs. Sell: Genpact." would refer to our esteemed moderator, and "Hyatt Hotels is pleased to announce special corporate rates for Nano Labs bookings" to this site itself. [maybe it would be better to use the companies where the corporate name and ticker letter don't match? Like US Steel for X and AT&T for T?]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- eviks 2y agoTechnically, you forgot capitalization, so it's more keystrokes
- School-Cotton 2y agoApple is also capitalized, so it's still fewer. Unless you hit "Shift" separately for each character in AAPL?
- Xenoamorphous 2y agoAAPL is only fewer keystrokes than Apple if you’re in a physical keyboard and hold the shift key, which makes it hardly more convenient. If you use caps lock presumably you’ll press it again. On a phone, at least in iOS, you have to double tap the shift key.
- egypturnash 2y agoI just assume it's people who spend too much time thinking about the stock context.
- colordrops 2y agoIt's the core purpose of the organization. The ticker represents the most fundamental drive of the org. Seems appropriate and honest.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- abduhl 2y agoI have always assumed that a focus on stock tickers is the natural result when your primary user base is a group of people hyper focused on “total compensation” and stock grants. The name hackernews is merely a playful reference to the history of the site. Like the name “Patriot Act.”
- gverrilla 2y agoBigTechMercenaryNews ?
- School-Cotton 2y agoIn-group signaling for people who like playing or thinking about the stock market. Similar to how people who make travel a big part of their identity refer to cities by their airport code.
- dylan604 2y agoOr maybe they are pilots?
- NovemberWhiskey 2y ago"I flew into LHR on Monday" - frequent flyer "I flew into EGLL on Monday" - pilot
- xyst 2y agonot really. It’s just something I adopted as part of a job I had for fintech 3-4 yrs ago I don’t do it as some sort of “signaling” for “fintech bros” or anything like that
- silisili 2y agoAs a counterpoint to some other replies, I do this sometimes, not thinking at all about stocks but instead as a standardized abbreviation of sorts. Ms for example can mean tons of things from a title to multiple sclerosis to milliseconds. MSFT is clear and half the length.
- xyst 2y agoI used to gather fringe signals for shitty hedge funds, “fintech” from public communities such as HN. I think I subconsciously adopted it since it made my job easier. Sort of how I use YYYYMMDD format in almost everything from programming to daily communication.