History
Before 2010 the ticker (trading) symbols for US options typically looked like this: IBMAF. This consisted of a root symbol ('IBM') + month code ('A') + strike price code ('F'). The root symbol is the symbol of the stock on the stock exchange. After this comes the month code, A-L mean January–December calls, M-X mean January–December puts. The strike price code is a letter corresponding with a certain strike price (which letter corresponds with which strike price depends on the stock).
On February 12, 2010 the five-character ticker format stopped being used in the US and Canada.
The new standard is now fully in place, as in the first few months after February 12 the LEAP roots and additional roots needed to handle large amounts of options for a given issuer were consolidated into a single root ticker for a given underlying symbol. Options Clearing Corporation's Options Symbology Initiative (OSI) mandated an industry-wide change to a new option symbol structure, resulting in option symbols up to 23 characters in length. March 2010 - May 2010 was the symbol consolidation period in which all outgoing option roots will be replaced with the underlying stock symbol.
Read more about this topic: Option Symbol
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