A Reuters instrument code, or RIC, is a ticker-like code used by Thomson Reuters
to identify financial instruments and indices. The codes are used for looking
up information on various Thomson Reuters financial information networks
and appear to have developed from the Quotron service they purchased in the
1980s. Description
The Reuters instrument code was originally defined by Herbie Skeete, the
Reuters Executive who wrote the original product specifications for the first
products on Reuters' Integrated Data Network. RICs as originally defined by
Skeete were meant to be logical and intuitive.
For equities the codes were composed of a RIC Root, followed by a period sign,
then a one- or two-character code denoting the exchange on which the
instrument is traded. Each company was meant to have a unique RIC root. Thus
the RIC Root for International Business Machines would be IBM irrespective of
the exchange on which International Business Machines was traded.
Glen Renfrew, the CEO at that time, was persuaded to veto the idea of unique RIC
Roots. Also vetoed was Skeete’s intention of making RICs freely
available and becoming an ISO standard. Much of Skeete’s original work is still
contained within today’s RIC structure, but some key elements have changed over
the years. The RIC is made up primarily of the
security's ticker symbol, optionally followed by a period and exchange code
based on the name of the stock exchange using that ticker. For instance, IBM.N
is a valid RIC, referring to IBM being traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
IBM.L refers to the same stock trading on the London Stock Exchange. The
exchange code used in the RIC is proprietary to Reuters. Exchange codes
have an ISO standard, ISO 10383, which is not used by the Reuters Instrument
Code, but is in common use elsewhere. Ticker symbols are often reused on
different exchanges, so in many cases the same ticker symbol references
different securities. RIC codes use "artificial" tickers for
common indexes and money market instruments. For instance, the US
10-year money market bond is assigned the ticker US10YT, the "T" at the end
referring to "Treasury". Commodities are similarly assigned tickers, for instance
crude oil is CL. Indexes have a leading period, for instance .DJI is the Dow
Jones Industrial Average. Confusingly the "dot notation" is also
used for a number of other purposes. Units are signified with a ".UN", and a
particular exchange like NASDAQ by ".OQ". This confusion seems to be the
result of Reuters attempting to merge the standards used by the wide variety
of services they purchased in the 1980s and 90s.
Other examples: WMT.N means shares of Wal-Mart traded at
the New York Stock Exchange Examples of indices:
.DJI Dow Jones Industrial Average .IXIC NASDAQ Composite Index
.SPX S&P 500 .GSPENTE is the abbreviation for the S&P
entertainment index. Examples of commodity futures:
CL crude, light oil GC gold
HU unleaded gasoline HO heating oil
Antitrust issues In November 2009, The European
Commission opened formal anti-trust proceedings against Thomson Reuters to
investigate whether Thomson Reuters could be abusing its dominant position
in the market for consolidated real-time datafeeds through its RIC licensing
practices, in breach of EU antitrust rules. In December 2012, the European
Commission accepted Thomson Reuters proposal to remedy those concerns. The
EC’s announcement brought the matter to a close, with no finding of liability.
In summary, the proposal involves Thomson Reuters agreeing to offer its
customers specific licence rights to continue to use its RICs in applications
with data from an alternative real time consolidated data feed provider to which
they have moved. See also
Ticker symbol CUSIP
SEDOL ISIN
NSIN Option symbol
Uniform Symbology CNBC Ticker
References