Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHW) is changing its listing from the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange. Technically, this is either again or back to it. The company said that it expects to begin trading on the NYSE on March 5, 2010 under the same “SCHW” stock ticker and it will remain on NASDAQ until the transfer is complete.
If it sounds familiar, this is not the first exchange change from Schwab. It used to trade as “SCH” on NYSE long ago. If this feels like an identity crisis, it may actually be the case. Discount brokerage firms, or the new term of electronic brokerage firms, have gone through an identity crisis as markets matured. Is it an old discount brokerage firm with many steady accounts, or is it a growth engine for online trading? It may just be both.
This news is more noise than news and the only good news here is that the stock ticker is at least not changing this time because both NASDAQ and the NYSE have changed their ticker requirements so that both allow for three-letter and four-letter stock tickers.
JON C. OGG