# In an op-ed, Prof. Adam Alter explains how a ticker's pronounceability affects the stock’s price

1 Faculty News November 14, 2013 ![The New Yorker logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_032750.jpg?itok=hERliZMl)>

Excerpt from [The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/11/the-secret-science-of-stock-symbols.html) -- "Why do investors, many of whom painstakingly dissect reams of data to understand companies’ finances, also base their decisions in part on a stock’s ticker symbol? The answer is that reading pronounceable ticker symbols is slightly less mentally taxing; people generally prefer objects and events that are more 'cognitively fluent,' or easier to process."

[Read more](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/11/the-secret-science-of-stock-symbols.html)