User:Nisiprius/Ticker hints

 addresses issues surrounding the use of mututal fund, exchange-traded fund, and stock tickers in forum topic discussions.

General etiquette
Forum posters should give the full names of mutual funds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds) on their first appearance. Readers should not be expected to know them. But since the world is imperfect, if you, as a reader, want to identify an unexplained ticker symbol, here are some hints and tips.
 * If there are five letters ending in X, it's probably a mutual fund. If it begins with V, probably Vanguard. If it begins with F, probably Fidelity.
 * In most cases, a simple Google search on a mutual fund ticker symbol will immediately retrieve the name of the fund and some basic information about it.
 * For Vanguard funds, for a good starting page, look for vanguard.com in the search results.
 * For Fidelity funds, for a good starting page, look for fundresearch.fidelity.com in the search results.
 * If there are less than five letters and the symbol does not end in X--e.g. SPY, VXUS--it is probably an ETF. Most of Vanguard's ETFs begin with the letter V, so in this forum if you see something like VTI, it's probably a Vanguard ETF. In your Google search, add the abbreviation ETF, i.e. search for VTI ETF and not just VTI. That will usually do it.
 * In some cases, such as VTSAX and FSKAX, completely different funds from different companies can be index funds tracking virtually identical indexes. For example, Fidelity has been competing with Vanguard index funds for decades. VTSAX and FSKAX are both total stock market index funds, and for most purposes are interchangeable. When Vanguard's index provider adds up stock they think should "count" in the total stock market, and Fidelity's index provider does the same, they get virtually the same result, and both companies do almost perfect jobs of tracking what are almost identical indexes.

Some other things to know

 * Many mutual funds are available in more than one "share class." These are essentially the same fund but they will have different ticker symbols. Sometimes the symbols are almost the same (VTSMX, VTSAX = Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund), but sometimes not (NAESX, VSMAX). The differences usually relate to cost, in various ways. When you are researching past performance, though, it is often a good idea to identify/use whichever share class has the longest history.
 * At Vanguard, and only at Vanguard, there are many pairs of index mutual funds and ETFs that are also part of the same share class and thus virtually identical. For example, the VTSAX mutual fund is virtually identical to the VTI ETF.

Finally, simply for your own comfort, you might want to familiarize yourself with six ticker symbols that are commonly mentioned in this forum:
 * VTSAX and VTI, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (and ETF). (vTSax = Total Stock, get it?)
 * VTIAX and VXUS, Vanguard Total International Stock Market Index Fund (and ETF). (vTIax = Total International. vXUS = ex-US = outside United States)
 * VBTLX and BND, Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (and ETF).