R

  1. An occasional fifth letter in a Nasdaq-traded company's ticker symbol that identifies the stock as a rights offering. Nasdaq-listed securities usually have four or five characters. The ticker symbol by itself has four letters; if a fifth letter appears, it identifies the issue as other than a single issue of common or capital stock. The Nasdaq has a fifth-letter identifier for every letter of the alphabet; for example, "D" denotes a new issue, "F" denotes a foreign issue and "Q" denotes bankruptcy.
  2. The common symbol representing return in many financial formulas. There are many different types of returns and they are usually denoted with the upper or lower case letter "R," though there is no formal designation. If there are multiple returns used in a calculation they are often given subscript letters.