The picture on the TV is behaving much like you're thinking. There are KO and SNE, along with GM and IBM and XRX and MSFT and a parade of other letters chugging along the bottom of the screen on financial news shows. These are ticker symbols. They're code, cooked up in the 19th century to make it easier for market players to track orders. It will help if you know the symbols of the stocks and funds you own because they show up on your financial statements as well as on TV. When you're trying to get a quote on your stock or fund from the Internet, the ticker symbol is the fastest route.

One-, two-, and three-letter combinations are on the New York Stock Exchange. The American Stock Exchange is home to a lot of two-, three-, and four-letter tickers. NASDAQ, or the OTC market, has tickers with four and five letters.

Mutual funds have a system all their own: They're generally five letters long, and the last letter always is an "X". Ticker symbols are especially helpful with unwieldy fund names. For instance, the Pilgrim Government Securities Fund, class M, is known in ticker-talk as PGMMX.

Pf is preferred stock. These shares don't have their own ticker.

With Pf and X and GM and KO all showing negative on the tube, it's clear that the market has had a bad day. It's evident by your now-empty plate that your stomach's had a rough go of it, too. One thing left to do - reach for the Pepto-Bismol, brought to you by PG (Procter & Gamble).