KoreWhat do .DE, .SW and .L mean after a stock ticker, and when should you use the ISIN?
If a stock you bought on a European exchange shows a nonsensical price or loss, it is usually one of two things: the ticker points to a different company that uses the same letters on another exchange, or the price is in another currency (sometimes in pence). A ticker alone does not identify a stock; you also need to know where it trades.
A real case: the Nestlé that was not Nestlé
A purchase of Nestlé shares made on Xetra, the German exchange, arrived in a portfolio under the ticker NESR. On the German exchanges, NESR is Nestlé. But plain NESR is National Energy Services Reunited, an oilfield services company listed on NASDAQ.
The position was tied to that other company, with its real name, price and chart. Nothing looked broken except the result: −66.9%. Each exchange assigns its own symbols, so two exchanges can reuse the same letters for different companies, which goes unnoticed while everything you own trades in the United States.
What .DE, .SW and .L mean
To tell exchanges apart, quote sites add a suffix to the ticker: NESN.SW is Nestlé in Zurich and NESR.DE is Nestlé on Xetra. US stocks carry no suffix. Four common ones:
| Suffix | Exchange | Price currency |
|---|---|---|
.DE | Xetra (Frankfurt) | euro (EUR) |
.SW | SIX Swiss Exchange (Zurich) | Swiss franc (CHF) |
.L | London Stock Exchange | usually pence (GBp) |
.T | Tokyo Stock Exchange | yen (JPY) |
The suffix marks the exchange, which can differ from the company's home country. The convention varies by provider; the one in the table is what Kore. uses to look up quotes.
Ticker, ISIN and currency
A trade confirmation shows three details worth keeping apart:
- The ticker with its suffix identifies a listing: a stock on one specific exchange.
NESR.DEandNESRare different listings and, here, different companies. - The ISIN identifies the security. It has 12 characters: two country letters, nine that identify the security and a check digit. Nestlé's,
CH0038863350, is the same in Zurich and in Frankfurt. - The currency belongs to the listing. Nestlé trades in Swiss francs in Zurich and in euros on Xetra.
An example you can reproduce
You buy 10 Nestlé shares on Xetra (NESR.DE) at €80 each, with €1 = US$1.15. Today they trade at €84 with the same exchange rate (example prices). In a spreadsheet, type this in column B:
| Cell | Item | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | Shares | 10 |
| B2 | Purchase price (€) | 80 |
| B3 | Price today (€) | 84 |
| B4 | Dollars per euro | 1.15 |
| B5 | Today's price of NESR on NASDAQ (US$) | 11.50 |
| B6 | What you paid (US$) | =B1*B2*B4 → 920 |
Three ways to value the same position:
| How it is valued | Formula | Value | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
Right: NESR.DE, euros converted to dollars | =B1*B3*B4 | US$966 | +5.00% ✓ |
| Euros read as if they were dollars | =B1*B3 | US$840 | −8.70% |
A different company: NESR on NASDAQ | =B1*B5 | US$115 | −87.50% |
The result is the value divided by what you paid, minus 1 (first row: =B1*B3*B4/B6-1), with −8.70% rounded. The formulas use no functions, so they work the same in Excel and Google Sheets in any language; only the decimal separator can change.
The third row is the NESR case: a huge loss nobody had. The second is sneakier: −8.70% looks like an ordinary dip and is easy to leave unchecked.
Pence: the price that arrives 100 times too large
In London, most shares are quoted in pence (GBp) rather than pounds (GBP), and 100 pence make £1. Say you hold 50 shares at 3,429 GBp (£34.29), with £1 = US$1.30:
| Calculation | Formula | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Correct | =50*3429/100*1.30 | US$2,228.85 |
| Without dividing by 100 | =50*3429*1.30 | US$222,885 |
With a decimal comma in your spreadsheet, type 1,30. The error can run the other way too: a purchase price in pence entered as pounds makes what you paid 100 times too high and, with today's price unchanged, the position shows −99%. In the Kore. trade form, enter the price in pounds (34.29) and the currency GBP.
How to avoid it
- Write down the ISIN of every purchase, and look it up on a quote site if you doubt a ticker.
- Use the ticker with the suffix of the exchange where you bought:
NESR.DE, notNESR. - Check the currency on the confirmation, and whether the price is in pence or cents.
- Read the name that appears when you enter the ticker. If it is another company, it is another listing.
How Kore. handles it
- The ticker is saved with its suffix (
NESN.SW,SAP.DE,SHEL.L), as a position separate from any other with the same letters. - In the trade form, a ticker you enter is looked up and the name of the company found appears underneath. With no quote, a warning ("Unrecognized ticker") appears before you save.
- Quotes in euros, francs, pounds or yen are converted to dollars (those in pence or other minor units, from London, Johannesburg or Tel Aviv, are divided by 100 first), and the price history uses each day's exchange rate. With no exchange rate, the quote is dropped instead of reading francs as dollars.
- If you paid in euros, francs or pounds, the form fills in the exchange rate for that date and you can correct it. The FX Rate field runs the other way, in units of that currency per dollar (here, 1 ÷ 1.15 ≈ 0.8696).
- Everything is compared in a single currency (dollars).
The sample portfolio's Screener lists stocks from Zurich, London, Frankfurt and Tokyo, with their suffix, company name and value in dollars. Try it in the demo, no account needed.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use the ticker or the ISIN?
Both, for different things. The ISIN identifies the security without ambiguity but says nothing about the exchange, and the price depends on the exchange. Valuing a position takes the ticker with its suffix; the ISIN checks that the ticker is the right one. In the Kore. form, the ticker goes in the Ticker_Symbol field.
Where do I find the ISIN?
On the order confirmation, your broker statement and the stock's page at many quote sites. Its last character is a check digit, which catches most copying errors.
What about CEDEARs, which use the ticker of the US stock?
A CEDEAR trades in Buenos Aires and represents one share, or a fraction of one, depending on its ratio. Kore. treats it as a separate position (AAPL as a stock and AAPL as a CEDEAR are not mixed) and values it at the US stock's dollar price divided by the ratio. Choose the CEDEAR category when entering it.
Why do I see dollars for a stock I bought in euros?
Everything in Kore. is compared in a single currency (dollars), so positions from different exchanges can be added together. What you paid is converted at the trade's exchange rate and the current value at today's, so the result in dollars also reflects how much the euro has moved.