Overview
Ticker Symbols is built from the listings of the US and 18 international primary exchanges, the major cryptocurrencies and the most traded futures contracts, refreshed daily. Every equity listing is confirmed against OpenFIGI, the open financial instrument identifier standard, before it is published; coins must be listed on a major exchange, and futures come from a verified contract table. The same ticker often means different things in different places - SHEL trades in London and New York, and BTC is a coin in crypto but a Bitcoin ETF on a US exchange - so every result names its market, exchange and asset class.
Live Test Ticker Symbols Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the rest are its inputs, and the "field" pair says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("tickersymbols", A2, "field", "count")=VERVE.CALL("tickersymbols", A2, "field", "count")A2 holds the symbol you are looking up. Drag the formula down and each row resolves on its own.
With literal values
Nothing has to come from a cell — typed values work the same way.
=VERVE("tickersymbols", "SHEL", "field", "count")=VERVE.CALL("tickersymbols", "SHEL", "field", "count")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after them — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
symbolRequired | string | argument 2 (A2) | The ticker symbol to look up, for example AAPL, BRK.B, SHEL or 7203. Returns every listing with that symbol. A suffix such as BP.L, a coin pair such as BTC-USD or a contract such as CL=F narrows it to that market. length 0–24 |
marketOptional | string | "market", value | Keep only listings on this market: a two-letter market code, CRYPTO or FUTURES.USGBDEFRNLITESCH+13 |
assetClassOptional | string | "assetClass", value | Keep only listings of this asset class.equityfundcryptocommodityfuturedebtother |
Passing an option
=VERVE("tickersymbols", A2, "market", "GB")=VERVE.CALL("tickersymbols", A2, "market", "GB")What lands in your sheet
The "field" pair is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Drop the "field" pair and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("tickersymbols", A2)=VERVE.CALL("tickersymbols", A2)The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the "field" pair accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as "field" | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
symbol | string | SHEL | The symbol that was looked up, or null for a search |
search | object | null | The search text that was applied, or null for a symbol lookup |
count | number | 2 | Number of listings returned |
results | array[2] | Matching listings, US first and then by market | |
results.0.symbol | string | SHEL | Ticker symbol of the listing on its market |
results.0.name | string | Shell PLC American Depositary Shares (each representing two (2) Ordinary Shares) | Name of the company, fund, coin or contract |
results.0.market | string | US | Market of the listing: a two-letter country code, CRYPTO or FUTURES |
results.0.countryPremium | string | US | ISO 3166 country code of the listing's market; null for crypto and futures |
results.0.exchange | string | XNYS | ISO 10383 MIC code of the listing exchange; CRYPTO for coins |
results.0.exchangeNamePremium | string | New York Stock Exchange | Name of the listing exchange |
results.0.type | string | Depositary Receipt | Security type, for example Common Stock, ETF, Depositary Receipt, Cryptocurrency or Energy Future |
results.0.assetClass | string | equity | Broad asset class: equity, fund, crypto, commodity (a future on a physical underlying), future (a financial future), debt or other (warrants, rights and units) |
results.0.figiPremium | string | BBG0147BN6G2 | FIGI of this exchange listing; null for crypto, futures and listings confirmed only at instrument level |
results.0.compositeFigiPremium | string | BBG0147BN6G2 | Country-level composite FIGI of the listing |
results.0.shareClassFigiPremium | string | BBG0147BN6H1 | Share-class FIGI, the same for every listing of one security worldwide |
results.0.cikPremium | string | 0001306965 | SEC Central Index Key of the issuer, for US listings that file with the SEC |
Filling a whole column
Both platforms make one batched call for a column rather than one request per cell, and both cost the same — 1 credit per row looked up. How you write it differs, because the two runtimes batch at different points.
=VERVE("tickersymbols", A2:A100, "field", "count")In Google Sheets, give the arguments ranges and the answers spill down from the cell you typed in. Custom functions there run synchronously and in isolation, so dragged cells cannot be coalesced — the range form is how a column becomes one call. The "field" pair is required here: a per-row two-column table has nowhere to spill. Use a full column per input (A2:A100, not A2) — a single-cell reference is read as row 1 only and the rest of the column comes back blank.
In Excel, type the formula once and fill down — no range form and none needed, because its runtime is asynchronous and the add-in coalesces the calls a fill produces into a single batched request. Do not hand VERVE.CALL a range: Excel flattens it into positional arguments, so A2:A100 arrives as a hundred separate arguments and the cell reads #ERR rather than filling.
Either way, column A holds your symbol values and the answers land beside them, one row each, blank rows skipped.
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in tickersymbols | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The "field" path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Symbol Autocomplete
- Trading and portfolio apps suggest listings as users type a company name or the first letters of a ticker.
- Listing Disambiguation
- Data pipelines resolve an ambiguous ticker such as SHEL or BTC to the exact market, exchange and asset class before pricing it.
- Identifier Mapping
- Back offices join their own ticker lists to FIGI identifiers and SEC CIK numbers for reporting and reconciliation.
- Asset Classification
- Watchlists and screeners label every holding as an equity, fund, cryptocurrency, commodity or financial future.
Other ways to use Ticker Symbols
Set up Ticker Symbols on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Related
More in Finance: