Q:

looking for regulations regarding stock symbol reuse in the US

in june 2009, GM has filed for bankruptcy. trading has moved from NYSE to OTC pink sheets, and the symbol changed to GMGMQ and later to MTLQQ. in november 2010 a new GM symbol started trading on NYSE. i am looking for the regulations regarding stock symbol reuse in the US. is there a minimum time that the symbol has to be out of use before it can be reused?

A:

I doubt it is regulated per se.  Tickers are part of the listing contract between a new entity and the primary listing exchange.  The exchange will seek to please the new client with a ticker they want, while also trying to please its existing members by assigning tickers in a logical, mnemonic way.
Since both the revitalized company and the markets expected a re-use of the GM ticker, that's what happened.

