# Symbology Symbols identify financial instruments using human-readable identifiers. Architect normalizes symbols across different exchanges, venues, clearing houses, etc. to create a consistent nomenclature across the platform. There are three basic types of symbols: * **Products** are things that you can hold and have a balance or position in, such as stocks, bonds, futures, options, etc. Examples of products include: BTC Crypto, AAPL US Equity, USD, EUR, GC 20250626 CME Future, etc. * **Tradable products** are products that identify a trading pair on an exchange or venue. Examples of tradable products include: BTC Crypto/USD, BTC Crypto/ETH Crypto, AAPL US Equity/USD, EUR/USD, GC 20250626 CME Future/USD, etc. * **Venues** are names for exchanges, clearing firms, etc. Examples of venues include: BINANCE, CME, etc. Venues may sometimes be referred to as marketdata venues or execution venues specifically. Ultimately, symbols are just string identifiers that try to follow particular patterns, nothing more or less. ## Futures and perpetuals Product names for futures and perpetuals generally include their issuing venue, as derivative contracts aren't usually fungible between venues. For example, "GC 20250626 CME Future" refers to the CME futures contract, and "BTC-USDT BINANCE Perpetual" refers to the Binance perpetual. OCC cleared options are a notable exception. ### Aliases For some venues, we provide traditional aliases for products in addition to their Architect normalized names. On CME, you can also refer to "GC 20250626 CME Future" as "GCM5 CME Future" using traditional futures month codes. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.architect.co/concepts/symbology.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.