MA BELL R.I.P.
Recently SBC and AT&T merged. What is the new stock symbol for the combined company?
Richard H. -- Address withheld

The new company, called AT&T, trades under ticker symbol T – the same one that was issued to American Telephone & Telegraph when it was founded over 100 years ago.

SBC, originally the Southern Bell Company unit of AT&T, was spun off along with the rest of the regional Bell operating companies when the U.S. Justice Dept. broke up AT&T in 1982 in one of the biggest anti-trust cases in U.S. history. After losing control of the nine “Baby Bells” AT&T got the long distance and manufacturing businesses, along with the government’s blessing to get into the computer business.

By John W. Schoen Senior Producer

The stock market's sell-off this week was not great news for most investors. But for folks like Patrick in Michigan, who is looking for information about selling stocks short, even a "bad" week can be profitable. Here's how:

INTERESTED IN SHORT INTEREST
Where is the best site to find out the actual short position of traded stocks on the exchanges?
Patrick M. -- Northville, Mich.

You can look this up on the Web sites of the two major exchanges. You’ll find short interest for individual Nasdaq stocks here. Over at the New York Stock Exchange, they give you a one huge spreadsheet with enough data to choke your PDA. The problem with these numbers is that they are only updated monthly, and short interest can change dramatically between reports for a smaller stock. Especially when bad news puts a stock on the “short list” for short sellers.