Where's the Q????

The Nasdaq exchange has changed the ticker symbol for the exchange-traded fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100.

The Qs have long been listed as QQQQ. They've dropped a "Q", and the new symbol is QQQ.

The full announcement is here.

This is, of course, horrible news for technical traders, because the new QQQ as of now has a two-day history.

So, price channels are broken. Under my rules I need 55 days of history. The average true range, which I use in stop calculations, is broken. It requires 14 days.

Anyone using the MACD, of course, is out of luck.

The good news is that some charting platforms such as Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance, have spliced QQQ onto QQQQ to create a complete time series.

Other platforms, such as ThinkOrSwim, which I use for my charting, haven't spliced the two symbols.

So, until ThinkOrSwim catches up, I'll be dropping QQQQ from my Indicators list for lack of data.