A bare GOOGLEFINANCE ticker can be the wrong listing, or #N/A, until you add the exchange

GOOGLEFINANCE identifies a listing with a ticker string. Some symbols resolve with no exchange in front of them. GOOG is one of those. Others do not. A number that is a local code, such as 7203, is #N/A until you write TYO:7203. A symbol that exists on more than one exchange can return a listing you did not mean. BHP and LON:BHP are different requests. Google’s help describes the optional EXCHANGE:SYMBOL form. The prefix is how you name the listing. It is not a formatting detail.

A symbol the service does not have at all (NOTATICKER, or USD/JPY with a slash) is GOOGLEFINANCE #N/A. Attributes and date order are GOOGLEFINANCE attribute. Delay is GOOGLEFINANCE delay. Sheet Error is not a broker and not Google. Do not trade from this page. Do not copy a price into this article.

Recreate it on a blank sheet

1. Open a blank spreadsheet. You need a network. Keep the Google Sheets UI in English.

A symbol that works without a prefix. In A1 type symbol. In A2 type GOOG. In B1 type price. In B2 enter =GOOGLEFINANCE(A2,"price"). When the fetch works, B2 is a number. That cell is the control: no NASDAQ: was required for this symbol. If B2 is #N/A, settle the symbol on GOOGLEFINANCE #N/A before you add prefixes. Do not type B2’s number anywhere else.

A local code with no exchange. In A4 type bare. In A5 type 7203. In B5 enter =GOOGLEFINANCE(A5,"price"). The cell shows #N/A. The tooltip says the query for the symbol returned no data. 7203 is not a ticker string the function can use on its own. Leave B5 broken.

The same code with the exchange. In A7 type tokyo. In A8 type TYO:7203. In B8 enter =GOOGLEFINANCE(A8,"price"). When the fetch works, B8 is a number. The digits are a quote for that Tokyo listing, delayed the way GOOGLEFINANCE delay describes. They are not a value to copy into this page. The formula difference from B5 is the prefix TYO:. Leave B8 as a number and B5 as #N/A.

Two prefixes are two listings. In A10 type bhp. In A11 type BHP. In A12 type LON:BHP. In B11 enter =GOOGLEFINANCE(A11,"price"). In B12 enter =GOOGLEFINANCE(A12,"price"). When both return numbers, they are not required to be equal. One request did not name an exchange. The other named London. If one of them is #N/A, that listing is the one the service did not resolve. Leave both formulas. Do not average them.

A currency pair is not this prefix. CURRENCY:USDJPY uses the word CURRENCY, not a stock exchange. USD/JPY is still #N/A. That pattern is GOOGLEFINANCE #N/A and currency pair.

What is actually wrong

• The ticker argument is the whole listing name. EXCHANGE:SYMBOL is one string. A colon inside it is not a range and not an argument separator. TYO:7203 in A8 is a single text value.
• Omitting the exchange asks Google to pick a default, or to return nothing. 7203 has no default that this function accepts, so B5 is #N/A. GOOG has a default, so B2 can be a number. Success on GOOG does not mean every other symbol is optional-prefix.
• Two exchanges mean two listings. Matching the letters BHP is not matching the market. A dashboard that mixes B11 and B12 is mixing instruments. The sheet is not “off by a few cents” in a way datadelay explains. Delay is how old one quote is. See GOOGLEFINANCE delay.
• The prefix does not fix a bad attribute or a reversed history window. =GOOGLEFINANCE("TYO:7203","close","2024-06-01","2024-01-01") is still #N/A because the dates are backwards. See GOOGLEFINANCE attribute.
• Spelling the exchange wrong is the same #N/A as a bad symbol. TOKYO:7203 is not TYO:7203. The tooltip still says the symbol returned no data. You cannot tell “bad exchange” from “bad ticker” by the error value alone. Compare a known-good string.

This is not a VLOOKUP miss. See what #N/A means.

Fix

Leave B5 as #N/A on the bare code. Leave B2 as the unprefixed symbol that already works.

Put the exchange in the ticker string. Keep B8: =GOOGLEFINANCE(A8,"price") with A8 set to TYO:7203. For a US listing Google documents the same shape, NASDAQ: or NYSE: plus the symbol, when the bare symbol is the wrong listing or no listing. Use the prefix the venue actually uses. Guessing a city name is how B5 stays #N/A.

When both listings return numbers, label the column with the full string. Keep A12 as LON:BHP next to the formula that uses it. Do not store BHP in the cell and add the exchange only in a note.

Do not wrap B5 in IFNA and show the GOOG price instead. You would label a missing listing with an unrelated quote. See IFERROR vs IFNA.

If the bare symbol is #N/A and EXCHANGE:SYMBOL returns a number, the prefix was the whole bug. If the prefixed symbol is still #N/A, the exchange code or the attribute is wrong. Reloading does not invent a listing.