Before re-naming a security, you need to determine whether it is simply being "re-named", or rather is being replaced by another security.

 

Security Replacement - If the security is being replaced by another security, two transactions must be entered in the portfolios holding the original security, one to "Deliver" the old security, and a second to "Receive" the new security.  In this case the new security needs to be added to the Security Id records without deleting or renaming the original security.  The topic Mergers gives examples of these transactions.

 

Security Renaming - If a security is genuinely being renamed, i.e. from "Alpha Corp.", symbol "ALPH" to "Games Company", symbol "GAME", then you may simply edit the Security Id record to reflect the change:

 

 

Upon editing the Symbol field to rename the symbol, you will be prompted with a special edit form which advises you that all other related records, including portfolio records will have their symbols changed:

 

 

 

If you try to change a symbol to one that already exists in the database you will get this message:

 

 

If your intent is to simply change any occurrence of the old symbol in your transactions, valuations, etc. to the existing symbol, respond "yes".  In this case any pricing associated with the old symbol will be merged with the pricing records of the new symbol, which is desired so that the records continue to have access to that pricing.

 

Your last step is to then simply, edit the description field of the Security Id record (and also the Cusip field if that has changed):

 

 

 

Symbol Retirement and Re-use - If a symbol is retired due to a take over or other event, or if a symbol is to be usurped by another company, it is a good idea to modify the original symbol so that there will be no chance of a conflict due to the symbol being recycled for use by another company.  For example in 2005, the "original AT&T" was absorbed by SBC, and SBC assumed AT&T's ticker symbol "T".   The best way to handle this would be to change the symbol "T" to "T_ORIG" and "SBC" to "T".  Then shares in security "T_ORIG" are delivered and shares in "T" are received in the transaction records of the applicable portfolio.