TORONTO - High demand for the "POT" stock symbol has prompted several Canadian stock exchanges to conduct a collective lottery to select which company will be able to use the eye-catching ticker.

After "significant interest," the Canadian Securities Exchange says it along with the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and Aequitas NEO Exchange will assign the symbol on Jan. 30 by random lottery.

The symbol became available after fertilizer Potash Corp. officially merged with Agrium Inc. in early 2018 to become Nutrien Ltd., which now trades under NTR.

The TMX Group, which operates the TSX and TSX Venture, and the CSE say the POT ticker will become available for reservation and usage as of Feb. 1, 2019.

The POT ticker would likely be an attractive symbol for a publicly-listed cannabis company, but the exchanges did not say in their press releases which firms expressed interest.

The exchanges say eligible participants who want to enter the POT lottery must notify the exchange where they are currently listed, or want to be listed, by 5 p.m. on Jan. 29.

