Try the Countif function

if the ones of interest are in Column A and the recommendations are in
columns C-F
Will give you the number of times the initials in Column A is recommended.
=countif(C:F,A1)
copy down as far as you need.

"CRM" wrote:

I have a list containing the 3 and 4 letter stock symbols of "buy"
recommendations from four different brokers. I want to count the number of
times the same stock symbols occur within this list.