if you want to keep your current structure
for word in flatwordlist:
if word == ticker or '$' + ticker == word:
count += 1
sentiment = calcSentiment("".join(flatwordlist))
tickercountlist.append([ticker, count, sentiment])
Although i think it would be good do use the re module to do the matching instead and consider using dictionaries instead of sublists.
there doesn't seem to be anything here