I have noticed that you cannot depend on the template title changing when you change the listing title - you always need to double check it.
As far as symbols, you need to be careful with those. Too many razzle dazzle symbols (just like too many ALL CAPS) do not really add anything useful to a title. Too many of these can make the listing harder to read quickly, or turn people off, eg ***L@@K*** (This will NOT make people want to click on your listing!) MODERATE use of symbols and caps can often be useful however. Also be careful that the symbols aren't placed in such a way that causes the search engine to think it is part of the word and therefore ignore the word in a seach! That would definitely be counterproductive.