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Showing posts with the label OTC

OTC stocks more difficult to trade and deposit

  Mina Mar Group helps micro-cap companies structure their growth. Micro-capitalized companies are those with less than $50,000,000 in equity, sometimes under $1,000,000. Restructuring involves raising money (both debt and stock), and planning how they will eventually harvest that wealth. If you’re a founder or investor, the secret to harvesting your equity is to possess assets with a developed market for their sale; up until recently, that market was the public market. Now, Over-The-Counter Securities (“OTC Securities”) don’t serve that purpose since, unless you’re a tech unicorn doing an IPO, there are essentially no ways to sell the shares you’ve invested in. OTC securities – how they were deposited five years ago. Brokerages all around the country have tightened compliance over the past five years to the point where no one may deposit share certificates into their brokerage accounts, even if they can prove that they paid for them. Consider the following demand from a secondary ...

How important marketing is for Regulation A?

  Regulation A+ represents the lately enacted SEC rule that amends and expands the rarely utilized Regulation A offering exemption. Regulation A+ might be viewed as an alternative to a small registered IPO and also, as a substitute or addition to other securities offering procedures that are not subject to registration under the Securities Act.  Although Regulation A+ is still quite new, it is swiftly establishing a name as the perfect spot for so many American businesses looking for capital. Reg A+, which is supported by the SEC, actually permits non-SEC reporting corporations to raise capital from public investors while also allowing (or even more motivating) the issuer to publicize their offering openly.  The opportunity to publicly market to investors has benefited greatly for numerous corporations.  This method is intended to reduce regulatory constraints by allowing companies who wouldn’t have contemplated pursuing total IPOs to get the type of financing necess...

Company Disclosures

When we speak about disclosures and what they represent in financial terms, that actually refers to providing the public with all relevant information about a company on time.  So relevant information includes facts, figures, dates, procedures, innovation, etc, which means any information regarding a company that can probably impact an investor’s decision. As a result, it is necessary to comprehend that public company directors and officers are in charge of company disclosures and securing investors with complete and valid information. Access to material info enables investors to make information-based investment decisions, which is vital for efficient market pricing and on which state and federal securities are based.  Anytime new stocks are issued to the public, the SEC requisite disclosures of relevant financial and business info to possible investors, with exemptions provided for private placements and small issues. Integrated disclosure structure is the name give...

Shell Risk Designation

  The OTC Market launches this new Promotion Risk flag that should assist investors in recognizing stocks that are now part of a stock promotion strategy.   OTC Markets with their team keeps a close eye on a number of sources to assess whether a stock is being pushed, so their main assignment is to gather information from a massive number of market players and analyze all collected data before putting the Promotion Risk flag on their website.  A “Shell Risk” flag has been added to these new designations, signifying that a corporation exhibits features related to shell corporations, based on a review of the firm’s major yearly financial data, which are connected to limited activities. Shell corporations have few or no assets and operations. All that OTC Markets try to do with all these activities is to demonstrate their dedication to a market compliance monitoring system that promotes more transparency, prompt info, and at last greater security of investors so to be a...

The reasons why you should hold Penny Stocks

There are many prejudices about Penny Stocks and why should anyone have them in their portfolio. As defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, penny stock is any publicly traded firm’s share that trades below $5 per share.   These types of stocks are inexpensive, allowing you to invest without committing large sums of money, which is advantageous for those on a limited budget.   That also implies if the business in that you have just invested fails, you won't suffer a significant loss per share.  Finally, all this indicates that the very same amount of money can purchase more penny stock shares than it can purchase more expensive securities shares. Tremendous gains can be made with a tiny initial investment. As a result, they have the potential to become extremely successful.  Despite their significant volatility, penny stocks provide excellent returns. These stocks have the ability to provide explosive growth of 100% or over in a single day, a...

OTC Markets' Warning Symbols Explained

The OTC Markets, which are divided into three tiers: the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market, and the Pink Market, trade over 10,000 securities. The Pink Market trades a wide range of firms, including overseas corporations with limited disclosure in the United States, penny stocks and shell companies, as well as troubled, delinquent, and dark companies who are unwilling or unable to offer information to investors. The amount of publicly available data varies from firm to company. OTC Markets has designed investor protection symbols to warn against firms that may entail greater risk than others, in order to assist investors to better understand the risks connected with these securities and to give more transparency. On otcmarkets.com, numerous of these symbols may show on a corporate quote page. Here's a breakdown of what each one represents.   BANKRUPTCY   This indicator denotes that the firm has filed for bankruptcy or has indicated its intention to do so. This w...

Derivatives - explained

Derivative is very complex complex to explain but at its most it is financial contract between two or more parties and it derives its price from an underlying asset. Basically buyer agrees to purchase the asset on a specific date at a specific price. There are numerous types of derivatives and underlying assets can be almost anything but the most common are commodities (oil, gasoline, oil), currencies, stocks, bonds, interest rates and market indexes. They can be traded on unregulated over-the-counter market where transactions happen between private parties or they can be traded on exchange where they are highly regulated and standardized. Bear in mind that OTC constitutes major portion of  derivative market and it caries great counterparty risk - possibility that one of the parties involved might default. Common derivatives are options, futures,swaps and forwards.  Options give the buyer right but not the obligation to sell or purchase underlying asset at a ce...

Direct public offering

Direct public offering also known as direct listing or direct placement is a type of offering where company offers securities directly to public in order to raise capital. It is considered alternative to initial public offering but unlike in IPO company that uses direct listing eliminates intermediaries like investment banks that underwrite stock, making stock price dependent on the market. In direct listing employees and early investors convert their ownership into stock that is then offered to the public meaning that no new shares are issued which stops stock dilution. Because in DPO middle man in form of investment banks, broker-dealers and underwriters is eliminated it enables issuer to sell shares quickly, without the lockout period. It also makes the offering cheaper because there is no underwriting fees to pay and faster because there is fewer thing to manage than in traditional IPO. Underwriters  not only set the IPO price but they also organize roadshows, fil...

OTCQB -what you need to know

OTC Market Group is American financial market with headquarters in New York City that provides price and liquidity information for almost 10,000 over-the-counter securities. Stating that they recognize that companies come in different shapes, sizes and stages of development so one standard is not suitable for all OTC Market Group has three different market tiers: OTCQX, OTCQB and Pink. Each tier have different standards, reporting requirements and level of disclosure. Pink market tier is considered the lowest because it doesn't have financial standards or reporting requirement. Stock in Pink tier are not required to be registered with the SEC. Companies have the opportunity to upgrade their status to OTCQB market if they met certain requirements, giving investors most current information possible while reducing the trading limits and restrictions companies may face on the Pink Market. OTCQB Venture Market, middle tier in OTC Market Group, is for early-stage developing ...

What is penny stock rule?

The term penny stock refers to securities that usually trade at over the counter market at less than $5 per share. Such stocks are mostly issued by smaller companies whose shares trade on OTC Markets or less frequently on OTC Bulletin Boar. Penny stock are also considered highly speculative, with small market capitalization, lacking liquidity and disclosures urging Congress to prohibit broker-dealers from effecting transactions in penny stocks unless they comply with the requirements of Section 15(h) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 also known as Penny Stock Rule. To comply with the requirements of Section 15(h) of Securities and Exchange Act broker-dealer must: approve the customer for the specific penny stock transaction and receive a written agreement to the transaction furnish the customer a disclosure document describing the risks of investing in penny stocks disclose to the customer the current market quotation, if any, for the penny stock disclose to the ...

Rule 144 - sale of unregistered securities

Selling restricted or control shares is not an easy task. Securities and Exchange Commission has enforced Rule 144 that set conditions under which restricted, unregistered and control shares can be sold or resold. This type of sale is very close to interest of the issuing company so SEC demands that those type of securities be registered. Under Securities Act of 1933 all securities must either be registered with SEC or be exempt from registration requirements. Rule 144 provides exemption that allows the resale of unregistered securities in public stock market if a number of conditions are met. Even if you meet requirements transfer agents needs to remove the restrictive  legend so the sale will be possible. Investor usually acquire those types of shares through private placement or stock benefit plans offered by their employee. Restricted stock are nontransferable shares of ownership in a corporation, usually issued as a compensation, stock benefits plan, in exchange for pr...

What is the difference between options and warrants?

Warrants are similar to options but there are few key differences. Warrants are derivatives that give the right but not the obligation to the holder to buy or sell security before expiration date. The price at which underlying security can be bought is called strike price and should be bought before an expiration date. Like option there are call warrants that give holder the right to buy a security and pit warrants that give the right to sell security. Underlying securities are commonly equity but they can also be currencies, commodities and other financial instruments. Warrants are issued directly by the company and not the third party. Investors can write options but they can't write warrants. Finding and trading warrants is also more difficult because they usually trade on over-the-counter market and not stock exchanges. If they however trade on exchange they have a thicker of an underlying stock but with letter W attached at the end of the ticker. Warrants are dilutive...

Make your company current again

The Pink Open Market as a part of OTC Markets Group provides platform for trading wide range of equities, which include penny stocks, shell companies, foreign issuers with limited information and companies not willing or able to provide information to investors. Since there is limited information available and limited regulatory oversight Pink market is considered to be of high risk.  Depending on level of disclosure companies are divided in three tiers as current information, limited information or no information. To qualify as a current information company have to make disclosure  available, in accordance with one of the following reporting standards: SEC reporting standard, U.S. reporting standard, international or alternative reporting standard. In the first two cases company has to be in compliance with SEC and Bank Regulator reporting requirements. Companies trading on Qualified Foreign Exchange  use international reporting standard. Other companies m...

What is OTC?

Over-the-counter may refer to OTC market or process of trading securities that are not listed on some of major exchanges. On OTC market securities are traded via broker dealers who quote the stock unlike exchanges which function as auction market. Companies that can't meet listing requirements of major exchanges usually because they are too small and volatile or they don't want to be subjected to strict regulations and requirements of exchange trade on OTC market as so called unlisted securities. Over-the-counter market is decentralized market, without physical location. Broker dealers who are regulated by Financial Regulatory Agency (FINRA) act as market makers by quoting the prices but it is possible that transaction can happened between two parties without others knowing information about price. This makes market less transparent alongside fewer regulatory requirements. Stocks trading on OTC are considered to bear additional risk, especially default risk but it is ...

What does fifth letter in ticker means?

A ticker or stock symbol is an abbreviation or an acronym that uniquely identifies securities of particular company on particular stock market. It consists of letters, numbers or both in a combination that is unique for every company. The term ticker itself came from the sound made by ticker tape machine that transmitted stock price information over telegraphic lines. They were supposed to be short to minimize the number of character printed on the ticker tape and to make them easy to recognize for traders and investors. Company's ticker may change due to various reasons, reflecting a merger, name change of a company or if the company trades on multiple exchanges worldwide. US modern letter only ticker symbol was developed by Standard&Poor to bring national standard to investing, Companies trading on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) usually have three letter ticker symbol while Nasdaq ones usually have four letter stock symbol. In July 2007 Securities and ...

Is reverse split good or bad?

Reverse stock split reduces number of outstanding shares in a predetermined ratio. It is also known as stock consolidation, share rollback or stock merger because two or more shares are merged into one more valuable share.  Reverse split is considered to be a corporate action, meaning action that is affecting share price and needs to be approved by the company's board of directors and possibly by voting shareholders. Company can even get additional letter D to its ticker signifying that it is going through reverse split. Number of total outstanding shares, which includes shares currently held by all shareholders, including institutional investors and restricted shares, is usually divided with 5 or 10 getting ratio one for five or one for ten but it can be as little as one to two or big as one to hundred. For example if you have 100 shares worth $1 each so you have $100 worth of shares. if a company is going for one for then reverse split, you will receive ten shares, each...

Investing in Penny Stocks

Not all stocks fulfill listing requirements for major stock exchanges like Nasdaq and NYSE but they trade on over the counter market (OTC). Even though many believe penny stock trade less than a $1 per share, Securities and Exchange Commission defines them as a securities issued by small-cap and micro-cap companies that trade under a $5 price. Because of their low price penny stocks are often logical beginning for new investors. What this means is that you can buy thousands of shares of various companies without investing significant financial means. You may even hear from some investors that they joined "one million club" owning million shares of the same company trading on OTC. With such big numbers of shares, price raise of even few cents can bring nice gains for investor. Some may be attracted to penny stock because they are dreaming of big profits, buying shares for couple of cents and selling them for millions. Even though penny stocks can be lucrative there ar...