DD Support Board and Research Team

[janice shell]

Ahhhh, I just read this post of yours:

I called OTC Markets. They set this up about a month ago. They were getting requests from various broker/dealers with unsolicited orders for grey stocks and wanted to know what OTC Markets could do to help. What OTCM appears to have done is set up the “Expert Market” to allow OTCLink to be used by B/D’s to facilitate grey trading. Nothing is published publicly so as not to cross 15c-211, other than time and sales after the trade. But it does allow orders to be fulfilled using the OTC platform. No fees are required of the issuer and the MM pay the quoting fees to use OTCLink for the trades.

So why don't they just say "NO" to those MMs with unsolicited orders? Yes, PHOT managed to get round its Grey status when one or more of its MMs claimed to be getting a lot of unsolicited orders. And by now it may have finally managed to get a new 211 approved by FINRA. But not many other stocks had PHOT's luck.

I wrote this about that in March 2018:

And... Until quite recently, PHOT was trading on an unsolicited basis. Did it finally get a Form 211 approved by FINRA, or is the "unsolicited" just not showing on OTCMarkets' maddening new site?

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139294936

And in fact, around that time OTC Markets dropped its "unsolicited trading" warning for the handful of Greys that did trade unsolicited.

In the past, OTC Markets addressed the problem of unsolicited quotes in a FAQ. That FAQ has now been removed from the OTC Markets site, but this was what it said:

What are OTC Markets guidelines regarding the publication of unsolicited quotes?

OTC Markets has become increasingly concerned that the unsolicited quote exception in SEC Rule 15c2-11 is being abused by unscrupulous individuals to engage in questionable and possibly fraudulent activities in violation of the federal securities laws. OTC Markets, as a matter of policy, does not believe that the Unsolicited Quote Exemption should be used to circumvent FINRA's 211 process. As a result, effective February 6, 2006, OTC Markets is limiting the publication of unsolicited quotes to securities of seasoned issuers only. A seasoned security is generally defined as a security for which there has previously been a public market or a security of an issuer that has other seasoned securities.

OTC Markets generally will publish unsolicited quotations in securities that meet one of the following five conditions:

The Issuer of the securities is subject to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, is current in its filing obligations and has other seasoned securities currently trading on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ, or quoted on OTCBB or OTC Link.

The securities were recently delisted from NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ or deleted from the OTCBB;

The Issuer is a bank, savings and loan, or insurance company;

The securities were issued as part of a bankruptcy plan of reorganization; or

The security being quoted is a foreign ordinary, which is listed on a foreign exchange, or an ADR representing such ordinaries.

In order to publish an unsolicited quote for a security that meets one of the above conditions and is not already quoted on the OTC Link system, a broker should submit the Broker/Dealer Unsolicited Quote Entry form to OTC Markets Group.

Issuers of previously unseasoned securities that had quotations published on OTC Link prior to February 6, 2006 using the unsolicited quote exemption and continue to be quoted only on an unsolicited basis are required by OTC Markets to continue to make periodic disclosure using the OTC Disclosure and News Service. If the Issuer ceases to provide current information, OTC Markets may cease to allow broker/dealers to publish quotes in its securities.

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=120622562

So it looks as if the "Expert Market" designation is a way of addressing this problem that seems to have been misapplied in many cases.

Advice to OTC Markets: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.