1manband I hear you loud and clear but if people post their financials with Finra and on their website for all to see and they are certified, and the company sends out solid real data that is also backed up with the rules set forth in 15c211 they will not be able to trade easily unless then pay the OTC to be up-listed and a quote given.
I get that only a certain few investors (not the retail that most OTC's rely on for selling shares) can access a bid if the company is on OTC EM or GRAY whichever one is used by Sept, 28th.
The STOP sign warning is proof of the OTC’s attempts to strong-arm companies to pay up when they post the warning that say’s
Warning! This company may not be making material information publicly available
Buying or selling a security on the basis of material nonpublic material information is prohibited under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 10b5-1 thereunder. Violators may be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
They use the same sly wording pump and dumps use, “The company may not be” when they could be on other outlets for data. And of course buying or selling a security from any company that is based on insider information is illegal but these no paying OTC’s use a $200 PR news post that makes the material information public so there is no violation.
A company can post news and data on their website or news releases that would not constitute insider trading but the warning is to create doubt and scare investors but more so to annoy the listed company to pay the fee to be back on current.
The real wording should be,
“If you do not pay the $6000 fee to be current, we will make it look like your going to issue inside information and the OTC will tell anyone who buys your shares they will be arrested”
Obviously this did not work and the non paying pumps thrive.
The OTC knows full well most investors don’t look at OTC data so the STOP sign or even CE have no bearing on the investor who gets a very impressive email and link to a fancy website.
That is why the non-paying OTC’s did not need to worry about up listing and ignored the WARNING on the OTC data pages.
Taking away the quote to non-paying OTC’s was because the STOP sign warning failed to work to scare OTC’s into paying the fees.
I am sure if the OTC had their way they would say pay the fees or you will be removed from all tiers even CE. But that would be strong-arming and be a criminal offense.
So they figure ways to punish companies for not paying the fees and not having the ticker removed. The WARNING obviously did not work so they had to change the quoting system to punish the companies where it hurts, the MONEY from pumped stocks.
Do your DD on 15c211, pay $6000, up-list and your good to go.
PUMP AWAY!
Yes the OTC is a business that is also public and like all public companies they want the shares to rise. The OTC has about 12,800 tickers and as the pump and dumps actively trade and raise billions each year while not paying the OTC fees seems similar to 100 people going into McDonalds for a glass of free water and they all sit in the cool AC and don’t order any food.
Sooner or later they will say only paying customers can sit in the AC if you don’t pay you can still stay but sit outside in the heat forcing people to pay for a happy meal to be cool.
That may seem like a silly analogy but its accurate. And like 15c211 regulations to be compliant will be as easy to accomplish as someone not being able to go into the McDonalds because they had their shit off and just had to put it back on.
I also read about various small companies trying to be like the OTC and I am sure apps will soon take the place of brokers.
If a broker can obtain a quote on a ticker listed on the gray market, they would be able to post that quote on their platform for even retailers to view.
The OTC seems to have a monopoly on this and you would think anyone with some money could replicate the OTC website and launch a new platform for trading these OTC stocks and just change the name to CTO Markets.
Of course that would also not be free. The OTC is like a website you rent e-space from, you pay you can trade even if you’re a pump and dump and if you don’t pay they put your furniture to the curb.
The OTC does have the right to charge, they do provide a service as any company does. They have overhead and costs as well, but being nice did not get almost one fourth of the tickers to pay. They tried to add the warning and that did not work so they have to try other things to get those 2500 OTCs to pay the additional $16,000,000 annually that also would add more than $1 to the $1.50 earnings per share and the $44 share price will rise accordingly.
They are just trying to get rid of the people who sit for free in the AC so paying customers can sit there. Same thing. If they continued with no changes even more OTC’s would eventually drop off the OTC paying tier and the OTC would lose money over time.
Maybe it’s just the cost of doing business on the OTC.
Nothing is free the saying goes.
