To: James Bender who wrote (8134 ) 10/11/1998 2:19:00 PM From: Malcolm Thomas Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 12043
A Must Read For OTC-BB Stock Investors Posted from stockdetective.com >Many investors do not understand that there are profound differences between Nasdaq stocks and OTC Bulletin Board stocks. Understanding these differences can help you to avoid losing money when investing in very small companies. Companies that trade on The Nasdaq Stock Market's National Market® and SmallCap MarketSM must meet many quantitative and qualitative listing requirements. Nasdaq also requires that companies be in full compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting requirements. This means that Nasdaq companies must file their 10-K's (annual financial reports), 10-Q's (quarterly reports) and other filings with the SEC. Companies who list on Nasdaq and later become delinquent in these filings are subject to delisting. The OTC Bulletin Board is a regulated quotation service provided by The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. which displays real-time quotes and last-sale prices for nearly 6,000 companies. These companies are not a part of The Nasdaq Stock MarketSM, which is also run by The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Unlike The Nasdaq Stock Market, the OTC Bulletin Board is not a stock market. Stocks are "quoted" on the OTC Bulletin Board, they do not "trade" on the OTC Bulletin Board. Also unlike on The Nasdaq Stock Market, OTC Bulletin Board companies do not have to meet any quantitative financial requirements. To be quoted, a market maker, not the company, normally needs to file a Form 211 with the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., OTC Compliance Unit. OTC Bulletin Board companies do not have to file 10-Ks and 10-Qs with the SEC, which can make it difficult to find reliable information. However, some OTC Bulletin Board companies are fully reporting, and their SEC filings can usually be found in the EDGAR database. But just because an OTC Bulletin Board company is fully reporting doesn't mean that it is similar to a Nasdaq company. Besides having listing requirements, Nasdaq also goes a giant step further and does extensive background checks on the business and principals of would-be members. It is not unusual for an OTC Bulletin Board company meeting the reporting requirements of the SEC as well as the minimum financial requirements of The Nasdaq Stock Market to be denied a listing due to questionable or undesirable discoveries in the backgrounds of the business or persons associated with them. While the OTC Bulletin Board is not exclusively the stock market's "den of iniquity" it is, essentially, "caveat emptor". The difference between the OTC Bulletin Board and Nasdaq can be compared to the difference between a homeopathic remedy and a fully approved FDA drug. The first one may or may not cure or kill you, but you know the latter has been tested thoroughly and, in most cases, is exactly what its label says.<