Why You May Have to Sell Some of Your Stocks before Sept. 28

by Fred Fuld III

Some brokerage firms, such as E*TRADE, have sent out notices that they will no longer handle the trading of certain pot stocks and other companies which trade on the Pink Sheets, that are considered “Pink No Information”. This would go into effect on September 28, 2021.

Last year, the SEC came out with a ruling that would prohibit broker-dealers from publishing quotations for an issuer’s security when issuer information is not current and publicly available.

Pink No Information means that the company is unwilling or unable to provide current financial disclosure information. Fortunately, most pink sheet stocks do not fall into this category. As a matter of fact, I could find only one marijuana stock that falls into this category. This could be because the SEC has already suspended over 70 of these stocks in various industries back in February and March of this year. Many of these stocks were involved in “pump and dumps”.

There may be other cannabis stocks that are Pink No Information, but it is hard to tell just from the name of the company, and there are over 250 stocks that I would have to go through. Also, you may want to check your Pink stocks on September 27 to see if they have fallen into this category.

The other two types of Pink Sheet stocks are Pink Current Information and Pink Limited Information. Current means all financial information is up to date. Limited means that the company may be behind in its reporting due to bankruptcy or financial reporting issues. This SEC ruling does not affect stocks in these two categories, at least yet.

Some brokers, such as Firstrade, have said that it also affects Grey Market and Expert Market stocks.

On Tuesday, September 28, 2021, new amendments to Rule 15c2-11 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 go into effect that will impact the market for certain over-the-counter (OTC) securities classified as Pink No Information, Grey Market, and Expert Market OTC securities (collectively, “Impacted OTC Securities”).

The Grey Market is for stocks that have been suspended from trading or can be for pre-IPO stocks. The Expert Market is for private transactions between broker dealers and professional investors.

To find out what category your Pink Sheet stocks fall into, or any other OTC stock for that matter, you can enter the stock ticker symbol at OTCMarkets. This site provides information on all over-the-counter and Pink Sheet stocks.

You can also look up all the No Information stocks by going to the Stock Screener at OTCMarket, go to the Markets section at the top and choose Pink No Information.

At the time this is being written, there are 2,391 stocks in the Pink No Information category. There are also 825 Expert Market and 3,270 Grey Market stocks.

You should be aware that you aren’t required to sell these stocks. It’s just that if you ever wanted to sell the stocks, who are you going to sell them to, if all brokers will prohibit the buying of any of these securities. In addition, there won’t be any price quotes for the stocks.

So remember, check your portfolio on September 27 since this goes into effect on September 28. Also, keep in mind that any of the companies on the list may get their filings with the SEC updated by the deadline.

How many stocks are there?

by Fred Fuld III

If you have ever wondered how many stocks there are in the United States, here is your answer.

As of today, there are 25,274 different stocks traded The following is the breakdown.

NYSE 3,850
NASDAQ 3,828
AMEX 549
OTCQX 598
OTCQB 1,091
Pink Sheets 11,179
Expert Market 830
Grey Market 3,349
TOTAL 25,274

OTCQX stocks are more established large companies that trade over-the-counter. This includes such companies as adidas (ADDYY), Greyscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), and Heineken (HKHHY). Many foreign companies are traded in the market.

OTCQB stocks are entrepreneurial and venture capital stocks on the over-the-counter market. This includes such companies as bebe stores (BEBE), General Cannabis (CANN), and Fannie Mae (FNMA).

Pink Sheet stocks are stocks that trade over-the-counter that don’t qualify for OTCQX or OTCQB.

The Expert Market consists of private transactions between broker dealers and professional investors.

The Grey Market is for stocks that have been suspended from trading or can be for pre-IPO stocks.

 

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

So How Many Stocks Really Are There?

Have you ever wondered how many different stocks are available to investors? $3,000? $5,000? $10,000?

Well, here is the answer. First, according to NASDAQ, there are 3,274 stocks traded on NASDAQ. The same source says that there are 3,144 stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and 358 American Stock Exchange traded stocks.

Now we get to the over-the-counter companies. This includes all the various levels of OTC stocks, Pink Sheet stocks, and Grey Market stocks. There are actually 17,355 stocks in all these categories, according to OTCMarkets.com.

Add these altogether and shat you get is a total of 24,131 stocks.