OTC Markets CEO Explains How The OTC Markets Work

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

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While a vast number of investors have at least a ground level understanding of how stock exchanges work, others may not be as familiar with the market where OTC securities efficiently trade.

In a recent blog post, Cromwell Coulson, president and CEO of OTC Markets Group, the company that operates the regulated electronic market where SEC-registered, FINRA-member broker-dealers can trade OTC securities, explained how the market works. 

OTC Trading

Trading on the OTC Markets simply means a security is traded directly between competing broker-dealers rather than trading through a centralized exchange. These broker-dealers, who buy and sell on behalf of clients, will publicize quotes for a specific security. 

Competing broker-dealers or ‘market makers’ display the price at which they are willing to buy (the bid) a security and the price at which they are willing to sell (the ask). “Industry-leading market makers, such as Citadel, GTS, Jane Street, StoneX, Susquehanna/G1X and Virtu Financial VIRT, make up the diverse community of 90+ regulated broker-dealers providing continuous liquidity and execution services for investors,” Coulson said.

These trades are executed through OTC Link® ATS and OTC Link ECN, highly-regulated registered trading platforms that connect broker-dealers to one another. Buy and sell orders are sent electronically through these systems to be executed at the best available price. 

“With the upcoming changes to Rule 211, OTC Link ATS will play a greater role in bringing a company onboard to begin to be quoted on our markets, as well as monitoring ongoing issuer disclosure,” he said. 

OTC Markets and Regulatory Oversight

Another big difference between OTC Markets and exchanges is the regulatory structure. 

Though individual companies that list on exchanges are subjected to rules and regulations from the SEC and the exchanges themselves, the actual exchanges are what’s known as a self-regulatory organization or “SRO.” 

OTC Markets Group is not an SRO, meaning it relies on the SEC to enforce securities laws and FINRA to regulate member broker-dealers. The company does, however, have rules about who is eligible to trade on its market tiers—specifically the OTCQX and OTCQB markets, which require companies to make current information available to investors. 

Though OTC Markets Group can provide warnings to investors and monitor companies for compliance, only the SEC and FINRA can actually suspend a security from trading. 

“We provide our real-time compliance data to the SEC and other regulators so they can oversee market activity and monitor compliance with securities laws and regulations,” Coulson said.

These are just a few of the areas that distinguish OTC Markets Group. For additional information about the market operator, please visit www.otcmarkets.com.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.