On February 16, 2010, Pink OTC Markets changed its website domain from www.pinksheets.com to www.otcmarkets.com. In addition, Pink OTC Markets also began making Level 2 Real Time market maker quotations that are published in the Pink Quote inter-dealer system available for free at its new www.otcmarkets.com website for all OTCQX and dually-quoted OTC Bulletin Board companies.
As we have mentioned in the past, Pink OTC Markets has done a commendable job of not only increasing the visibility of its inter-dealer quotation and trading platform, but also creating a legitimate marketplace for companies that want to take advantage of what Pink OTC Markets has to offer. The recent changes by Pink OTC Markets, including the addition of the OTCQX marketplace and the creation of a tiered grading system for companies trading on the Pink OTC Markets, have done a lot to separate legitimate companies trading on the platform from those that are not at least providing 15c2-11 type disclosure to its shareholders and investors.
The addition of Level 2 Real Time market maker quotations provides continues this trend by providing investors and companies with valuable information regarding what is happening “behind the scenes” with the market maker quotations. This Level 2 information has been available for some time, but primarily only through paid subscription services. The inclusion of this information for free when viewing a company’s quote allows investors to view how many market makers are making a market in the stock, see the bid and ask prices for each market maker making a market in the stock, as well as view the lot size being offered or sought by the market makers that are not the top bid or ask on a particular stock..
Once again, kudos to Pink OTC Markets for increasing the transparency of what is going on in the marketplace and providing valuable information to investors.
To view the Pink OTC Markets’ press release regarding these changes, see http://www.otcmarkets.com/pink/about/news.jsp?id=197.
