i agree with you-just some more info the transi

i agree with you-just some more info

the transition should blow over-its bashers who whip up a frenzy over these things, preying on ppls fear and ignorance

despite only being created in 2009 the otcqx tiers have exploded rapidly and so have the number of companies on them
depending on the otcqx tier, pps requirements can vary from 10c to 100c- but for our purposes the rule seems to be to have a pps of 25c for 30 days prior to induction on otcqx and then to maintain a min pps of 10c once on the otcqx

ignorance usually breeds fear-fear of the unknown. ppl are usually safer living in the wild than in humanoid civilization but if they are used to humanoids they'd rather live among humanoids- a relatively known quantity to many
arrogance and ignorance may have motivated some rich investors to leave upon the transition- but the move to the otcqx probably is better for the average mom and pop ZNOG investor

for others: a reminder: otcqx is superior to otcqb -which itself is superior to pink sheet stocks-with pink current being the highest tier of pink sheet stocks

many pink current stocks are now sec reporting-unthinkable before 2014-see below- imo otcqx has all the necessary transparency - just avoids some of the red tape and costs of the big boards

as the podcast etc notes otc operates under finra, though otc is allowed to exercise discretion in some matters which probably does not matter to zn stock


re penny stocks, a post of mine on another stock on this site to save me time:

In 2014-2015, depending on a companies fiscal year, otcmarkets.com - a for profit public corp which gets much of its profit from filing etc fees associated with its otcmarkets.com site-

initiated new requirements-part of a process
(partly political -designed to eliminate stocks below 1c pps- thus stocks which get into certain regulatory troubles and want to be part of otcqb are required to r/s to be listed- to rise above 1c pps on otcqb)
to require companies to have a bid price of 1c and pay a surcharge of $10,000 to be listed on otcqb.

Thus, all companies which fail to meet either of those requirements were relegated to otcmarkets.com "pink current" designation, even though they are SEC reporting and have audited financials (a requirement for SEC reporting).

This has created a lot of confusion among those who dont follow these otc changes on a regular basis.

E.g. all SEC reporting co's used to be OTCQB or higher and pink current used to be for non-audited non-SEC reporting companies (until ca 2009 otcqb itself was simply called 'fully reporting' (meaning sec reporting) as compared to pink stocks -none of which at that time were sec reporting).

Then ca 2009, the 'fully reporting' (i.e sec reporting) designation was changed to the moniker of 'otcqb'
and a new higher classification of 'OTCQX' was created-which approaches the qualitative requirements of big boards without the higher fees (e.g., 150k /yr up to 185k/yr to be listed on 1 of four levels of the Nasdaq) of big boards -and thus many foreign blue chips reside on the OTCQX,which now has over 400 stocks.

Many brokers are totally ignorant of penny stocks and these classifications.

E,.g in one conversation with a broker the broker disparaged penny stocks, as they almost always do, and falsely said penny stocks have no reporting requirements.

I said of course they do-I've spent [to help my best friend who was trading such stocks and had dragged me into penny stocks] countless hours reading thousands of penny stocks financial statements and 10q's etc.

I mentioned the OTCQX ca 7 or 8 times in the lengthy conversation but he didnt know what that was and finally he paused to look it up and came back and said "otcqx is a mutual fund"!!

Well, its hard to change the minds of the ignorant, especially when penny stocks have changed so much. Oldtimers (and the broker wasnt even an oldtimer) are thinking of the pre-2000 days when penny stocks were reportedly part of the unregulated wild west- not so anymore.


Now a great many SEC reporting companies are pink current because of the new pps and surcharge rules-this has depleted the ranks of otcqb companies. People who are not aware of these changes and the political purposes behind them will be confused, if not misled,since many SEC reporting co's are now pink current!!

So the line between pink current and otcqb is no longer between SEC reporting and audited financials- but often between a pps of 1c and companies willing and able to pay the otcqb "news and reporting service" surcharge of $10,000 vs those who can't.

Thus, many former otcqb stocks are now listed as 'pink current'. Those who are not aware of the changes and the purposes for such will make erroneous investor decisions based on the old 'pink current' vs 'otcqb' paradigm.

The important thing for investor confidence is audited financials and SEC reporting- not whether a stock is otcqb or pink current-under the new regimen.

does not affect ZN:

OTC always advertises its purpose as transparency-and thats true- the otc.markets.com cite is a tremendous benefit for those looking up otc and nasdaq stocks etc

but otc's (OTCM- otcmarkets.com) bottom line also plays a role-

and otc gets more fees the higher a companies classification -so part of the purpose is to promote otc's for profit bottom line by encouraging companies- by whip or carrot- to upgrade to a higher otcmarkets.com classification.

For companies which cannot afford to comply with those tightened rules, this works against transparency.

Shell companies and other companies with no income are unlikely to pay the 10k surcharge to be listed on otcqb,even if pps is above 1c,so that inveighs against otcqb fraud. So there are conflicting purposes and results.

the price for pink current reporting and news service -as otcmarkets.com calls it- is only $4200/year (last i knew-instead of the otcqb $10,000/yr surcharge).