I have some old stock I want to unload, CHEF, and it's on the pink sheets now. I'm using my broker's (not the one who sold it to me; they're out of business) online trading platform. I was surprised when my offer didn't show up on the level II display, nor did it show up on the level I quotes I saw over at Datek. In fact, about an hour after I posted my offer, the stock, going up, traded through it, and I didn't get executed. An account rep at my broker said that the pink sheets are funny, and they don't have to display all the bids and offers. Can anyone point me to a description of how the pink sheet system works and offer any advice on how to deal with it?
I don't know the URL but I believe there's a pink sheet link (hmm, that has a ring to it) at the NASD site.
The URL is : www.pinksheets.com Pink Sheets LLC is a private company. It is not an exchange or facility of Nasdaq. It is simply a quotation service that allows market makers to post their bids/offers. I don't even think Pink Sheets offers execution services for their market makers. In other words, your trade is done at the market maker. I don't think you'll see Pink Sheet secuities in Level II. You would have to sign up with them directly, or your broker might have some arrangement with them. Hope this helps. -K
Pink sheets is true "over the counter" trading. There is no exchange per se. You just call up a guy who has some of the stuff you want and make an offer. The pink sheets company tries to publish reasonably accurate and recent trading prices. No level II. You may have been confusing pink sheets with bulletin board. Bulletin board is an electronic quote system like the nasdaq except that their are no listing requirements.
Correct. Securities on the pinks only need a qualified Broker/Dealer to begin to be quoted. However, you can go to Pink Sheets site and get a quote (albeit, probably old).Pink sheet stocks are truly the wild west of investing. The OTCBB (soon to be Bulletin Board Exchange) is a different entity and has certain listing requirements. Although, most people consider it the next rung down when a company gets delisted from Nasdaq.
Thanks, all. It turns out CHEF is traded on the OTCBB. Not sure why the account rep said it was a pink sheet stock, although it seems that being traded on the OTCBB doesn't preclude a stock from being listed on the pink sheets.
Because, before there WAS a BB, BB-type issues were all quoted on the Pinks. It's an old-school term. The BB was NASD's attempt to legitimize OTC stocks that didn't qualify for NASDAQ, in an attempt to keep the MM's from playing games with the prices like some notorious operators did. Of course it didn't help. It only gave a veneer of legitimacy to the scam stocks. Some very real, very illiquid issues were quoted pinks...slow moving banks n such. It was a good observation that someone made that Pink Sheets are a private quotation service (there is also the Blue Sheets for bonds and I think Green but I forget what for). Securities not listed on any other US exchange were what the Pinks were (mainly) quoting, along w/MM telephone numbers. That's the way it was done way back when. They were sent by mail every market day. Ahh, nostalgia.
Looking for a good pink sheet stock? Try CNGGE--an energy company. It's my opinion that this company might come out on top. We'll see...
When I do a stock search I either get .V for pinksheets or .U for OTCBB stocks. When a stock is dually listed as OTCBB and Pinksheet what will it show on the quoteline? .V or .U?