Securities Regulators Enforcement Staff Over-Regulation Digs Shallow Grave for Main Street Investors and Entrepreneurs

CLEARWATER, Fla., Nov. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- For decades over-the-counter (OTC) securities have been the vehicles that have launched small companies and enabled them to be traded as venture stage public companies (penny stocks), in tandem bolstering small investors' entry into the trading realm. As noted by Spartan Securities CEO Micah Eldred, several recognizable institutions started out on the OTC or were once traded as venture stage penny stocks: It's no secret that many of today's great companies started out as venture stage companies. People often forget that one of the largest public companies listed today, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, began its life as a public company trading OTC when Buffet "reverse merged" his insurance business with a failing textile business. But, in more recent times, the OTC markets has also acted as a consistent feeder source for the larger exchanges, as smaller issuers who begin life on the OTC are able grow and to up-list, including 77 up-listings last year alone. For example, Monster Beverage Corporation initially traded as penny stocks in 2002 and now sits at close to $52 per share, with a corporate valuation of $29 billion.[1]

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) process a company follows as they prepare to offer shares is lengthy and quite costly. For small, growing companies with limited capital the traditional exchange listed IPO is out of reach. The alternative has been a smaller offering on a venture or OTC market, often traded with a value of $5 or less (penny stock). The stocks can be high-risk investments with low trading volumes, but also have a potential high reward.[2]

In 2016 Elio Motors—the maker of the 3-wheeled car—became the first crowdfunded IPO. The founder, Paul Elio, chose OTC Markets over Nasdaq for reasons of lower cost, less cumbersome processing, and that OTC Markets 'change the world.' OTC Markets CEO Cromwell Coulson worries more about disclosures than about the risks of companies failing or investors losing money, noting that it should be a market with risks and rewards—designed to give entrepreneurs a shot.[3]

The 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was passed to alleviate a considerable number of the regulations instituted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on small businesses—and develop opportunities for raising capital. Its effects have helped facilitate lower level investments where ownership shares are sold directly by issuers to interested investors.

Despite the presence of the JOBS Act, the trend for initiating quotations for covered domestic equity securities in the OTC markets has experienced a 90% decline and has fallen from 1,576 in 1997 to only 120 in 2017.[4] This runs contrary to the fact that the population is larger, the economy has grown, trading markets technology is better, unemployment is down to its lowest level since 1969.[5] The supposed tsunami of new markets predicted by SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar to be created by the JOBS Act has only been a ripple.[6]

The legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government understood the need for entrepreneurship to flourish when they passed the JOBS Act. By allowing emerging growth companies with potentially innovative ideas to hit the ground running and seek capital from small individual investors—without the obstacle of strict regulatory requirements, they are fueling the economy. Spartan Securities fully supports SEC oversight and operates in full compliance of current regulations, in spite of increasing and changing regulations and sanctions.

According to Eldred, "The SEC Commissioners appear to be all for "Main Street" investors, including those small "Main Street" companies who desire access to the USA's capital markets, in their press releases and speeches but their enforcement division is simultaneously turning Main Street into cemetery grounds full of investors in shallow graves."

To download Spartan Securities Op Ed, Assassination of the JOBS Act and the Extermination of the Emerging Growth Company Capital Markets, visit http://www.spartansecurities.com/capitalmarkets.php

About Spartan Securities
Spartan Securities, a private financial services firm based in Clearwater, FL, has publicly quoted over 1,000 OTC securities since its inception in 2001. There is a path to building, financing and managing growth that they've traveled often, hand-in-hand with like-minded partners and clients who get as much value from the journey as they do reaching their intended destination. Spartan's purpose parallels the JOBS Act by helping small companies and investors across the U.S. gain access to capital and while simultaneously facilitating shareholders' ability to liquidate funds in the OTC Markets. It fully supports full compliance with SEC regulations and the law, to safely, responsibly and effectively foster America's economic growth and investor prosperity. For more information, visit http://www.spartansecurities.com/
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1.    Leeds, Peter. "Famous Companies Traded as Penny Stocks." The Balance. 01 June 2018. Web.
2.    Staff Writer. "What is a Penny Stock?" Investopedia. 2018. Web.
3.    Feldman, Amy. "How OTC Markets is Transforming Its Image and Attracting Entrepreneurs Like Paul Elio." Forbes. 07 March 2016. Web.
4.    "Correspondent Guidebook for Heightened Risk Securities, Page 27, Exhibit A". COR Clearing LLC. 15 June 2015. Web.
5.    Staff Writer. "U.S. Economic Outlook." Focus Economics. 25 September 2018. Web.
6.    "U.S Securities and Exchanges Commission Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2018-2022," U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. 2018. Web.

SOURCE Spartan Securities

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