Other exchanges?

Up til now, I only thought there were 2 exchanges... the "big boys" (AMEX, NYSE, etc), and the "otc" (OTB-BB and PinkSheet).

Then yesterday I'm randomly looking around for stocks and I find one listed as "Dark" and one listed as "Gray Pool". So what the hell are these?

Dark and grey pools are private exchanges. However, most of the stocks that are traded 'dark' are also listed on Nyse/Nasdaq, as the Dark pool is designed so large transactions can be made without public knowledge.

Say you work at Hedge Fund X and your buddy over at Hedge Fund Z wants to buy your 5 million shares of XYZA so he doesn't have to squeeze the market to cover his short. Use a dark pool and no one has to even know it took place other than your 2 funds.

There are also smaller privatized exchanges for private companies that have not yet filed with the SEC to go public. You must be a verified accredited investor to get in. The most popular one is SharesPost.com

Then you have regional exchanges. KCBT PHLX, etc and CBOT for options/commodities. Plus BATS. But really all the stocks you want to trade are listed NYSE/Nasdaq. But sharespost worth a look if interested in investing before a possible IPO.

I would argue that dark pools do less to the market than a PIPE deal. We just don't know all the dark pool trades and I'm okay with that. I don't want someone dumping 5 million shares in a hurry if they need out, just let them match a buyer behind the scenes. However, when a bank/hedge fund/private investor jumps into a stock at a discounted price in PIPE deal we all know the price (if it was a registered deal) they bought shares at so it effects the market right away.

Good point, Blaine, as usual. :notworthy: