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The Micro Caps are gearing up for the age of PCs BY KATHERINE CAVANAUGH
Starting this spring, pink sheet stocks-securities that do not meet the minimal capitalization and shareholder requirements for a Nasdaq or OTC listing-will be available online, in an up-to-the-minute, real-time format. The National Quotation Bureau (NQB) is at the helm of the project and has retained the assistance of Random Walk, a Java-centric, N.Y.-based technology consulting firm.
Because information about these stocks is often difficult to obtain, some observers have pondered the financial impact of the technology change. According to Daniel Goncharoff, an online investor, "It used to be an elaborate manual process to trade a pink sheet stock. Just finding out the bid and ask was an archaic process. Currently, a lot of companies that do online trading won't deal with them-maybe now they will," he said.
Cromwell Coulson, a former OTCmarket maker who is now the 32-year old, tech savvy chairman of the NQB, says, "Before, we were just a sort of weekly phone book for pink sheet stocks. By going online,...