The Truth On Selling Stock Certificates
The Internet has provided access to the markets for almost all of us. The percent of us who own stocks is higher than it has ever been. However, the level of knowledge held by this new investor class has not kept pace. There often is much confusion about selling stock certificates. When you invest in a stock you are buying a piece of that company. Your ownership interest is represented by documents commonly called stock certificates. The vast majority of us will never see or touch these certificates. They remain safely held by the broker. When you buy a stock the brokerage of the person selling it to you forwards your certificate to your brokerage. It is held there until you decide to sell that share to someone else. At that point your broker forward the certificates to the next owner. In today's world most trading is done electronically. Trades are registered by computers and tabulations made by sophisticated software. Paper certificates are considered by some to be a relic of the past. So what happens in the unfortunate scenario that your stock stops trading on any recognized exchange? There are several reasons that this can happen. Your stock can unhappily go bankrupt. Or, alternatively, each exchange maintains what are called listing requirements. If your stock fails to meet any it becomes "delisted". This mean you can no longer sell your shares on the exchange. When this happen some are prone to call their broker requesting their actual paper shares seeking to sell them elsewhere. In the past, some have attempted to sell shares in defunct companies on popular online auction sites. This is highly unadvisable. The law is very strict about such things, and any attempt to sell shares in a public company outside of a recognized exchange violates the law. When you buy a stock today, forget about the paper certificate. Your broker is keeping it safe for you and will handle the conveyance when you decide to sell. This is part of what your commissions pay for. Make sure to obey the law when selling stock certificates.
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