The OTC Bulletin Board or OTCBB is one of the very famous and widely used electronic quotation system, which is being followed in the United States.

The OTCBB provides with the following details:

• Provides with real-time quotes
• Provides Last-sale prices in the market
• Provides the volume information for a number of over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities which are not normally listed in the NASDAQ stock exchange or on other national securities exchange.

To be able to use the OTCBB, the broker dealers or investors who need them will have to subscribe to the system. They can use the OTCBB to look up for prices or they can use it to enter quotes, which are important for OTC securities related transactions.

It should be noted that the NASD oversees the OTCBB; however, the OTCBB is still not a part of the NASDAQ stock exchange and it is a separate entity in itself.

A number of fraudsters create an opinion that OTCBB company is a Nasdaq company, just in a way to mis guide investors to thinking that the company is actually much bigger than what it actually is.

Companies which are quoted on the OTCBB are supposed to be completely reporting, which means that they are supposed to be current with all the prescribed SEC filings, however, they need not have any kind of capitalization on the market, a pre-determined minimum share price or corporate management specifics to be reported.

Many of the companies which do not meet up with the minimum capitalization, minimum share price or other requirements as required by the other stock listing companies eventually can get quoted up on the OTCBB. So, Companies that have been “de-listed” from other stock exchanges for falling below, try to get a list here in the OTCBB.

The stock of the companies which are non-reporting, which are those companies without existing SEC filings can get listed in the Pink Sheets. A number of OTCBB companies tend to be quoted dually, which means that they get quoted on the OTCBB and also on the Pink Sheets.

Stocks which are traded in OTC markets similar to the OTCBB or Pink Sheets are mostly traded to a lesser degree because most of such companies offer penny stocks, and even individual investors do not feel that it is worthy of investing in these stocks.

Another reason for these stocks being avoided by retail and institutional investors is because of the fear that the share prices listed in these companies can be easily manipulated thereby there are lot of chances for the stocks to be exposed to frauds and scams.

The SEC issues periodically monitors and provides with strict warnings to their investors to be vigilant of probable fraud which can be as horrible as manipulation of schemes.

Most of such companies try to get listed on well established exchanges like the AMEX, NYSE, or NASDAQ the sooner they meet up with eligibility requirements.

The OTCBB operates an online website www.otcbb.com.

The site provides with dynamic watch list, updated activity reports, market statistics, OTC equity short interest reports, and lot of other relevant information required for issuers, vendors and investors.