Admission Board

Most stocks that are bought and sold are listed on a stock exchange. But stock exchanges don’t just take any old stock. Just because you want to offer stock from your recycled chewing-gum start-up company, for example, on a particular exchange, doesn’t mean you should strut down Main Street wearing a fur coat and handing out Susan B. Anthony coins to street urchins while bragging about a stock listing. That’s because each exchange has an admission board that determines whether a particular stock should be listed on their exchange.

Much like a college admission board that requires a minimum grade point average, minimum test scores, and the ability to not offend millions of people on Twitter on a bi-weekly basis, a stock exchange admission board establishes standards for admission to its exchange and requires companies to submit financial statements, prospectuses, and other stock-exchangy type stuff.