Dual Listing

Categories: Banking, Investing

Dual listing, a.k.a. cross-listing, a.k.a. interlisting, is when a security is listed on more than one exchange. Which means the listing has Beyonce-status: getting more attention and view time because it pops up in more than once place.

The benefits of being listed on multiple exchanges are glorious: more liquidity, more time on exchanges (think: one security is on exchanges in two different time zones), and more access to capital, i.e. investors’ pockets.

But all that fame and glory that comes with dual listings...comes with a price. To get on an additional exchange, a security has to jump through all the hoops and requirements (which are often strict—because exchanges wanna be legit). Dual listings also have to make sure the prices on the two (or more) exchanges are similar, or else some investors would exploit the differences in price, and people (and the exchanges) won’t be too happy about it.

Dual listings are superstar securities...because they have to be. If the costs of having one security listed on multiple exchanges are worth the benefits, then dual listings will exist, and prosper.

And no, this has nothing to do with the whole pistols-at-dawn thing.

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