You can sell it. If a security is marketable, there are (at least notionally) buyers for it.
Public securities with no 144a restriction or IPO lock up or other restriction...because you, the owner, are an insider with inside information...are marketable. Or even if those restrictions apply and then your company lawyer confirms that you are clear to trade, then those securities are marketable. You can ask your broker to market them, or "ask" for a price, and voila!...they get sold.
Private securities are a whole other matter. Many are sellable notionally, but the company provides no information about the financial performance (so what outsider would then have any idea what to pay for them?). Or the private shares carry ROFRs, or rights of first refusal, for the company to buy them back before any outside party can buy them. They're still then notionally marketable, but like the Facebook relationship status, you'd tag those securities: "It's Complicated."
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Finance: What are Exempt Securities and ...2 Views
Finance a la shmoop what are exempt securities and exempt transactions? well
the first thing that should strike you is that in both of these cases they are [Man on stage giving a speech]
no longer emp'd okay crickets eggs empt.. no okay all right we try you know no
extra charge here we try all right well a security is exempt from regulation if
it lives outside of or doesn't need to meet the various registration
requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 right like it's exempt from
regulation and remember that Act it was built to protect average joe's and
Josie's from farmland to urban land so that fast-talking city slickers didn't
get them to invest their hard-earned money in things that had no more value [Average Joe and Josie's money transfers to city slickers]
than "the blue sky above them" remember that judge said that on
the blue sky laws yeah it's that act well if you want to raise public money
from American investors in America well your security is by default not exempt
from regulation and you have to go through all the dance steps demanded by
the regulators to raise money here so what kind of security would live outside
of the 33 act? well something that is insured by the government our government
if it's insured by a Somalian warlord.com well then that doesn't count it's [Somalian soldiers appears]
not exempt well the quick list of normally exempt securities here we go
it's these government or government institutions banks or depository
institutions insurance companies authorized to do business in the state
railroads and public utility securities options or warrant and there for big
boys and girls only employee benefit plans equipment trust certificates and
nonprofit corporations like intentionally nonprofit ones not like
just bad companies who never make a real profit all right well the idea here
generally is that these securities are less of a risk for investors so the SEC
doesn't really have to get involved you can just invest in them and
you know things normally are boringly just fine all right well the same vibe [Man discussing securities]
applies to exempt transactions an exempt transaction is one that doesn't
have to meet all the registration requirements of the Uniform Securities
Act or the SEC and the idea here is that every transaction creates a whole lot of
paperwork and there are just some cases where all the hassle isn't needed as [Paper work stacks up on man's desk]
long as you're trading small amounts of stocks or doing small investments in
known entities that are generally considered legal well then your
transaction is considered exempt and then there's a whole lot less paperwork [Paperwork disappears and man jumps up]
which is a good thing and yeah that's worth celebrating
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