Over the years, I’ve been asked a lot of questions. More than I can count. One question that keeps coming up is from traders who want to know what will happen to their OTCBB stock if it uplists to a major exchange like the Nasdaq.

Unless some special arrangement has been made, and you will know this from your brokerage firm, your stock will automatically transition to the Nasdaq.

Investors call this a jumper stock. The odds are that your stock will increase in value once it starts trading on a major exchange because it’s open to a whole new pool of investors.

If any change in the ticker symbol takes place, your brokerage firm (i.e. ETrade, Scottrade, etc.) will contact you via your trading console and/or by regular mail.

But let’s be straight here. You are an idiot if you are buying OTCBB stocks hoping they will uplist to a major exchange.

Tom Cruise Crazy publishers will try and sell you an expensive subscription for stocks that go from the OTC to the Nasdaq. Jumpers that you can make 1,000%…3,500%, even 10,000% and more! Don’t believe it. It’s a scam.

In the hundreds of traders I’ve spoke with over the years, not one of them has told me that he made money from picking jumper stocks more than he lost.

Time for a splash of cold water on your face to bring you out of Fantasy Land. There is not a big cost different between a NASDAQ listing and an OTC listing. If this hot, insider tip company was making so much money selling such a hot product then why didn’t they just list on the NASDAQ in the first place? Why even list on the OTCBB? The reason is not the cost. The reason is the reporting requirements. Companies that list on the OTCBB don’t want to provide you with timely, behind the scenes financials that were audited by an independent party. That should scare you completely away from OTCBB listed stocks.

Enlightening truth: the primary reason a company lists on the OTC instead of the NASDAQ is to not have to meet the higher reporting requirements for that listing. They really don’t want to be bothered with letting investors know what is REALLY going on behind all the PRs they release.

While not as bad as the pink sheets, the OTCBB exchange is filled with fraudulent companies who wouldn’t think twice about posting false PRs and scamming you out of your money. Investing in OTCBB stocks is a fools game. Over the long run, you will go broke like everyone else who has tried. I should know. I speak from personal trading experience.

Here’s something to think about. The main reason people gamble in the OTCBB market is to get really cheap stocks. Now that we are at a market bottom, many good companies listed on major exchanges are at very low OTCBB like prices!