Indexes are a go-to for all of us in our day-to-day market watching. Whether you’re partial to the 30-member Dow Jones
Industrial Average, the tech-centric Nasdaq 100, or the S&P 500, they’re all invaluable tools for comparing the performance of
different markets.
There are over 10,000 securities that trade on OTC Markets. To better understand them, there are six indices that break down the
market into discernable segments.
The OTCQX Composite Index serves as a benchmark for tracking the overall performance of the OTCQX Market, the top tier on OTC
Markets. There are 326 members of the index, representing the most transparent domestic and international companies.
The index, which was created on Sept. 30, 2016, has a base level of 1,000, is market cap-weighted, and is rebalanced
quarterly.
There were 41 new companies that joined the index in the fourth quarter, including notable cannabis companies Medmen
Enterprises Inc. (OTCQX: MMNFF),
CannaRoyalty Corp. (OTCQX: ORHOF) and
Medicine Man Technologies Inc. (OTCQX: MDCL). Fifty-one were removed in the fourth quarter, most notably Aurora
Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) which graduated to the New York
Stock Exchange.
The OTCQX Billion+ Index only tracks the performance of the $1 billion-plus market cap companies trading on OTCQX.
The index has 57 constituents, including Air Canada (OTCQX: ACDVF), Bombardier Inc. (OTCQX: BDRBF) and Heineken N.V. (OTCQX: HEINY). Five companies were added last quarter, including Impala Platinum
Holdings Ltd. (OTCQX: IMPUY), and 11 companies
were removed.
Just like the OTCQX Composite, the OTCQX Billion+ Index has a base level of 1000, is market cap-weighted, and is rebalanced
quarterly. It was launched on April 1, 2015.
For investors hunting for passive secondary income, this index tracks all the OTCQX members that pay a regular dividend. There
are 97 members of the index, including names like adidas AG (OTCQX: ADDYY) and BNP Paribas (OTCQX: BNPQY).
It has a base level of 1000, is market cap-weighted, and is rebalanced quarterly. It was launched simultaneously with the OTCQX
Billion+ Index on April 1, 2015.
Six new companies were added to the index in Q4, including VSB Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: VSBN) and Travis Perkins Plc (OTCQX: TPRKY). Twenty-two names were removed from the index, including the
Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTCQX: GBTC).
Of the 10,554 securities that trade on OTC Markets, a little over half are based in the U.S. Of those 5,551 securities, 115
trade on the OTCQX Market. Each of those domestic companies is included in the OTCQX U.S. Index, which serves as a barometer for
the performance for all domestic companies the top tier of OTC Markets.
Nineteen companies joined the index last quarter, including the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust (OTCQX:
ETCG) and preferred shares of Overstock.com,
Inc. (OTCQX: OSTBP). Twenty-two companies were
removed, including Creative Realities Inc (NASDAQ: CREX), which was listed on the Nasdaq on Nov. 15.
The OTCQX Canada Index is the benchmark for tracking the overall performance of all the Canadian securities that are traded on
OTCQX. These are securities that are also cross-traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V), or the
Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).
There are 147 companies in the index, 18 of which were added during the most recent quarterly rebalance (16 were removed). With
Canada being the largest market to federally legalize cannabis, a number of securities in the index provide exposure to the
emerging industry, such as iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: ITHUF), Organigram Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: OGRMF), and Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (OTCQX:
TGODF).
The base date of the index is Sept 30, 2016, the base level is 1000.
The OTCQX Banks Index was created on Jan. 2, 2015 to measure the performance of financial institutions on the OTC Markets, and
is one of the best-performing of the market's 10 indexes. Though it consists of companies from across the financial sector, the
majority of the 65 companies in the index are community banks, such as recent IPOs Revere Bank (OTCQX:
REVB) and Delmarva Bankshares, Inc. (OTCQX:
DLMV), two of the 12 companies added last quarter (12 were
removed from the index during the rebalancing).
The OTCQX Banks index is also just one data point you can turn to for information regarding community banks. OTC Markets Group
recently acquired the bank analytics company
Qaravan, which provides a comprehensive set of banking data on more than 5,000 US Banks, 500 of which trade on OTC Markets.
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