Joining a Stock Exchange
Corporations interested in joining a stock exchange may find that it is not an easy process. The main reason for this is the fact that every stock exchange has its own rules and regulations to which a company has to adhere before joining the stock exchange. In some instances it may take a corporation a number of years before all the requirements of a stock exchange are met.
It is a known fact that stock exchanges list corporations that conform to the vision, mission and philosophy of the particular stock exchange they are interested in joining.
As example, one will find that the New York Stock Exchange list some of the world’s largest and well-known corporations, such as Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, etc., while Nasdaq mainly list large technology related corporations, such as Cisco Systems, Intel and Sun Microsystems. In addition to this, the Nasdaq also list ‘Over the Counter’ stocks.
There are currently in excess of 5000 stocks traded on the main three US stock exchanges and another 5000 smaller companies traded over the counter.