Tracking down information on and trading stocks that are listed on a stock exchange is easy. Daily share prices for the major exchanges are listed in most newspapers, and numerous online services supply up to the minute information on trades and prices. Even those few stocks listed only on a regional market such as the Philadelphia (PHLX), Chicago (CHX), Boston (BSE) or Pacific (PCX) Stock Exchange are accessible, because they too must report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Needless to say, the latter's pool of data is immense as well as continuously renewed. It is the major source of information on public companies that is available to prospective investors. Once an investor has completed the inquiry into a stock and decides to buy, the rest is straightforward: he simply contacts a brokerage firm (often times through an online account), tells the representative the name and perhaps trading symbol of the stock, and states the desired quantity and the price he is willing to pay for the shares. Because the market is active, meaning that shares are bought and sold more or less continuously, the transaction can be executed immediately. These markets are very efficient, with hundreds of millions of shares being traded every day that they are open.

But what about unlisted companies? How do you even find out about them? In a word: not so easily. The data on these companies is much more difficult to come by than for listed companies, seeing as the former usually only report to the SEC when and if they make new interstate offerings or if they have 500 or more shareholders. Otherwise, it is left to the individual investor or independent researchers such as Walker's Manual to track down and evaluate them. It's no wonder these companies are sometimes referred to as quiet, hidden, or secret. Investors can find themselves left to hunt down and analyze a company they are interested in on their own, an arduous task that requires a level of involvement and expertise most of us do not have the time or inclination for.

Assuming that the unlisted company can be found, in one of Walker's Manuals, for example, a decision to purchase stock is followed by a buying procedure that begins much like the one described for listed stocks. The investor communicates with a brokerage firm regarding the security to be purchased. Because the security is unlisted and therefore trades over-the-counter, the broker will review the OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB), which provides online information, or go off-line to the National Quotation Bureau's Pink Sheets in an effort to locate the stock's current pricing information and to determine which market maker handles the company. Market makers, who facilitate trading in unlisted securities, use the OTC Bulletin Board to post pricing information on the companies in which they maintain a market. The broker will then contact the appropriate market maker to determine the most current offering or asking price for the shares.  In an online account much of this process is automated.  It should be noted that some of the more illiquid companies may be difficult to purchase through an online account.  

Often there will be a gap, or spread, between the price being asked by the seller and the price prospective buyers are willing to pay for a stock. A buyer then has three options—either pay a premium for the shares by covering the spread, wait for the spread to disappear, or put in an order at a price higher than the bid but lower than the ask. It is important here to note that even the asking price can be a real bargain compared to a given company's book value and/or earnings. In any event, once the asking price is agreeable to the buyer, the transaction will be executed—the investor is now a shareholder in an unlisted company.