What may happen when activity on CMKX is resumed?

[fastwalker]

That is difficult to say. However, standard thinking would suggest that if we don’t have additional delaying news between today and the opening bell on the 17th of March we will open on the Grey Market.

There is still a lot of "off the wall" speculation as to what will happen. But, if I read the SEC regulations correctly, we should be relegated to the “Grey” market for all intents and purposes.

Which is the normal course of action, as a result of not being actively trading for a given number of days?

While I’m confident that most understand these terms (de-listed & grey markets), I ‘ll give a quick definition just in case.

What does being “de-listed” mean? Basically, it means, when the SEC orders that a stock of a company be removed from a stock exchange. Reasons for delisting includes violating regulations and/or failure to meet financial specifications set out by the stock change.

Keep in mind,Companies that are delisted are not all in or headed to bankrupt, and therefor, may continue trading on the OTCBB.)….

The legal dictionary defines the gray market as ....."A market employing irregular but not illegal methods." And as a market that legally circumvents authorized channels of distribution to sell goods at prices lower than those intended by the manufacturer

Okay, so it’s an informal market dealing in shares before official dealings begin. Guess what? It used to be confined to big institutions.

However, the advent of spread-betting and contract for differences allows even small investors to trade the shares before they formally exist.

This can be very useful if you missed the boat for applications, or if you want to increase you stake or make some other change to your position.

Trading in gray or "when-issued" markets can also provide a good indication of demand for a new issue.

Understand, that normally the grey market is actually a market where there is trading of a stock that is about to be issued for the first time, before it's issued.

In those circumsatnces, Grey market trading is risky because sellers' don't know how many shares they have - i.e. they're selling shares they don't own yet - and buyers don't know what the final issue price is going to be when the allocation is complete.

One last thing, you can't short stock on the Grey market, amazing...real protection from NSS...go figure...lol

Having stated the above……we now move to those other basics, that will be bantered about in the coming days….regarding the “so far released” share structure, a major topic on the many people’s minds relevant to CMKX ..Bottom line though, while many have threatened to vacate their position when CMKX started trading again on the 17th, by far, it appears that a high CMKX “float” is the real deal breaker for the majority of the shareholders…we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime though, the following is a refresher course and or an introductory course on some basics…<br>
Okay for the sake of easy association, I will use CMKX as the company of example in the next sections. Keep in mind that the amounts are merely “example” and do not reflect the true share structure of CMKX.

What is the float?

The float is the total number of shares publicly owned and available for trading. The float is calculated by subtracting restricted shares from outstanding shares. For example, a company may have 10 million outstanding shares, but only 7 million are trading on the stock market. So, the float would be 7 million. Stocks with small floats, under 3 million shares, tend to be a lot more volatile than others. Also known as "free float

Next we answer questions on the Restricted and the Float….

When you look a little closer at the quotes for a company, you may see some obscure terms that you've never encountered before. For instance, restricted shares refer to a company's issued stock that cannot be bought or sold without special permission by the SEC. Often, this type of stock is given to insiders as part of their salaries or as additional benefits. Another term that you may encounter is “float.” This refers to a company's shares that are freely bought and sold without restrictions in the public. Denoting the greatest

more....

[fastwalker]

proportion of stocks trading on the exchanges, the float consists of regular shares that many will hear or read about on the boards.

Authorized Shares

Authorized shares refer to the largest number of shares that a single corporation can issue. The number of authorized shares per company is assessed at the company's creation and can only be increased and decreased through a vote by the shareholders. If at the time of incorporation the documents state that 100 shares are authorized, then only 100 shares can be issued.

Now just because a company can issue a certain number of shares doesn't mean that it is going to issue all of these shares to the public. Typically, companies will, for many reasons, keep a portion of the shares in their own treasury.

For example, if CMKX decided to maintain a controlling interest within the treasury just to ward off any hostile takeover bids. On the other hand, CMKX may want to have shares handy just in case it wants to sell them for excess cash (rather than borrowing). This tendency of a company to reserve some of its authorized shares leads us to the next important and related term: outstanding shares.

Outstanding Shares

Not to be confused with authorized shares, outstanding shares refer to the number of stocks that a company actually has issued. This number represents all the shares that can be bought and sold by the public as well as all the restricted shares that require special permission before being transacted. As we already explained, shares that can be freely bought and sold by public investors are called the “float,” and this value changes depending on if the company wishes to repurchase shares from the market or sell out more of its authorized shares within its treasury.

Let's look back at our example using CMKX. From the previous example, we know that CMKX has 1000 authorized shares. If they offered 300 shares in an IPO, gave 150 to the executives and retained 550 in the treasury, then the number of shares outstanding would be 450 shares (300 float shares + 150 restricted shares).

If after a couple years CMKX was doing extremely well and wanted to buy back 100 shares from the market, the number of outstanding shares would fall to 350, the number of treasury shares would increase to 650, and the float would fall to 200 shares since the buyback was done through the market (300 – 100).
Hold on a minute though--this is not the only way that the number of outstanding shares can fluctuate.

In addition to the stocks it issues to investors and executives, many companies offer stock options and warrants. These stock options and warrants are instruments that give the holder a right to purchase more stock from the company's treasury. Every time one of these instruments is activated, the float and shares outstanding increase while the number of treasury stocks decrease. For example, suppose CKX issues 100 warrants. If all these warrants are activated, then CMKM will have to sell 100 shares from its treasury to the holders of the warrants.

Thus, by following the most recent example, where the number of outstanding shares is 350 and treasury shares is 650, the exercise of all the warrants would change the numbers to 450 and 550 respectively, and the float would increase to 300. This effect is known as dilution.

Why Is It Important?

Because the difference between the number of authorized and outstanding shares can be so large, it's important that you realize what they are and which figures the company is using. Different ratios may use the basic number of outstanding shares while others may use the diluted version. This can affect the numbers significantly and possibly change your attitude towards a particular investment; furthermore, by identifying the number of restricted shares versus the number of shares in the float, investors can gauge the level of ownership and autonomy that insiders have within the company. All these scenarios are important for investors to understand before they make a decision to buy or sell.

Have to run for now...

Take care