6 Indexes That Can Help You Track The OTC Markets

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.

OTCQX Composite

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. MMNFF, CannaRoyalty Corp. ORHOF and Medicine Man Technologies Inc. MDCL. Fifty-one were removed in the fourth quarter, most notably Aurora Cannabis ACB which graduated to the New York Stock Exchange.

OTCQX Billion+

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 ACDVF, Bombardier Inc. BDRBF and Heineken N.V. HEINY. Five companies were added last quarter, including Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. 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.

OTCQX Dividend

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 ADDYY and BNP Paribas 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. VSBN and Travis Perkins Plc TPRKY. Twenty-two names were removed from the index, including the Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC.

OTCQX U.S.

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 ETCG and preferred shares of Overstock.com, Inc. OSTBP. Twenty-two companies were removed, including Creative Realities Inc CREX, which was listed on the Nasdaq on Nov. 15.

OTCQX Canada

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. ITHUF, Organigram Holdings, Inc. OGRMF, and Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. TGODF.

The base date of the index is Sept 30, 2016, the base level is 1000.

OTCQX Banks

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 REVB and Delmarva Bankshares, Inc. 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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