Penny-Stock Compensation Disclosure
Chapters in this video
- 0:00 Penny-stock definition and exchange-listed exemption trap
- 1:10 Exchange-listed stocks under five dollars: the price-only trap
- 3:09 Two-part disclosure rule: pre-trade and confirmation stage
- 5:00 Calculating compensation: agency commission versus principal markup
- 6:34 Record retention: three years, two years easily accessible
- 7:46 Rapid-fire exam recap
What this video covers
- The exact definition of a penny stock: unlisted equity security priced below five dollars per share, and why exchange-listed securities and registered investment company securities (mutual funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds) are exempt regardless of price
- The two-part disclosure structure: oral or written pre-trade, then written at or before confirmation, and why satisfying only one part is a violation
- How compensation is calculated differently for agency trades (commission), riskless principal trades (markup against the contemporaneous offsetting price), and other principal trades (markup against the prevailing market price)
- Why transparency is the sole purpose of the rule, and why there is no legal cap on the markup itself
- The three-year total record retention requirement, with the first two years kept easily accessible, and why creating the disclosure without preserving the record is still a violation
- The real-world context for Series 6 reps: why a mutual fund and variable annuity specialist must still recognize penny-stock triggers in dual-registered or cross-line scenarios
Read the full lesson, free
This video's complete written lesson is free to read in the CertFuel app, no signup wall. The complete Series 6 course also includes adaptive practice questions and spaced-repetition flashcards.