As CEO of OTC Markets Group, which operates regulated markets for U.S. and international securities, I have a direct view into why both matter. That view is rooted in two-and-a-half centuries of market evolution.
In 1792, a handful of brokers gathered beneath a buttonwood tree on Wall Street and agreed to trade securities among themselves, a private club where prices were negotiated in person. Information moved slowly, unevenly, and often not at all. That opacity was the defining feature of early American public markets, and improving the quality and availability of information has been the central project of every generation since.
The history of American public markets is a history of expanding access.
From the New York Price Current in 1795 to our predecessor, the National Quotation Bureau, in 1911, telegraph, ticker tape, and telephone each moved information faster and widened the market.
The securities reforms of the 1930s gave that expanding market a legal foundation. Larger companies seeking public capital would register with the SEC, file financial statements, and give investors the information they needed to make rational decisions. The disclosure-based principle was clear: let investors decide the merits and value of investments. Public markets function when buyers and sellers have access to the same material facts. Without that, price discovery breaks down and capital flows to noise rather than fundamental value.
