Last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a
new Silicon Valley-based national securities exchange, the Long
Term Stock Exchange (LTSE), with a unique twist – a focus on
earlier stage companies and long term investing. The idea of
"venture exchanges" has been around for decades. Canada
has long touted the TSX Venture Exchange, effectively launched in
2001, as performing a similar purpose. In 2011, the SEC approved
Nasdaq's BX Venture Market, but that exchange was never
ultimately launched. The general idea: a national exchange with
lower quantitative listing standards than the larger exchanges, but
with more benefits than trading in the over-the-counter
markets.
Back in 2015, the head of the SEC's trading and markets
division touted the potential benefits in Congressional testimony
thusly: "Venture exchanges potentially
could.. [provide] investors a transparent and well-regulated
environment for trading the stocks of smaller companies that
