Stock stops trading

USA TODAY financial markets reporter Matt Krantz answers a new question every weekday at money.

One of the great things about stocks is that, most of the time, they're easy to trade. Since most trade on large exchanges, which pair up buyers and sellers in real time, if you want to buy or sell a stock you just need to click a button or pick up the phone and it's done.

But there are times when the system doesn't allow for such easy buying and selling. Your e-mail doesn't indicate exactly what you mean when you say the stock has stopped trading.

A stock may stop trading temporarily in what's called a trading halt. In cases where there's important pending news about a company, or if trading has been erratic enough to set off circuit breakers, exchanges and regulators may pause trading for a brief time. You can read more about halts on the Securities and Exchange Commission 's website: Typically, trading is resumed in less than an hour, after the market has a chance to digest the news and buy and sell orders are aligned with the new price.

In other cases, a stock can be suspended by the SEC for up to 10 days. The SEC may suspend a stock when it feels the public is being harmed or potentially misled by inaccurate information. The SEC page on halts, above, also explains trading delays. Finally, a stock may be permanently booted from a major stock exchange in a process called delisting.

If the stock you own is delisted, most likely, the shares will resume trading on a less formal market, such as the Pink Sheets or OTC Bulletin Board. In this case, if you want to sell, you can tell your broker to sell your shares there. You might want to check the commission, since in some cases, it can exceed the value of the stock. If your stock was suspended, you'll likely need to wait until the SEC releases the suspension before you can do anything.

In some cases, the stock will resume trading as before, but in others, the stock might be delisted. If a stock is halted, you'll just need to wait until the halt is released before you can make a move.

As you can see, a stock can stop trading for a number of reasons. And what you do, depends on why. If you don't know why your stock isn't trading, your brokerage firm should be able to tell you.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz usatoday.

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