The rise and fall of the Amex Emerging Company Marketplace

In 1992, the Amex launched the Emerging Company Marketplace (ECM) to trade the stocks of small but growing companies. Bid-ask spreads decreased dramatically for listing firms, and news coverage increased. Executives of listing firms were quite satisfied. Yet few firms chose to list on the ECM, and it closed in 1995. What went wrong? Most Amex stakeholders had little to gain from the success of the ECM, and a series of scandals damaged the reputation of the exchange. Similar small-firm markets have also failed, largely because successful firms quickly depart for traditional markets, leaving only unsuccessful firms behind. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.