WhyDRS.org is a free educational resource about the financial markets in the United States, and specifically regarding direct registration, a method of personal ownership available to everyone but rarely used. The vast majority of publicly issued stock are owned by a single entity called Cede and Co.
Investors can choose to keep company stock in their own name using the Direct Registration System - which provides multiple benefits and safeties not available with other methods of holding.
WhyDRS.org is run by volunteers as a service to the worldwide investing community and monetary donations are not currently being accepted. Time and effort donations are extremely welcome and appreciated - more details in the ‘How can you volunteer?’ section below.
What resources does WhyDRS have?
WhyDRS.org is an information and advocacy hub which hosts
- A variety of information about Direct Registration and the markets such as the WhyDRS Information Packet which details the benefits of Direct Registration, a collection of articles and deep dives, and an extensive glossary of financial terms.
- Advocacy resources including the SEC Comment Submission Tool, a per-issuer Contact Investor Relations Tool, and graphic design resources for either personal use and guerilla marketing or premade items are available at a 0% profit online store.
- A robust Direct Registration Request Template, which allows an investor of any stock and with any broker to get quick access to important information (such as transfer agent or expected fees) so that they are fully prepared to initiate their DRS transfer.
- (In Development) Landing pages with unique URLs for transfer agents, issuers, and brokers whose database entries are filled in and complete.
Under the surface, it’s the WhyDRS Database which powers many of the above tools and will power planned features to come. As the database grows through volunteer input, the power and reach of all tools on the site grow with it in real time.
What is the WhyDRS Database?
DRSGME.org found success focusing on providing DRS information on a single ticker (GME) and their transfer agent (ComputerShare). WhyDRS wants to include all publicly traded companies, and therefore all transfer agents, as well. There are thousands of publicly traded companies registered with the SEC – and while data about them is publicly available, it’s hard to find a single resource which provides free access to an array of detailed company data. That’s where WhyDRS can change the game – by providing a non-monetized and completely public resource for retail investors to find out information about any public stock, including investor relations information such as transfer agent procedures.
You can view the database here: references.transferagents.eth.limo
or here:
We’ve prioritized completing information for the most traded companies, such as those in the S&P 500, first. This will allow for the database to have a running start in helping retail investors with popular interests. However, in terms of total data - there is a long way to go, and we’re looking for help. Please take some time to help build this database!
How can you Volunteer?
There are several ways you can help.
- Enter company/broker/transfer agent data one at a time. We’ve prepared multiple online google forms which can be used to submit data. Supplying an email address / having a Google account is not required. Data won’t be immediately added to the spreadsheet. The forms have a section for a reference or source, and we’ll be verifying data as it comes in.
Database Contribution Google Forms:
Investor Relations Email Submission Form
Transfer Agents Submission Form
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Seek resources we can extract data from in bulk to add to our spreadsheet. For example: We were able to find a database in CSV from NYSE which detailed a lot of info on companies which trade on that exchange and import much of that data to our formatting. If you don’t want to submit data with the above method, you could search for resources like this. A similar CSV for NASDAQ would be a huge help to find. If you find something useful, you can post about any resources you find here or email us at hi@whydrs.org.
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Spread the word about this volunteer project! The WhyDRS Publicly Traded Companies Database is a resource for retail investors everywhere who want simple and easy access to detailed information. The more people who help out, the more quickly this resource can grow and be more useful to other investors worldwide.
It’s a huge undertaking, but the benefits will be even more bigger. All of the resources and tools mentioned above are informed through this database, and will all improve in real time as more data is added and the existing data is refined.
Thanks so much for being here, for reading, and for helping catalyze the shift towards personal ownership. Changing the world is what’s at stake!
a free educational resource about the financial markets in the United States
seems to contradict
a service to the worldwide investing community
So is this relevant to non-US investors?
Great question!
The ‘DRS’ in WhyDRS refers to the Direct Registration System - a service of the DTC, or Depository Trust Company. This allows for investors to move shares from their broker and into their own name, taking custody of those shares.
This process is specific to publicly traded companies which are based in the United States. However, investors from all countries around the world are able to invest in United States companies - so, investors from all around the world can benefit from this information.
Thank you for your reply.
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Hey! Sorry for my delayed reply. DMs are possible on Lemmy, but I would be glad to talk here in the comments!
These resources have a long way to go, but we’ll really proud to have the skeletons available and to have contributions open.
Do you believe that those writing aids could help spread or frame education/awareness of these tools and encourage more people to work with them and improve them?
@chives I’m a Lemmy noob, so you have my apologies for the public laundry list message lol I’ll cull that public message and kick its contents over to you in a direct message so that you can have the message’s contents for your records / for your reference. One ‘trick’ that I’ve used in my day job as a developer advocate who has to interface with dozens of different ‘user personas’ is to produce a landing page for each ‘flavor’ of user. Kinda like ‘market segmentation’? Figure out 3 to 5 main ‘kinds of people who will read my blog posts’ and “market” to them, keeping in mind that each ‘market segment’ may have a slightly different call to action or ‘goal that they want to achieve’ after reading your blog post.
- Household investors who currently have their shares (of GME or of other stocks) in street name / at their brokers may have a ‘call to action’ flow that looks like: (a) providing those folks with resources so that they can learn in detail what the DRS process is and (b) some links to resources that show those folks how they can quickly/easily get the ball rolling on their own ‘DRS process’.
- Household investors who are already DRSed could be another ‘market segment’. Maybe the ‘call to action’ workflow for those users is to get them engaged in doing some community organizing or something? (I have no idea what ‘customers’ in this ‘market segment bucket’ would like or want to do since they are already DRSed? But I would say that since these folks are already DRSed they’ve shown that they will take the time, effort, and sometimes financial cost to DRS their shares / to get their shares out of the DTCC’s grubby hands. This ‘extra time and effort spent’ by this ‘market segment’ tells me that these folks aren’t afraid of rolling up their sleeves and perhaps indicates that these folks would be open to putting in additional and sustained effort doing things like community organizing: hosting a ‘town hall’ in their community or something? I think oldsters with 401ks and investments would love to know that Wall Street is pulling a fast one on time… And Boomers vote. So maybe holding a literal town hall meeting in your town’s city call - you can ‘rent’ rooms for free as it’s freedom of assembly stuff - and giving a 20 min presentation on ‘why DRS’ to always-votes oldsters… Maybe the already-DRSed folks would be down to do something like that.
- Another ‘market segment’ here
- Yet another ‘market segment’ here
The information I would expect in this post is glossed over here:
Investors can choose to keep company stock in their own name using the Direct Registration System - which provides multiple benefits and safeties not available with other methods of holding.
Provide some of that info, please. Otherwise this is just an ad.
You can find an extremely deep dive into the benefits and safeties a few sentences later in this post, when the WhyDRS information packet is linked as the first major resource among those we have developed.
