The New York Stock Exchange recently filed paperwork to make direct listings a reality. A lot has been talked about regarding direct listings, especially recently with tech IPO’s not turning out as planned. Direct listings allow companies to create a secondary market of existing shares (held by employees, advisors, insiders) available directly to the public. This allows companies to avoid the archaic process of going to banks, but more importantly lets the market decide the price via auction (vs. bankers). Letting the market decide also makes a lot of sense especially for companies that are more well known to individual investors.