How Long Can a Stock Trade Under $1? The Rules

How long can a stock trade under $1? On Nasdaq, up to a little over 13 months: 30 consecutive business days with a closing bid under $1 brings a deficiency notice, the company then has 180 calendar days to cure, and a Nasdaq Capital Market company can obtain a second 180 days. On the NYSE the test is a 30-trading-day average closing price under $1 followed by a six-month cure period. Both exchanges shortened the road in 2025: a reverse split within the prior year now forfeits the cure period, and on Nasdaq a closing bid at or below $0.10 for ten straight business days is an immediate delisting determination.

What is the $1 minimum bid price rule?

Nasdaq Listing Rules 5450(a)(1), for the Global Select and Global Markets, and 5550(a)(2), for the Capital Market, require a minimum closing bid price of $1 per share. The closing bid is the highest price a buyer was posting at the close, not the last trade. On an active stock the two sit a cent apart; on a thin one the bid can rest several cents under the last print, so a stock can fail the bid test on a day its last trade was $1.00.

The NYSE writes the rule differently. Section 802.01C of the Listed Company Manual treats a company as below standard when its average closing price over 30 consecutive trading days is under $1. The average smooths single-day dips: a stock that spent two weeks at $0.90 after a month at $1.40 has not failed yet.

Neither notice is a delisting. It starts a clock, and the company has to disclose it on Form 8-K under Item 3.01 within four business days, which is how most shareholders learn of it.

How long can a stock trade under $1 on Nasdaq?

Rule 5810(c)(3)(A) runs the clock in four stages.

1. The counting window: 30 consecutive business days with a closing bid under $1, about six calendar weeks. One close at $1.00 or above resets the count.
2. The first compliance period: 180 calendar days from the notice. Compliance returns with a closing bid at or above $1 for at least ten consecutive business days; staff can require up to 20.
3. The second compliance period: another 180 calendar days, available only to a Nasdaq Capital Market company that meets the market value of publicly held shares standard and every other initial listing requirement apart from bid price, and that gives written notice of its intent to cure, including by a reverse split if necessary. A Global Market company can transfer down to become eligible.
4. Determination and hearing: if the second period lapses, staff issues a delisting determination and the company has seven days to request a hearing. Before 2025 the request kept the stock trading on Nasdaq while the panel deliberated. As amended in 2025, trading is suspended during any appeal that follows the second period.

Add it up: 30 business days plus 360 calendar days, a little over 13 months of exchange trading under $1 before the suspension. A company with only the first period is at roughly seven and a half months.

What changed in 2025?

The January 2025 amendments (SR-NASDAQ-2024-045, approved January 17, 2025) added two provisions. A company that executed a reverse split within the prior one year is not eligible for any compliance period, and a new bid-price deficiency goes straight to a delisting determination. And a hearing request after the second 180-day period no longer stays the suspension. Both sit alongside an older rule under which cumulative reverse splits of 250-to-1 or more over two years also forfeit the compliance period.

The December 2025 amendment (SR-NASDAQ-2025-065, approved by the SEC in December 2025, with the proposal and the approval order both published in the Federal Register) hardened the floor. As amended, a closing bid at or below $0.10 for ten consecutive business days is an immediate delisting determination, with no 30-day counting window and no compliance period. The ten-cent test is older, but its earlier form applied only inside a running compliance period.

The NYSE moved in step in January 2025 (SR-NYSE-2024-34): a company that executed a reverse split within the prior year, or whose reverse splits over the prior two years total 200-to-1 or more, gets no cure period, and the exchange no longer accepts a reverse split as a cure when the split would push the company below another continued listing standard.

How does the NYSE delisting clock differ?

Four differences matter in practice. The NYSE measures a 30-trading-day average closing price, not a run of closing bids. The cure period is six months from receipt of the notice, and the company has ten business days to confirm it intends to cure. Compliance is tested at month-ends: on the last trading day of any calendar month in the cure period the stock needs both a closing price of at least $1 and a 30-trading-day average of at least $1, with the same test on the period's final day. And where a reverse split needs a shareholder vote, the window extends to the next annual meeting.

Separately, Section 802.01D lets the exchange suspend a stock at an "abnormally low" price with no cure period at all, and NYSE American applies its own "low selling price" standard, Section 1003(f)(v), with no fixed dollar line.

How many stocks are trading under $1 right now?

The first panel screens the latest session on the daily price tape: every non-OTC ticker of four letters or fewer that printed a trade, bucketed by closing price. The four-letter screen strips most warrants, units, rights, and preferred lines, which trade under $1 for reasons that have nothing to do with a listing rule.

SELECT
    bucket_label,
    countIf(px >= lo AND px < hi)                             AS names,
    round(100 * countIf(px >= lo AND px < hi) / count(), 1)   AS share_pct,
    any(session_label)                                        AS as_of
FROM
(
    SELECT
        ticker,
        argMax(toFloat64(close), _ingest_time)       AS px,
        any(formatDateTime(date, '%b %e, %Y'))       AS session_label
    FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
    WHERE date = (SELECT max(date) FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
                  WHERE ticker = 'SPY' AND date >= today() - 14)
      AND ifNull(otc, 0) = 0
      AND length(ticker) <= 4
      AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
      AND volume > 0
      AND close > 0
    GROUP BY ticker
    HAVING px < 1
) AS latest
ARRAY JOIN
    [0.00, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75]                                                             AS lo,
    [0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00]                                                             AS hi,
    ['Under $0.10', '$0.10 to $0.25', '$0.25 to $0.50', '$0.50 to $0.75', '$0.75 to $1.00']   AS bucket_label
GROUP BY lo, hi, bucket_label
ORDER BY lo

As of Sep 18, 2026, 356 listed names closed under $1. 3 of them, 0.8% of the group, closed under $0.10, inside the zone where Nasdaq's ten-day test now runs. 119 closed between $0.75 and $1.00, the band where a single up day can reset a company's count.

The second panel runs the same screen for every trading day over the trailing five months.

SELECT
    toString(date)                                                     AS session_date,
    uniqExactIf(ticker, close < 1)                                     AS names_under_1,
    round(100 * uniqExactIf(ticker, close < 1) / uniqExact(ticker), 2) AS share_of_listed_pct
FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
WHERE date >= today() - 150
  AND date <= (SELECT max(date) FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
               WHERE ticker = 'SPY' AND date >= today() - 14)
  AND ifNull(otc, 0) = 0
  AND length(ticker) <= 4
  AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
  AND volume > 0
  AND close > 0
GROUP BY date
ORDER BY date

The screen found 284 sub-$1 names on the first session in the window and 356 on the latest, 5.11% of the tickers that traded that day. A reverse split removes a name from the count overnight and a fresh breakdown adds one; the line is the net of the two.

How many stocks have been under $1 for 30 or more sessions?

Thirty consecutive sessions is the Nasdaq counting window, so the sharper question is how long each name has already been down there. The panel rebuilds each sub-$1 stock's closing history over the trailing year and counts the run of consecutive traded sessions, ending on the latest one, with a close under $1. One close at $1.00 or higher ends the run.

SELECT
    threshold_label,
    countIf(streak >= threshold)                             AS names,
    round(100 * countIf(streak >= threshold) / count(), 1)   AS share_pct
FROM
(
    SELECT
        ticker,
        arrayReverseSort(groupArray((date, px)))                                                    AS closes_desc,
        arrayFirstIndex(x -> tupleElement(x, 2) >= 1, closes_desc)                                  AS first_at_or_above_1,
        if(first_at_or_above_1 = 0, toInt32(length(closes_desc)), toInt32(first_at_or_above_1) - 1) AS streak
    FROM
    (
        SELECT
            ticker,
            date,
            argMax(toFloat64(close), _ingest_time) AS px
        FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
        WHERE date >= today() - 400
          AND date <= (SELECT max(date) FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
                       WHERE ticker = 'SPY' AND date >= today() - 14)
          AND ifNull(otc, 0) = 0
          AND length(ticker) <= 4
          AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
          AND volume > 0
          AND close > 0
          AND ticker IN
          (
              SELECT ticker
              FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
              WHERE date = (SELECT max(date) FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
                            WHERE ticker = 'SPY' AND date >= today() - 14)
                AND volume > 0
                AND close > 0
                AND close < 1
          )
        GROUP BY ticker, date
    ) AS daily
    GROUP BY ticker
) AS per_ticker
ARRAY JOIN
    [1, 30, 90, 180]                                             AS threshold,
    ['1 or more', '30 or more', '90 or more', '180 or more']     AS threshold_label
GROUP BY threshold, threshold_label
ORDER BY threshold

Of the 356 names under $1, 210 have closed there for 30 or more consecutive sessions, 59% of the group and roughly the population that has received or is about to receive a deficiency notice. 104 are at 90 or more sessions, and 48 have been under $1 for 180 or more, past the point where a first compliance period would have expired. Closing price stands in for closing bid here; the two sit a cent or two apart on most of these names, so a few borderline stocks fall on the other side of the line in the exchange's own count.

Why is a reverse split the standard cure, and why does it often fail?

A reverse split consolidates shares: a 1-for-10 split turns ten shares at $0.40 into one share at $4.00, with the company's market value unchanged. It is the only cure a company can execute on a known timetable, which is why Nasdaq's rule names it as the expected route and why both exchanges now write their eligibility tests around it. Our guide to reverse stock splits covers the mechanics and the fractional-share rounding.

SELECT
    formatDateTime(toStartOfMonth(execution_date), '%Y-%m')                     AS month,
    uniqExact(ticker, execution_date)                                            AS reverse_splits,
    round(quantileExact(0.5)(toFloat64(split_from) / toFloat64(split_to)), 1)   AS median_ratio
FROM global_markets.stocks_splits
WHERE execution_date >= toStartOfMonth(today() - INTERVAL 12 MONTH)
  AND execution_date <  toStartOfMonth(today())
  AND split_from > split_to
  AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
GROUP BY month
ORDER BY month

The panel counts reverse splits executed in each of the last twelve full months. The latest month, 2026-08, recorded 104, at a median ratio of 1-for-10. Ratios compound under the 2025 rules: a company that has done a 1-for-20 and then a 1-for-15 stands at 300-to-1 over two years, past Nasdaq's 250-to-1 line, and gets no compliance period on its next deficiency.

The split fixes the price and nothing else. The business that needed it still carries the cash burn or the dilution pipeline that accompanied the decline, and many of these companies sell new shares soon after the split at the higher price, which adds shares back. The typical post-split path is the subject of what happens after a reverse stock split; pending splits, forward and reverse, are listed in upcoming stock splits.

Where does a delisted stock trade next?

Delisting is not the end of trading. Once the exchange files Form 25 with the SEC, the shares move to the over-the-counter market and trade through dealer quotes on OTC Markets Group's tiers rather than on an exchange order book. The tier depends on disclosure: a company still filing with the SEC can qualify for OTCQB or land on the Pink market, while one that stops reporting falls to the Expert Market, where quotes are hidden from retail platforms and most brokers permit only sells. The tier rules and the quote rule behind them, SEC Rule 15c2-11, are covered in OTC market tiers and Rule 15c2-11.

Your shares survive the move: delisting removes the exchange listing, not the security, and SEC registration continues until the company files a Form 15. Spreads widen off-exchange, and a stock quoted a cent wide on Nasdaq can trade several cents wide on the Pink market, a large fraction of a sub-$1 price.

FAQ

How long can a stock stay under $1 before it is delisted?

On Nasdaq, 30 consecutive business days of closing bids under $1 start the process, then 180 calendar days to cure, and a Capital Market company can obtain a second 180 days: about 13 months in total. On the NYSE, a 30-trading-day average under $1 is followed by a six-month cure period. A reverse split within the prior year removes the cure period on both exchanges.

Does a stock get delisted the day it drops below $1?

No. A single close under $1 has no consequence on either exchange. Nasdaq counts 30 consecutive business days of closing bids, and the NYSE uses a 30-trading-day average. The one fast track is Nasdaq's ten-cent rule, as amended in 2025: a closing bid at or below $0.10 for ten consecutive business days is an immediate delisting determination.

Can a company get a second 180 days to regain compliance?

Only on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and only if it meets the market value of publicly held shares standard and the other initial listing requirements apart from bid price and gives written notice of its intent to cure. The NYSE has no second period, though a required shareholder vote on a reverse split can extend the six-month window to the next annual meeting.

What happens to my shares when a stock is delisted?

They continue to exist and continue to trade, on the over-the-counter market instead of the exchange. Brokers differ on whether they allow new purchases of OTC securities, and quotes for companies that stop filing with the SEC move to the Expert Market, where retail platforms do not display them.

Every panel above ships with the SQL beneath it; expand any one to see how the count was built. To screen the sub-$1 list by ticker or by streak length, or to rerun the count for a past session, ask the question on the Strasmore terminal.