As organisations grow, employee ownership becomes more valuable and more complex. Once a company reaches around 150 participants or more, a practical question arises: how can people step into and out of ownership in a fair and manageable way, without relying on a public exchange?
That's where Trading Days come in. Trading days give larger organisations a structured way to manage internal liquidity while keeping ownership stable, transparent and fully under control.
What is a Trading Day?
A Trading Day is a fixed trading moment during which employees can submit bids to buy or sell a specific financial instrument, such as shares or depositary receipts.
Trading does not happen continuously, and prices are not driven by daily market movements. Everything takes place within a clearly defined time window.
In practice, this means:
- no public exchange
- no continuous trading
- no speculation
Instead, Trading Days offer predictability for participants and clarity for the organisation.
Why Trading Day are built for larger organisations
For smaller companies, ownership transfer can often be handled on a case-by-case basis. But once ownership is spread across 150 + participants, that approach no longer scales and legal and governance requirements start to change.
Trading Days are designed for organisations where:
- employees regularly join or leave
- ownership must remain accessible
- liquidity must be managed centrally
- governance privacy and oversight are essential
This makes Trading Days particularly suitable for larger cooperation's and growing companies that take employee ownership seriously.
How Trading Days works
Each trading day is announced in advance and comes with a clear opening and closing date. During this trading window, participants can indicate how many units they want to buy or sell within a predefined price range.
Everyone has the same amount of time to participate, ensuring equal access and alleviating time pressure.
The company as the central hub
In larger ownership groups, employees are not allowed to trade directly with each other.
Instead, the company acts as the central hub, buying back units from participants who want to sell and immediately providing them to those who want to buy.
The goal is for the company to "end up at zero":
- it only buys what it can directly sell
- it does not hold units unnecessarily
- it avoids using its own cash reserves
This model keep transactions clean, compliant and financially neutral for the company..
Not a Stock Exchange - By Design
Trading Days are deliberately not designed to function like a stock exchange. There is no daily trading, no constant price fluctuation, and no short-term pressure.
This approach helps:
- Protect the long-term ownership vision
- avoid unnecessary complexity
- keep governance clear and manageable
Liquidity is offered at the right moments, without losing control
Trading Days and the Trade Request Bulletin Board
For clarity, trading days complement, rather than replace, the Trade Request Bulletin Board.
- Smaller groups can continue to use the Bulletin Board openly
- Larger organisations (150+participants) use trading days as the structured trading moment
For larger organisations, the Bulletin Board changes its behaviour for legal and privacy reasons. It remains a place to express interest, but individual notes are hidden from other members to keep the process private and compliant.
When a Trading Day is enabled:
- existing trade requests are cleared in advance
- participants are informed beforehand
- after the Trading Day closes, the Bulletin Board can reopen for new requests
This ensures a clean, transparent flow every time.
Ownership That Grows with You
With Trading Days, Employee ownership remains dynamic without becoming chaotic. Companies can offer fair entry and exit opportunities, reduce administrative burden, and maintain trust across a growing group of employee-owners.
At Share Council, we believe ownership structures should grow with the organisation, not hold it back. Trading Days are a natural next step for companies that want to make employee ownership work at scale, in a way that is structured, transparent, and fully aligned with their long-term vision.
