Don’t worry; we’re not talking warrants for your arrest, but you might want to read about your rights.

In the investing world, a warrant is essentially a ‘contract’ that gives investors the ‘right’ (but not the obligation) to buy shares at a guaranteed price within a specific period, after which the price expires, and the warrants become worthless. The price is referred to as an ‘exercise price’ (or a ‘strike price’).

It’s important to note that on Hatch, you can only sell your warrants for cash; currently, we don’t facilitate exercising them in exchange for shares.

As an investor with Hatch, you might receive warrants if a company you own shares in merges, or delists and relists, or goes through a SPAC deal. Warrants will show in your Hatch account and will likely appear as a code or a ‘.W’ added to the ticker.

To request to sell your warrants, you’ll need to reach out to our Customer Support Team, and you’ll receive the market value of each warrant at the time they’re sold.

Once sold, the cash will show in your Hatch account, which you can use to buy new shares, keep in your account until you’re ready to re-invest, or withdraw to your NZ bank account - it’s up to you!

Because warrants aren’t shares, they don't come with the usual voting rights you typically have as a shareholder, and they don’t pay dividends.

This is a bit tricky! Warrants are traded on the secondary markets (like the OTC Markets), and their value isn’t known to investors until they’re sold. There are some ways to estimate the value of a warrant, but at best, it’s a guess.