So, doh. This is the problem...
And btw âdirectâ listings are not a new idea, the second (in addition to incentivising market makers) main problem imo is our one-size-fits-all continuous order book stock exchanges. Great for Dow/S&P component companies (and their investors, traders, etc.) but awful for small, relatively illiquid stocks.  IMO, we need exchanges to go âback-to-the-futureâ with a menu of trading structures including ones with periodic âfixingsâ to set prices. But even this type of market structure still needs market-makers or companies that are cash rich enough to support their share price when the inevitable air pockets arise: you donât want someone with an order to sell 1000 shares just to pay for their vacation to take 20% off your market cap just because no one happened to be paying attention on the bid side. This is very real, have seen it happen a number of times in real life...  ie the reason such markets have not taken off, is that no one has (yet) figured out how to make money on them either as a market maker or an exchange. Not sure itâs a solvable problem.