FYI: A failed experiment to help small-company stocks will be buried at September’s end, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday. The Tick Size Pilot Program was supposed to revitalize trading liquidity, stock offerings, and job creation for small-cap public companies–by quoting and trading their stocks in increments of a nickel, rather than the usual penny. But instead of the promised benefits, the wider increments–or “ticks”–stunted trading volumes in the nearly 1,200 stocks subjected to the two-year experiment, while also bloating investors’ trading costs by as much as $900 million, to judge from data in a study by the exchanges that ran the pilot. The study has not been previously reported.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/sec-tick-size-pilot-program-1536961160
