Value Microcaps Zip Code Changers

[Knowledge is King]

OT: Bigger micro spreads are on the way...


Once again, it wasn't broke, but they're going to fix it for us...


DJ SEC Plans to Implement 'Tick Size' Pilot

By Scott Patterson
WASHINGTON--Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White
said Friday the agency planned to implement a test program to trade stocks
in wider increments, such as nickels, to determine whether such a change
would improve the quality of the market.
The pilot program would move the trading of some stocks to bigger "tick
sizes," or the difference between what traders bid and offer for the stocks,
after more than a decade of trading in penny-wide ticks.
In a speech in Washington, Ms. White said that she plans to push forward
the "implementation of a tick-size pilot, along carefully defined
parameters, that would widen the quoting and trading increments and test,
among other things, whether a change like this improves liquidity and market
quality."
The plan has widespread backing on Wall Street, including stock-exchange
operators such as Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. SEC officials have been working with
exchanges in the development of the plan.
In November, a group advised by the U.S. Treasury Department, which
includes investment bankers, mutual funds, venture capitalists and
exchanges, outlined their suggested plan, dubbed Small-Cap Trading Rules, or
STAR.
Advocates of wider tick sizes say the aim is to make it easier to trade
shares of smaller companies. They say wider gaps would make these companies
more attractive to market makers because there would be a bigger difference
between buy and sell offers. That would promote more trading and less
volatility.
The move doesn't have the backing of some market watchdogs, however. An
advisory committee to the SEC recently recommended against implementation of
a tick-size pilot program, in part due to concerns that the move would
benefit intermediaries such as brokers, to the detriment of investors.
Write to Scott Patterson at [e-mail]