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Jim Bishop

05/20/06 1:36 AM

#7623 RE: serfdom #7622

Page 16. CMKX is the first, as far as I know, to go beyond 4 decimal places. If you watched it, or since then, many other mega billion float pinks and greys trade, you've noticed zero bids and trades at "zero" on some transaction logs.

Obviously a stock cannot trade at zero. Nor does a market maker bid zero, he has a bid, or he doesn't.

Most systems round trades up from .00005 to .0001 and from .0004 down to 00.

Systems were not set up to handle these ridiculous little numbers, nor were they set to handle billions of trades a day which is why most quote systems roll over after so many billions in a day.

One trader with TDW Canada told me with CMKX that after some billions in a day their system went from numbers to letters and numbers...gobbledeegook if you will.

"VI. Clustering and Price Improvement

The Pink Sheets quotation and trading systems do not have mandated tick sizes. The only
limiting factor with regards to price points are the number of digits available in the
electronic systems, which are four after the decimal in the quotation system and five after
the decimal in the trading system
, corresponding to hundredths and thousandths,
respectively, of a penny!