The Securities and Exchange Commission will host a roundtable on Feb. 5 to discuss the impact of decimal-based stock trading on small- and mid-sized companies, market professionals, investors, and securities markets.
Domestic stock markets adopted decimal pricing increments in place of fractions in 2001, in part to address concerns the U.S. was at a competitive disadvantage to outside markets that had moved on from a centuries-old fractional pricing approach. Proponents of decimal pricing claimed evidence of artificially wide spreads — the difference between the price to buy and sell a stock — with fractional pricing, which might benefit market makers at the expense of investors.
