United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2004-07-22 monographic deposited born digital 16 p. GA 1.13:GAO-04-968T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T P0b002ee1803a59db f:d04968t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T GAO-04-968T Brokerage industry Competitive advantage Electronic data interchange Price regulation Prices and pricing Stock exchanges Stocks (securities) Banned practices Testimony A11095 In 2001, U.S. stock and options markets, which had previously quoted prices in fractions, began quoting in decimals. Since then, various positive and negative effects have been attributed to the transition to decimal pricing. As part of this transition, the major stock markets chose one penny ($.01) as the minimum price variation for quoting prices for orders to buy or sell. However, some electronic trading systems allowed their customers to quote in increments of less than a penny (such as $.001). The use of subpenny prices for securities trades has proved controversial and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed a ban against subpenny quoting for stocks priced above one dollar across all U.S. markets. As part of ongoing work that examines a range of issues relating to decimal pricing, GAO reviewed (1) how widely subpenny prices are used and by whom, (2) the advantages and disadvantages of subpenny pricing cited by market participants, and (3) market participants' reactions to SEC's proposed ban. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T.pdf GAO-04-968T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-968T Testimony GAO-04-968T; Securities Markets: Preliminary Observations on the Use of Subpenny Pricing; Brokerage industry Competitive advantage Electronic data interchange Price regulation Prices and pricing Stock exchanges Stocks (securities) Banned practices