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RIP to the Tick Size Pilot

Traders Magazine Online News, September 7, 2018

Jim Toes

Earlier this week, STA filed what will most likely be its last comment letter on the Tick Size Pilot. Our letter offers opinions on the upcoming termination date and the assessment of data accumulated during its first twelve (12) months, which can be summed up in a single sentence:

"Based on the empirical data captured in the assessment and our members’ experiences as practitioners, STA recommends that the Commission terminate the Pilot in its entirety and return all securities to their pre-Pilot trading regime."

For many in our industry, the idea of conducting a Tick Size Pilot dates back to early 2012. While there was debate in its design and doubts on whether tick sizes play any role in liquidity, there was and remains a consensus that today’s one-size-fits-all market structure does not serve the needs of small to mid-sized companies and the investors who look to accumulate wealth and prosperity by investing in them at their early stages of existence. If the Commission decides to terminate the Pilot, which is highly likely, some individuals within our industry will cheer at that development. A natural reaction given the cost and herculean effort it took to implement it. Unfortunately, the problem that the Pilot sought to remedy will still exist and that is something none of us should cheer about.

Shift in Market Structure

Facilitating capital formation is a core function of our markets. In order for our markets to perform this role, efficiencies in regulation and competition need to exist among and within all the participants involved in the capital formation process: issuers, broker dealers, investment banks, exchanges and investors.

The dramatic shift from the manual nature of floor-based and over-the-counter trading in the late 1990’s caused by Reg NMS, decimalization and other events to today’s highly electronic and technologically efficient marketplace has been nothing short of impressive and radical. These disruptions brought efficiencies but the swiftness by which they occurred undeservedly laid waste to some of the functions performed and characteristics within our markets with regards to capital formation, one being market making.

Market makers, both electronic and traditional, as well as other enhanced liquidity providers play a vital role in the strength of secondary markets, which are critical for healthy primary markets. No company will go public if it does not have a reasonable expectation that its securities will be liquid in the secondary markets. For those, like STA, who supported a Tick Size Pilot, it began with the fundamental belief that market makers matter and their role had been marginalized unnecessarily. The costs and risks associated with operating a trading desk, be it for market making or facilitating institutional order flow, combined with low incentives create an inefficient barrier to entry that, over the long term, will not be good for anyone. As an industry we need to remedy this. While STA realized that tick sizes were only one contributory factor and that a modern way to incentivize market making was needed, we supported the Tick Size Pilot, albeit a simpler version.

STA letter to Senator Tim Johnson, then Chairman of the Committee on Banking, House and Urban Affairs;

dated March 20, 2012:

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