Tick Size Pilot Program
On May 6, 2015, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an order approving the National Market System (NMS) Plan to implement a Tick Size Pilot Program by the National Securities Exchanges and FINRA. The Order approved the NMS Plan for a two-year period and will officially commence on October 3, 2016. The Tick Size Pilot is a data-driven test to evaluate whether or not widening the tick size for securities of smaller capitalization companies would impact trading, liquidity, and market quality of those securities. The pilot will consist of a control group and three test groups, with each test group having approximately 400 securities.
The groups are defined as follows:
- The control group will be quoted and trade at their current tick size increment.
- The first test group will be quoted in $0.05 increments, but will continue to trade at their current price increment.
- The second test group will be quoted and trade in $0.05 minimum increments, but would allow certain exemptions for midpoint executions, retail investor executions, and negotiated trades.
- The third test group will adhere to the requirements of the second test group, but will also be subject to a "trade-at" requirement. There will also be an exemption for block size orders.
Market quality statistics, market and marketable limit order data, and market maker profitability will be collected and provided to the SEC on a monthly basis. Market quality data and aggregated market maker profitability data will also be made publicly available on a monthly basis by each Plan Participant that acts as the designated examining authority for a Trading Center or Market Maker that is required to submit data under the plan.
The participants to the plan are required to submit their initial tick pilot assessment 18 months after the plan begins based on data generated during the first 12 months of operation.
- NMS Plan
- SRO Rule Filings
- Proposed Rule Change to Amend Rule 6191 to Modify the Date of Appendix B Website Data Publication Pursuant to the Regulation NMS Plan to Implement a Tick Size Pilot Program
- Proposed Rule Change to Amend FINRA Rule 6191 Relating to the Data Collection Requirements of the Regulation NMS Plan to Implement A Tick Size Pilot Program
- Proposed Rule Change to Adopt FINRA Rule 6191(b) and Amend FINRA Rule 7440 to Implement the Data Collection Requirements of the Regulation NMS Plan to Implement A Tick Size Pilot Program
- Proposed Rule Change to Adopt FINRA Rule 6191(a) to Implement the Quoting and Trading Requirements of the Regulation NMS Plan to Implement a Tick Size Pilot Program
- Timeline
- Announcements
- Tick Size Pilot Market Maker Transaction Reporting to End on April 2, 2019 (2/4/19)
- FINRA Re-publishes Appendix C.II. Data for October 2018 (1/16/19)
- FINRA Appendix BI and BII Data Re-published on December 27th 2018 (12/27/18)
- FINRA Appendix B.I. Data for May and June, 2018 and Appendix B.II. Data for June, 2018 Contains Minor Errors and Will Be Re-published (12/21/18)
- Tick Size Pilot Quoting and Trading Requirements to End at Close of Trading on September 28, 2018 (9/11/18)
- FINRA Appendix B Data Re-published on January 29, 2018 (1/30/18)
- FINRA Appendix B Data Published on August 31, 2017 Contains Errors and Will Be Re-published (10/20/17)
- FINRA Publishes Appendix B Data (8/31/17)
- FINRA Re-publishes Appendix C.II. Data for February 2017 (7/17/17)
- FINRA Publishes Appendix C.II. Data; Delays Publishing Appendix B Data
- Tick Size Pilot Firm Review Files – Update
- Tick Size Pilot Firm Review Files
- Tick Size Pilot Program Implementation Plan
- Tick Size Pilot Security Master File Downloads (3/1/17)
- Appendix B Data Publication Delayed Until August 31, 2017 (5/5/17)
- Notices
- Regulatory Notices
- Technical Notices
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Pilot Securities List
- Symbol List Announcements
- Specifications
- OATS Report: Tick Size Pilot Data Collection to End on April 2, 2019
- Market Maker Transaction Data Technical Specification
- OATS Technical Specifications
- OATS Report: Proposed OATS Changes for Members that Operate Tick Size Pilot Trading Centers
- OATS Report: Tick Size Pilot: Exchange Route Matching for the Chicago Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange
- Appendix B and C Requirements and File Specifications
- Market Maker Transaction Reporting System Status
- Publicly Available Pilot Data
- Retail Investor Order Exception Attestation
- Assessment of the Plan to Implement a Tick Size Pilot Program