Another Old-School Financial Market Solution for After the Reset: Go Back to Eighths

(Great suggestion across the transom from a long-time reader.  Who remembers watching the CNBC ticker in the afternoons for the closing stock prices back before the innerwebz?  Remember the eighth and sixteenth quotes?)

Ann,

You seem to keep a running list of financial market solutions/changes after some economic ‘reset’ (e.g., open outcry, mark to market, etc).  As a former NASDAQ market maker in the 90s, one of my solutions is to go back to increments of 1/8 for equity prices (or 1/16 for sufficiently low price stocks).  This would solve our seeming indifference to being sheared on trades by algos or banks by .05 or .01 or even thousandths of a dollar in some cases.  Being robbed by a more significant amount like an 12.5 cents would certainly make a buyer or seller of stock more likely to notice and resist. 

I look sentimentally back on the 1/8ths.  It was something that made Wall Street unique.  Remember asking what the market was and hearing “1/8 to 3/8, 400 by 200?”  

If you see merit in this small improvement please add it to your list.

God bless from a huge fan,

Polack in NY

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