NYSE Arca to Expand its 'Penny Pilot' Program in Options by 300 Companies
September 23, 2009
NYSE Arca has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to add 300 additional companies to its list of issues that can be priced by the penny, in the options industry’s penny-pricing pilot program.
The partial amended filing was made Tuesday, Paul Finnegan, director of NYSE Euronext, said at the New York Equity Options Conference in New York.
The 300 issues would be added in 75-lot “tranches,’’ beginning in October and extending over a year.
If the 300 are added, this would mean that the pilot program would then cover 85% of options volume, Finnegan said.
He called this “a mild change in our filing, at the end of the day.”
A summary of the NYSE’s request in July to extend the pilot can be found here.
A list of the current 63 issues in its penny pilot can be found here.
The options industry began to switch its minimum price increment on an options contract from nickels to pennies in February 2007.
