When Will the Half-Penny Tick Size and Lower Access Fees Start?

Not before the first business day of November 2027, and possibly not in the form originally adopted. The SEC adopted a $0.005 minimum tick for certain stocks and lower access fee caps on September 18, 2024, but neither has taken effect: an SEC order of June 11, 2026 (Release No. 34-105656) moved compliance to the first business day of November 2027, and the SEC's chairman has directed staff to review both rules by the end of 2026. As of October 2026, stocks priced at $1 or more still quote in one-cent increments, and the exchange access fee cap for those quotes is still 0.3 cents per share.

When will the half-penny tick size start?

The current compliance date is the first business day of November 2027, which on the calendar falls on Monday, November 1, 2027. That date comes from the SEC's June 2026 exemptive order, Release No. 34-105656, which exempts market participants from the amended Rule 612, the amended Rule 610(c) and a related market data field, Rule 600(b)(89)(i)(F), until that day. The field is an indicator in consolidated data that would tell everyone which minimum pricing increment applies to each stock, which is why the order moves it on the same schedule as the tick itself.

This is the third date the rules have carried, after November 2025 at adoption and November 2026 under a later order. Many articles still cite one of the older dates, which is why a trader who expected half-penny quotes by now has not seen them.

The new date is not locked in. On the day the order was issued, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement on minimum pricing increments and access fee caps that he had directed staff to prioritize a review of Rules 610(c) and 612 by the end of the year, including whether changes to the access fee caps and minimum pricing increments may be appropriate. That is a statement by the chairman, not a decision of the Commission. The order and the statement came out the same day the SEC proposed to rescind the trade-through rule, a separate proposal covered in hi2morrow's guide to whether the SEC is repealing Rule 611. As of October 2026, the SEC has not announced any further change to the 2027 date.

Which stocks would be quoted in half-pennies?

Only stocks whose spreads are already squeezed against the one-cent tick would move to a $0.005 increment, and only for prices of $1.00 or more. Under the text of the amended Rule 612, the deciding number is the Time Weighted Average Quoted Spread, or TWAQS: the average gap between the national best bid and offer during regular trading hours, with each quote weighted by how long it lasted. If a stock's TWAQS over an Evaluation Period is $0.015 or less, its tick becomes $0.005; if it is wider than $0.015, the stock stays at $0.01, as the SEC's fact sheet on the tick size and access fee rules summarizes.

The rule sets two Evaluation Periods a year, January through March and July through September, and the primary listing exchange does the measurement. A tick based on January–March applies from the first business day of May through the last business day of October, and a tick based on July–September applies from the first business day of November through the end of April. A stock can therefore move between $0.005 and $0.01 twice a year as its trading changes. A stock that becomes an NMS stock partway through one of these six-month periods is assigned $0.01, and quotes under $1.00 keep their existing increment of $0.0001.

The timing of the first assignment is an interpretation of the rule's text rather than an SEC statement. Under that text, a November assignment is based on the July–September Evaluation Period, so if the 2027 date holds, the first half-penny list could rest on trading from July through September 2027. The SEC's documents do not set out a 2027 measurement schedule.

How many stocks would qualify is not published. The adopting release estimated that up to 74.3% of the share volume traded in NMS stocks in 2023 may have had spreads constrained by the one-cent tick. That figure measures trading volume concentrated in the most active names, not the share of listed stocks, and it describes 2023 rather than a forecast for 2027.

What would change in access fees, and what is already in force?

An access fee is what an exchange charges a firm for executing against a displayed quote, often called a taker fee in the maker-taker model, where part of that fee funds rebates to firms that post liquidity. The cap on that fee for quotes of $1.00 or more has been 0.3 cents per share, or 30 cents per 100 shares, since the SEC adopted Regulation NMS in 2005. The 2024 amendment would cut it to $0.001 per share, also called 10 mils, or 10 cents per 100 shares, and set a cap of 0.1% of the quote price for quotes under $1.00. The SEC's 2026 proposing release on Rule 611 confirms in a footnote that the changes to Rule 610(c) and Rule 612 "have yet to be implemented."

The lower caps would not switch on by themselves. The June 2026 order notes that exchanges must file rule changes with the SEC to amend their fee schedules for the new caps, so actual fee levels would appear in those filings when they are made.

One part of the 2024 package is already working. Rule 610(d) requires exchanges to make every fee and rebate determinable at the time of execution, so volume tiers have to be based on volume from a period before the fee is charged. The SEC's October 2025 order, Release No. 34-104172, set that compliance date at the first business day of February 2026, and exchanges filed fee changes to comply, for example Nasdaq BX's filing for February 2, 2026. The June 2026 order did not delay Rule 610(d). The new round lot sizes for higher-priced stocks took effect on November 3, 2025, and odd-lot quote information has been added to the consolidated data feeds; hi2morrow's guide to why the bid-ask spread suddenly widens explains how those changes affect the quote you see.

Why has the half-penny tick been delayed twice?

The first delay came from litigation. Petitions challenging parts of the 2024 amendments were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit between September and October 2024, and on December 12, 2024, the SEC partially stayed the tick size, access fee cap and tick indicator rules while the court reviewed them. The court denied the petition on October 14, 2025, and on October 31, 2025, the SEC moved the compliance date to the first business day of November 2026 to give the industry time to prepare. The same order postponed Rule 610(d) by three months because the government shutdown prevented exchanges from filing their fee changes on time.

The second delay came from timing. On February 26, 2026, the exchange MEMX applied for relief that would have phased in the access fee cuts differently, and the SEC asked for public comment both on that request and on whether a broader delay was warranted. Several commenters opposed the MEMX request, while others argued for postponing both rules. In the June 2026 order, the SEC cited the number of other market structure deadlines set for 2026, naming the launch of 23/5 trading and Rule 605 compliance, and concluded that a one-year extension would allow an orderly implementation.

Could the rules change before November 2027?

Yes, and the documents show three open questions. The first is the staff review the chairman ordered for the end of 2026; its result had not been published as of October 2026, and a review can end with no change, a new proposal or a recommendation the Commission never adopts.

The second is the MEMX application. It asks the SEC to delay the new caps for stocks that would stay at a $0.01 tick and for stocks under $1.00, and to allow fees of up to $0.0015 per share, rather than $0.001, in stocks that move to the $0.005 tick. The June 2026 order states that it takes no position on the application, and no decision on it has been published.

The third is the Rule 611 proposal. Its only edit to Rule 610(c) is a wording change and it would not alter the level of the caps or the tick size, but the SEC's economic analysis says rescinding Rule 611 may have minor impacts on stocks that receive a smaller tick, because without the trade-through prohibition more trades could occur outside the narrower spread. The release adds that this effect is expected to be limited, since brokers would still owe best execution. That is the SEC's assessment of a proposal, not an outcome.

What would a half-penny tick mean for a quote in ABC?

Consider a hypothetical stock, ABC, trading around $20, with a one-cent spread almost all day, so its TWAQS sits around $0.010 to $0.012. All numbers here are illustrative. Today the tightest possible quote is $20.00 bid and $20.01 offered, and a marketable buy of 1,000 shares at the offer pays half a cent per share above the midpoint, about $5 in total relative to the mid.

If the November 2027 date holds and ABC's TWAQS in the Evaluation Period used for its first assignment is $0.015 or less, ABC would be eligible to quote in half-pennies, for example $20.000 bid and $20.005 offered. The half-spread on the same 1,000 shares would then be $0.0025 per share, or $2.50. This is the mechanical limit, not a promise: the SEC says a smaller tick "would allow for" narrower spreads, and the actual spread would depend on the firms quoting the stock.

The access fee side works the same way in arithmetic. A firm taking 1,000 shares of ABC at the displayed offer on an exchange can be charged up to $0.003 per share today, or $3.00, and under the lower cap no more than $0.001 per share, or $1.00. The cap limits what the exchange can charge the member firm executing the order; it does not set what any firm charges its own customers, so a lower cap is not by itself a lower commission. A thinner stock quoted at $7.35 by $7.38, with a TWAQS around $0.03, would stay at the one-cent tick under the same rule.

Alexander Styopin's professional view: for an active trader the half-penny tick matters mostly in the most liquid names, where the spread already sits at one cent and the cost of crossing it adds up over many trades. The practical habit is to plan for the rule as currently written while treating every date as provisional, because the tick size, the access fee caps and the trade-through rule are now under review at the same time. Watch the SEC for the staff's year-end review and any ruling on the MEMX request, and check your own fills against the quote at the time of the order rather than assuming that a smaller tick will automatically lower your costs.

Educational material only. Not investment or legal advice. Order handling, fees, and quoting rules can vary by broker, venue, account type, and jurisdiction.

Author: Alexander Styopin, hi2morrow analyst and economist with 25 years of experience in the US stock market