I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1952 
To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require the Securities 
and Exchange Commission to allow publicly traded companies with a 
certain sized public float to change their stocks’ tick sizes to increase 
liquidity by incentivizing capital commitment, research coverage, and 
brokerage support, thereby increasing the stocks’ liquidity and investor 
interest, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 13, 2013 
Mr. SCHWEIKERT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require 
the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow pub-
licly traded companies with a certain sized public float 
to change their stocks’ tick sizes to increase liquidity 
by incentivizing capital commitment, research coverage, 
and brokerage support, thereby increasing the stocks’ 
liquidity and investor interest, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Spread Pricing Liquid-
ity Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. TICK SIZE FOR CERTAIN ISSUERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 11A(c)(6) of the Securi-
ties Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78k–1(c)(6)) is 
amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(6) TICK SIZE FOR CERTAIN ISSUERS.— 
‘‘(A) SELECTION.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The board of di-
rectors of an issuer with a public float of 
$500,000,000 or less (based on a rolling 
average over the course of the preceding 3- 
month period) and an average daily trad-
ing volume of less than 500,000 shares 
may select to have the securities of the 
issuer quoted and traded using an incre-
ment of either $0.05 or $0.10. 
‘‘(ii) MANNER OF SELECTION.—A se-
lection under this subparagraph shall be 
made by informing the Commission and 
each exchange on which the securities of 
the issuer are quoted or traded. 
‘‘(iii) 
LIMITATION
ON
CERTAIN 
ISSUERS.—With respect to the average 
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trading price in the most recent 1-month 
period for the securities of an issuer— 
‘‘(I) if such average price is less 
than $1, the issuer may not make the 
selection under this subparagraph; 
and 
‘‘(II) if such average price is $1 
or more, but less than $2, the issuer 
may only select to have the securities 
of the issuer quoted and traded using 
an increment of $0.05. 
‘‘(iv) CONSULTATION.—In making a 
selection under this subparagraph, the 
board of directors shall first consult with 
the issuer’s primary listing market. 
‘‘(B) TRADING
REQUIREMENTS.—If an 
issuer has made the selection under subpara-
graph (A)— 
‘‘(i) all quotes of the securities of such 
issuer shall be done using only the incre-
ment selected; 
‘‘(ii) an exchange on which the securi-
ties of such issuer are traded may not 
charge a fee for a person engaging in such 
a trade, unless such fee is uniform for all 
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trades and based solely on the number of 
shares traded; and 
‘‘(iii) such selection shall not prevent 
the securities of the issuer being traded at 
increments other than the increment se-
lected. 
‘‘(C) RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF SELECTION.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—An issuer that has 
made the selection under subparagraph (A) 
may choose to opt out of such selection at 
any time after the 6-month period begin-
ning on the date such selection was made. 
‘‘(ii) MANNER
OF
OPT
OUT.—An 
issuer that chooses to opt out of the selec-
tion under subparagraph (A) shall do so by 
informing the Commission and each ex-
change on which the securities of the 
issuer are quoted or traded. 
‘‘(iii) FUTURE
SELECTION.—Subject 
to subparagraph (D), an issuer that opts 
out of the selection under subparagraph 
(A) may make the selection under subpara-
graph (A) again at any time after the 1- 
year period beginning on the date of the 
opt out. 
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‘‘(D) 
TREATMENT
OF
ISSUERS
SUR-
PASSING CAP.—If the public float of an issuer 
that has made the selection under subpara-
graph (A) rises above $500,000,000 (based on 
a rolling average over the course of a 3-month 
period) or the average daily trading volume of 
the issuer raises above 500,000 then, after the 
end of the 3-month period beginning on the 
date of such occurrence— 
‘‘(i) the issuer shall no longer be con-
sidered to have made the selection under 
subparagraph (A); and 
‘‘(ii) the issuer shall be ineligible to 
make a selection under subparagraph (A) 
during the 2-year period beginning after 
the end of such 3-month period, regardless 
of the issuer’s public float or average daily 
trading volume. 
‘‘(E) STUDY AND REPORT.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the 
end of the 9-month period beginning on 
the date of the enactment of this para-
graph, and annually thereafter, the Com-
mission shall carry out a study of the 
quoting and trading of securities in incre-
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ments of $0.05 and $0.10 permitted by 
this paragraph, and the extent to which 
such a system is increasing liquidity by 
incentivizing capital commitment, research 
coverage, and brokerage support. 
‘‘(ii) REPORT
TO
CONGRESS.—Upon 
the completion of each study described 
under clause (i), the Commission shall 
issue a report to the Congress containing 
all of the findings and determinations 
made in carrying out such study, along 
with any legislative recommendations the 
Commission may have. 
‘‘(F) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 
paragraph: 
‘‘(i) AVERAGE
DAILY
TRADING
VOL-
UME.—With respect to a security, the term 
‘average daily trading volume’ means the 
average, over the previous 3-month period, 
of— 
‘‘(I) the aggregate daily volume 
for bids made on the security within 
the price band; and 
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‘‘(II) the aggregate daily volume 
for offers made on the security within 
the price band. 
‘‘(ii) PRICE BAND.—With respect to a 
security, the term ‘price band’ means the 
range between the price that is 25 cents 
below the trading price of the security and 
the price that is 25 cents above the trading 
price of the security. 
‘‘(iii) 
PUBLIC
FLOAT.—The 
term 
‘public float’ means the amount of equity 
of an issuer that is held by persons who 
are not affiliated with the issuer, deter-
mined by multiplying the number of shares 
of such stock by the price of one of such 
shares.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 11A(c)(6) of the Se-
curities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by sub-
section (a), shall take effect— 
(A) with respect to an issuer with a public 
float of $100,000,000 or less (based on a roll-
ing average over the course of the preceding 3- 
month period) and an average daily trading vol-
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ume of less than 100,000, on the date of the 
enactment of this Act; 
(B) with respect to an issuer that is not 
described under subparagraph (A) and that has 
a public float of $250,000,000 or less (based on 
a rolling average over the course of the pre-
ceding 3-month period) and an average daily 
trading volume of less than 250,000, after the 
end of the 3-month period beginning on the 
date of the enactment of this Act; and 
(C) with respect to an issuer that is not 
described under subparagraph (A) or (B) and 
that has a public float of $500,000,000 or less 
(based on a rolling average over the course of 
the preceding 3-month period) and an average 
daily trading volume of less than 500,000, after 
the end of the 6-month period beginning on the 
date of the enactment of this Act. 
(2) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-
section, the terms ‘‘average daily trading volume’’ 
and ‘‘public float’’ have the meaning given those 
terms, respectively, under section 11A(c)(6)(F) of 
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. 
Æ 
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