Uptick rule
Encyclopedia
The uptick rule refers to a trading restriction that disallowed short selling
of securities except on an uptick. For the rule to be satisfied, the short must be either at a price above the last traded price of the security, or at the last traded price if that price was higher than the price in the previous trade.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defined the rule, and summarized it:
"Rule 10a-1(a)(1) provided that, subject to certain exceptions, a listed security may be sold short (A) at a price above the price at which the immediately preceding sale was effected (plus tick), or (B) at the last sale price if it is higher than the last different price (zero-plus tick). Short sales were not permitted on minus ticks or zero-minus ticks, subject to narrow exceptions."
The rule went into effect in 1938 and was removed when Rule 201 Regulation SHO became effective in 2007. In 2009, the reintroduction of the uptick rule was widely debated, and proposals for a form of its reintroduction by the SEC went into a public comment period on 2009-04-08.
was SEC commissioner.
In 1994, the NASD and Nasdaq
adopted their own short sale price tests, known as NASD Rule 3350, based on the last bid
rather than on the last reported sale.
In 1978, the purpose of the uptick rule was described in a standard text "To correct inequities that occurred on Stock Exchanges prior to 1934, the SEC implemented Rule 10a-1 and 10a-2. It was not unusual in those days to discover groups of speculators pooling their capital
and selling short for the sole purpose of driving down the stock price of a particular security to a level where the stockholders would panic
and unload their fully owned shares. This, in turn, caused even greater declines in value."
Short sale data was made publicly available during this pilot to allow the public and Commission staff to study the effects of eliminating short sale price test restrictions. Third-party researchers analyzed the publicly available data and presented their findings in a public Roundtable discussion in September 2006. The Commission staff also studied the pilot data extensively and made its findings available in draft form in September 2006, and final form in February 2007.
At the time the SEC acted in 2007, two different types of price tests covered significant numbers of securities. The Nasdaq "bid" test, based on the national best bid, covered approximately 2,900 Nasdaq securities in 2005 (or 44 million short sales). The SEC's former uptick test (former Rule 10a-1), based on the last sale price, covered approximately 4,000 exchange-listed securities (or 68 million short sales)."
Commenting on the scrapping of the uptick rule, The Economist reported that "short-sellers argue [it] was largely symbolic, and it remains in place at only a few of the world's big stock exchanges."
, former state banking superintendent of New York
, "Wall Street veteran and financial sage", and, in 1967, the first woman to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange
. In this article she expressed severe concerns about market volatility
: “We’ve never seen volatility like this. We’re watching history being made.” Siebert pointed to the uptick rule, saying, “The S.E.C. took away the short-sale rule and when the markets were falling, institutional investors just pounded stocks because they didn’t need an uptick."
On March 28, 2008 Jim Cramer of CNBC
offered the opinion that the absence of the uptick rule harms the stock market today. He claimed that reintroducing the uptick rule would help stabilize the banking sector.
On July 3, 2008 Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
, an adviser on mergers and acquisitions, said short-selling was at record levels and asked the SEC to take urgent action and reinstate the 70-year-old uptick rule. On November 20, 2008, they renewed their call stating "Decisive action cannot await ... a new S.E.C. Chairman. ... There is no tomorrow. The failure to reinstate the Uptick Rule is not acceptable."
On July 16, 2008, Congressman Gary Ackerman
(D-NY), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY) and Congressman Mike Capuano
(D-MA) introduced H.R. 6517, "A bill to require the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate the uptick rule on short sales of securities."
On September 18, 2008, presidential candidate and Senator John McCain
(R-AZ) said that the SEC allowed short-selling to turn "our markets into a casino." McCain criticized the SEC and its Chairman for eliminating the uptick rule.
On October 6, 2008, Erik Sirri, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, said that the SEC is considering bringing back the uptick rule, stating, "It's something we have talked about and it may be something that we in fact do."
On October 17, 2008, the New York Stock Exchange reported a survey with 85% of its members being in favor of reinstating the uptick rule with the dominant reason to "help instill market confidence".
On November 18, 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion editorial by Robert Pozen
and Yaneer Bar-Yam
describing an analysis of the difference between regulated and unregulated stocks during the SEC pilot program. By using an analysis they claimed to be more comprehensive than the SEC's original study, they showed that unregulated stocks have lower returns, with a difference that is both statistically and economically significant. They also reported that twice as many stocks had greater than 40% drops in corresponding 12 month periods before and after the repeal.
On January 20, 2009, Ackerman received a letter from Chairman Cox—written the day he left the SEC—in which Cox said he supports the reinstatement of an uptick rule. The letter reads, “I have been interested in proposing an updated uptick rule. However, as you know, the SEC is a commission of five members. Throughout 2008 there was not a majority interested in reconsidering the 2007 decision to repeal the uptick rule, or in proposing some modernized variant of it. I sincerely hope that the commission, in the year ahead, continues to reassess this issue in light of the extraordinary market events of the last several months, with a view to implementing a modernized version of the uptick rule.”
On February 25, 2009, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
, Ben Bernanke
in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee stated he favored the SEC to examine the restoration of the uptick-rule.
On March 10, 2009, the SEC and Congressman Barney Frank
(D-MA), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee announced plans to restore the uptick rule. Frank said he was hopeful that it would be restored within a month.
The SEC disclosed the 273 page text of the proposals on April 17, 2009. The comment period closed on June 19, 2009.
Market-Wide, Permanent Approach:
Security-Specific, Temporary Approach:
's novel Noble House
.
They instituted one following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
Karl B. Diether, Kuan-Hui Lee, and Ingrid M. Werner stated in their study: "The results suggest that the effect of the price-tests on market quality can largely be attributed to the distortions in order flow created by the price-tests in the first place. Therefore, we believe that the price-tests can safely be permanently suspended."
One empirical study found no statistically significant link between the uptick rule and the rates of price decline.
A 2006 study by Alexander and Peterson found no substantial differences between stocks subjected to the rule and those that were not.
While the market experienced a brief upward trend when the rule first became effective in February 1938, it ultimately continued the broad decline that had begun in 1937—though the fact that the market suffers a short-term decline does not necessarily establish that the rule is ineffective in contributing to long-term market confidence.
Short selling
In finance, short selling is the practice of selling assets, usually securities, that have been borrowed from a third party with the intention of buying identical assets back at a later date to return to that third party...
of securities except on an uptick. For the rule to be satisfied, the short must be either at a price above the last traded price of the security, or at the last traded price if that price was higher than the price in the previous trade.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defined the rule, and summarized it:
"Rule 10a-1(a)(1) provided that, subject to certain exceptions, a listed security may be sold short (A) at a price above the price at which the immediately preceding sale was effected (plus tick), or (B) at the last sale price if it is higher than the last different price (zero-plus tick). Short sales were not permitted on minus ticks or zero-minus ticks, subject to narrow exceptions."
The rule went into effect in 1938 and was removed when Rule 201 Regulation SHO became effective in 2007. In 2009, the reintroduction of the uptick rule was widely debated, and proposals for a form of its reintroduction by the SEC went into a public comment period on 2009-04-08.
Origin
In 1938, the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] (SEC) adopted the uptick rule, more formally known as rule 10a-1, after conducting an inquiry into the effects of concentrated short selling during the market break of 1937. The original rule was implemented when Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
was SEC commissioner.
In 1994, the NASD and Nasdaq
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
adopted their own short sale price tests, known as NASD Rule 3350, based on the last bid
Bid price
A bid price is the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay for a good. It is usually referred to simply as the "bid."In bid and ask, the bid price stands in contrast to the ask price or "offer", and the difference between the two is called the bid/ask spread.An unsolicited bid or purchase...
rather than on the last reported sale.
In 1978, the purpose of the uptick rule was described in a standard text "To correct inequities that occurred on Stock Exchanges prior to 1934, the SEC implemented Rule 10a-1 and 10a-2. It was not unusual in those days to discover groups of speculators pooling their capital
Financial capital
Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
and selling short for the sole purpose of driving down the stock price of a particular security to a level where the stockholders would panic
Financial crisis
The term financial crisis is applied broadly to a variety of situations in which some financial institutions or assets suddenly lose a large part of their value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and many recessions coincided with these...
and unload their fully owned shares. This, in turn, caused even greater declines in value."
SEC actions commencing in 2004 leading to the end of the uptick rule
"In 2004, the Commission initiated a year-long pilot that eliminated short sale price test restrictions from approximately one-third of the largest stocks. The purpose of the pilot was to study how the removal of such short sale price test restrictions impacted the market for those subject securities.Short sale data was made publicly available during this pilot to allow the public and Commission staff to study the effects of eliminating short sale price test restrictions. Third-party researchers analyzed the publicly available data and presented their findings in a public Roundtable discussion in September 2006. The Commission staff also studied the pilot data extensively and made its findings available in draft form in September 2006, and final form in February 2007.
At the time the SEC acted in 2007, two different types of price tests covered significant numbers of securities. The Nasdaq "bid" test, based on the national best bid, covered approximately 2,900 Nasdaq securities in 2005 (or 44 million short sales). The SEC's former uptick test (former Rule 10a-1), based on the last sale price, covered approximately 4,000 exchange-listed securities (or 68 million short sales)."
Elimination of the uptick rule
The SEC eliminated the uptick rule on July 6, 2007. The SEC concluded from the study cited above: "The general consensus from these analyses and the roundtable was that the Commission should remove price test restrictions because they modestly reduce liquidity and do not appear necessary to prevent manipulation. In addition, the empirical evidence did not provide strong support for extending a price test to either small or thinly-traded securities not currently subject to a price test."Commenting on the scrapping of the uptick rule, The Economist reported that "short-sellers argue [it] was largely symbolic, and it remains in place at only a few of the world's big stock exchanges."
Calls for reinstatement
On August 27, 2007, the New York Times published an article on Muriel SiebertMuriel Siebert
Muriel “Mickie” Siebert, , and known as "The First Woman of Finance", was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman to head one of its member firms. Her struggle to obtain that seat – and join the 1365 male members of the exchange – culminated...
, former state banking superintendent of New York
New York State Banking Department
The New York State Banking Department was created by the New York Legislature on April 15, 1851, with a chief officer to be known as the Superintendent...
, "Wall Street veteran and financial sage", and, in 1967, the first woman to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
. In this article she expressed severe concerns about market volatility
Volatility (finance)
In finance, volatility is a measure for variation of price of a financial instrument over time. Historic volatility is derived from time series of past market prices...
: “We’ve never seen volatility like this. We’re watching history being made.” Siebert pointed to the uptick rule, saying, “The S.E.C. took away the short-sale rule and when the markets were falling, institutional investors just pounded stocks because they didn’t need an uptick."
On March 28, 2008 Jim Cramer of CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
offered the opinion that the absence of the uptick rule harms the stock market today. He claimed that reintroducing the uptick rule would help stabilize the banking sector.
On July 3, 2008 Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is a prominent law firm located in New York City. Herbert Wachtell, Martin Lipton, Leonard Rosen, and George Katz founded the firm in 1965. All four were graduates of New York University School of Law...
, an adviser on mergers and acquisitions, said short-selling was at record levels and asked the SEC to take urgent action and reinstate the 70-year-old uptick rule. On November 20, 2008, they renewed their call stating "Decisive action cannot await ... a new S.E.C. Chairman. ... There is no tomorrow. The failure to reinstate the Uptick Rule is not acceptable."
On July 16, 2008, Congressman Gary Ackerman
Gary Ackerman
Gary Leonard Ackerman is the U.S. Representative for , serving since a special election in 1983. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
(D-NY), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
Carolyn B. Maloney
Carolyn Bosher Maloney is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, popularly known as the "silk stocking district", includes most of Manhattan's East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens; and Roosevelt Island.-Early life,...
(D-NY) and Congressman Mike Capuano
Mike Capuano
Michael Everett "Mike" Capuano is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and Tip O'Neill, includes the northern three-fourths of Boston, as well as Somerville and Cambridge...
(D-MA) introduced H.R. 6517, "A bill to require the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate the uptick rule on short sales of securities."
On September 18, 2008, presidential candidate and Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
(R-AZ) said that the SEC allowed short-selling to turn "our markets into a casino." McCain criticized the SEC and its Chairman for eliminating the uptick rule.
On October 6, 2008, Erik Sirri, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, said that the SEC is considering bringing back the uptick rule, stating, "It's something we have talked about and it may be something that we in fact do."
On October 17, 2008, the New York Stock Exchange reported a survey with 85% of its members being in favor of reinstating the uptick rule with the dominant reason to "help instill market confidence".
On November 18, 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion editorial by Robert Pozen
Robert Pozen
Robert C. Pozen is an American financial executive with a strong interest in public policy. He is the former chairman of MFS Investment Management, the oldest mutual fund company in the United States...
and Yaneer Bar-Yam
Yaneer Bar-Yam
Yaneer Bar-Yam is an American physicist, systems scientist, and founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute.-Biography:...
describing an analysis of the difference between regulated and unregulated stocks during the SEC pilot program. By using an analysis they claimed to be more comprehensive than the SEC's original study, they showed that unregulated stocks have lower returns, with a difference that is both statistically and economically significant. They also reported that twice as many stocks had greater than 40% drops in corresponding 12 month periods before and after the repeal.
On January 20, 2009, Ackerman received a letter from Chairman Cox—written the day he left the SEC—in which Cox said he supports the reinstatement of an uptick rule. The letter reads, “I have been interested in proposing an updated uptick rule. However, as you know, the SEC is a commission of five members. Throughout 2008 there was not a majority interested in reconsidering the 2007 decision to repeal the uptick rule, or in proposing some modernized variant of it. I sincerely hope that the commission, in the year ahead, continues to reassess this issue in light of the extraordinary market events of the last several months, with a view to implementing a modernized version of the uptick rule.”
On February 25, 2009, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Chairman of the Federal Reserve
The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the central banking system of the United States. Known colloquially as "Chairman of the Fed," or in market circles "Fed Chairman" or "Fed Chief"...
, Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist, and the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as Chairman, Bernanke has overseen the response of the Federal Reserve to late-2000s financial crisis....
in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee stated he favored the SEC to examine the restoration of the uptick-rule.
On March 10, 2009, the SEC and Congressman Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...
(D-MA), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee announced plans to restore the uptick rule. Frank said he was hopeful that it would be restored within a month.
Proposals for restoration of the uptick rule
On April 8, 2009, the SEC voted to seek public comment on the following proposals to restore a form of the uptick rule.The SEC disclosed the 273 page text of the proposals on April 17, 2009. The comment period closed on June 19, 2009.
Market-Wide, Permanent Approach:
- Proposed Modified Uptick Rule: A market-wide short sale price test based on the national best bid (a proposed modified uptick rule).
- Proposed Uptick Rule: A market-wide short sale price test based on the last sale price or tick (a proposed uptick rule).
Security-Specific, Temporary Approach:
- Circuit Breaker: A circuit breaker that would either:
- Ban short selling in a particular security for the remainder of the day if there is a severe decline in price in that security (a proposed circuit breaker halt rule).
- Impose a short sale price test based on the national best bid in a particular security for the remainder of the day if there is a severe decline in price in that security (a proposed circuit breaker modified uptick rule).
- Impose a short sale price test based on the last sale price in a particular security for the remainder of the day if there is a severe decline in price in that security (a proposed circuit breaker uptick rule).
Hong Kong
Hong Kong traditionally had no uptick rule, a situation depicted in James ClavellJames Clavell
James Clavell, born Charles Edmund DuMaresq Clavell was an Australian-born, British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war...
's novel Noble House
Noble House
Noble House is a novel by James Clavell, published in 1981 and set in Hong Kong in 1963.It is a massive book, well over 1000 pages, with dozens of characters and numerous intermingling plot lines. In 1988, it was adapted as a television miniseries for NBC starring Pierce Brosnan...
.
They instituted one following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
Effectiveness of the rule
Gordon J. Alexander and Mark A. Peterson, in an academic study of the uptick rule, found "the execution quality of short-sell orders is adversely affected by the Uptick Rule, even when stocks are trading in advancing markets. This is inconsistent with one of the three stated objectives of the rule, i.e., to allow relatively unrestricted short selling when a firm's stock is advancing so that the rule does not affect price discovery during such times."Karl B. Diether, Kuan-Hui Lee, and Ingrid M. Werner stated in their study: "The results suggest that the effect of the price-tests on market quality can largely be attributed to the distortions in order flow created by the price-tests in the first place. Therefore, we believe that the price-tests can safely be permanently suspended."
One empirical study found no statistically significant link between the uptick rule and the rates of price decline.
A 2006 study by Alexander and Peterson found no substantial differences between stocks subjected to the rule and those that were not.
While the market experienced a brief upward trend when the rule first became effective in February 1938, it ultimately continued the broad decline that had begun in 1937—though the fact that the market suffers a short-term decline does not necessarily establish that the rule is ineffective in contributing to long-term market confidence.