This is complete BS. I own 10 million shares of a company and am having a difficult time selling due to the inability to trade out in hundred of thousandths of a cent, yet I see it done all day long and in small quantities. I called scottrade and they tell me they dont allow it yet I see in this thread that do if you call. Etrade told me a broker could assist for a fee, but yet the broker says they can't what is the true story?
The hunredth-of a-cent "price improvement" is part of the retail broker/wholesaler "payment-for-order-flow" system, a bizarre arrangement pioneered largely by Bernie Madoff to take trading off of the public exchanges so that retail brokers can get a kickback on every trade in exchange for giving retail orders (probably and on average) worse execution that they can't normally see. http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3519.html There isn't much you can do about it save contact your congressman and/or the SEC to encourage them to end such wholesaler payment-for-order-flow arrangements. You could also get around the wholesalers (possibly) by sending your orders to a real exchange, if your broker allows you to "direct" your orders. Starting in September, IEX will be a full-fledged exchange and they have a much more fair and transparent system than do the retail-wholesaler systems, as well as some anti-HFT features.