SEC Modifies New Rules for Nasdaq

Federal regulators again modified new trading rules for the Nasdaq Stock Market to ease in an overhaul designed to give small investors a better chance to compete with professionals for the best prices on trades. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved a three-month pilot project that will apply only to the 50 most actively traded stocks on the nation’s second-largest market, beginning Jan. 20. The new trading rules are supposed to improve price competition and prevent a form of price-fixing by dealers discovered in government investigations this summer. The remainder of shares in the 5,540 Nasdaq-listed companies will be phased in by September.