A regulatory advisory panel on Friday urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission not to launch a test program that would allow the stocks of small-cap companies to trade in wider increments, a recommendation that clashes with a proposal from a different SEC committee. The commission is still deciding whether to approve the launch of a pilot program to increase so-called "tick sizes," or the minimum pricing increments, in which the stock of small companies trade. The recommendation by the Investor Advisory Committee clashes with a proposal floated last year by a business-friendly SEC advisory panel, which could make it harder for the SEC to decide whether to pursue a pilot program to change the tick sizes. The practice known as decimalization, in which the SEC required all listed stocks to be traded and quoted in one-penny increments instead of in fractional increments such as one-sixteenth of a dollar, was introduced in 2001. Critics, including stock exchanges and some
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