THE moves proposed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Friday targeting speculative trading in penny stocks are welcome since all are aimed at improving the quality of listings, transparency and levelling the playing field for small investors. Some were obvious and overdue - for example the need to regulate the announcement of broking firms' trading curbs was raised twice before in this column a year ago ("Broker-imposed trading curbs - how to manage?" Hock Lock Siew, Feb 7, 2013, "Broker-imposed trading curbs part 2 - SGX must regulate" Hock Lock Siew, March 19, 2013). So it's encouraging that the authorities are now proposing that any announcement of trading curbs be made via SGX's website and not in the ad hoc, unregulated manner currently practised which gives broking firm insiders an unfair advantage.