Citadel, one of the largest options traders in the US, has called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to remove several single stock options from its pilot programme of quoting prices in pennies, rather than five and 10 cent increments, because of a sharp decline in liquidity.

The pilot programme, which began in January and involves six US options exchanges, was designed to reduce spreads on options pricing. It started with 13 names, including three options based on indices and 10 on individual stocks.