National Market System

On February 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed to modernize the infrastructure for the collection, consolidation and dissemination of market data for exchange-listed national market system (NMS) securities, including by expanding the content of included NMS market data and introducing a decentralized consolidation model with competing data consolidators.
Continue Reading SEC Proposes to Modernize Infrastructure for NMS Securities Market Data

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has filed proposed rules with the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt FINRA Rule 6800 Series, which is designed to implement the compliance rule regarding the National Market System (NMS) Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail.

Pursuant to Regulation NMS, various exchanges have filed with the SEC a plan to create, implement and maintain a consolidated audit trail (CAT) to capture information related to customers and order events for transactions in NMS securities and over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities. The CAT will capture order information across all markets and throughout the life of an order (from inception to execution). Each exchange must enforce compliance with the plan with respect to its members or trading permit holders.
Continue Reading FINRA Files Proposed Rules With The SEC To Implement Consolidated Audit Trail Plan

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued an order that modifies and extends the National Market System (NMS) Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility. Specifically, the SEC has approved the modification of the definition of “opening price” in instances in which the primary listing exchange opens with quotations. In these instances, the opening price will be the closing price of the NMS stock on the primary listing exchange on the previous trading day, or if no such closing price exists, the last sale on the primary listing exchange reported by the securities information processor.
Continue Reading SEC Modifies and Extends Pilot Program for NMS Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to publish for public comment a National Market System (NMS) plan to create a consolidated audit trail (CAT) to better enable regulators to track trading in equity and option securities. The CAT plan was submitted jointly by the national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to the SEC.
Continue Reading SEC Seeks Public Comment on Consolidated Audit Trail Proposal

On October 3, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will begin publishing monthly statistics on block-size trades occurring on alternative trading systems (ATSs). The statistics regarding ATS block-size trades will be aggregated across all National Market System (NMS) stocks (i.e., there will be no security-by-security block data), will be for a time period of one month of trading, and will be published no earlier than one month following the end of the month for which trading was aggregated.
Continue Reading FINRA to Publish ATS Block-Size Trade Data