MARKET STRUCTURE DICTIONARY
BY
BRIAN W. LEITE
An Insider's Guide to the Real Language of
Trading and Exchanges
Over 2700 Entries
Congressional oversight, circa 1882 (pre Reg NMS)
Regulation Channel
Brokers, Dark Pools May Face Automation Reviews
Sept 14, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The Securities and Exchange Commission may include large brokers and dark pools in a planned rule aimed at ensuring that regulated securities markets have adequate technology systems, an SEC official said.
SEC Pushes Market Technology Roundtable to Oct. 2
SEC Mulls Bigger Ticks for Smaller Stocks
SEC: Spreadsheets Don’t Count as Backtest Data
Sept 5, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor If you’re going to claim you backtested an investment strategy through different sets of economic conditions, you better be able to prove it, the SEC tells a nationally syndicated financial author.
US SEC Proposes Lifting Ad Ban on Private Stock Offers
Aug 29, 2012 Advanced Trading U.S. securities regulators voted 4-1 on Wednesday to propose lifting a long-standing ban on general advertising for private securities offerings, a measure that some say will spur economic growth but one which critics fear could pave the way for fraud.
Buy-Side Firms Fund Lab to Promote Supercomputing for Market Regulation
Nasdaqs Benchmark Orders Plan Raises SEC Concerns
August 16, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator has ordered a review of Nasdaqs proposal to create a type of order that would spawn child orders that would be presumably outside the control and supervision of the broker-dealer firm that entered the initial order.
SEC OKs Nasdaq Plan to Speed Routing of Away Orders
Aug 13, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Nasdaq OMXs plan to create a form of routable order that simultaneously executes trades against available shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market and routes it to other venues.
Help Wanted: SEC Creates New Data Analysis Group
Aug 10, 2012 Traders Magazine Number crunchers, programmers and ex-traders can get their resumes ready. The Securities and Exchange Commission is in an expansion mode and hiring, because it is forming a new group to analyze trading data and monitor the markets.
SEC's Schapiro: Circuit Breakers Contained Knight Capital Damage
Aug 3, 2012 Advanced Trading The SEC Chairman said the regulator is examining whether additional steps must be taken to shore up the markets.
August 1, 2012 ModernIR Do you hate day traders? Reading the 30-page Waiver and Consent letter from Peter Beck, who once ran now-defunct day-trading firm Swift Trade, it seems FINRA must.
SEC Implementing Real-Time Market Tracking System
July 17, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator dropped its requirement for real-time reporting when it mandated last week that the securities industry produce a consolidated and auditable trail of all market activity in stocks and options. But four of its divisions are working together to implement a system for pulling in all market data feeds in real time and analyzing them for patterns. A contract was awarded in June and work on the project has begun.
Consolidated Audit Trail: The Cheat Sheet
July 13, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The differences between the proposed rule for creating a Consolidated Audit Trail for systematically tracking activity on the nations equity and equity options exchanges and the adopted rule are fairly stark.
SEC Adopts Consolidated Audit Trail to Boost Trade Oversight
July 11, 2012 Traders Magazine The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a rule today that would build a single system to monitor and analyze trading activity acrossU.S. equity and options markets.
SEC Approves NYSE Retail Liquidity Program
July 5, 2012 Traders Magazine Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved controversial proposals by exchanges operated by NYSE Euronext that will enable them to compete with wholesalers for retail order flow.
SEC Approves Nasdaq Technical Error Policy
June 29, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator has approved a rule change requested before the May 18 Facebook IPO that defines the responsibility of Nasdaq and its Nasdaq Execution Services affiliate for errant orders when a technical issue arises.
Congressman to Propose Bill Allowing Issuers to Pay for Market Making
June 27, 2012 Traders Magazine A Republican congressman plans to introduce a bill that would encourage stock exchanges to develop programs that permit their listed companies to pay market makers to support their stocks. The bill would also void rules of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that bar the payments.
Circuit Breaker Deadline Looms
May 29, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to decide on Thursday whether or not to approve two anti-volatility measures proposed by the nations stock exchanges. Up for a vote is a proposal to refine a rule that halts trading in individual securities and one that halts trading in the market as a whole.
Wall St and Republicans Team Up to Curb CFTC
June 7, 2012 Advanced Trading The GOP has an ally in Wall Street in the fight to weaken the Dodd-Frank Act.
SEC Approves Market-Wide & Single-Stock Circuit Breakers
June 1, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator reduced the thresholds for triggering the breakers to as low as a 7 percent drop in the Standard & Poors 500 Index. Also approved is the limit-up, limit-down rule that blocks trading in single stocks when the price moves outside a specified price band.
SEC Expected to Greenlight Anti-Volatility Measures
May 30, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to approve today two proposals by the nation's exchanges intended to dampen volatility in the stock market.
Circuit Breaker Deadline Looms
May 29, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to decide on Thursday whether or not to approve two anti-volatility measures proposed by the nations stock exchanges. Up for a vote is a proposal to refine a rule that halts trading in individual securities and one that halts trading in the market as a whole.
Regulators Finishing Probes on Layering & Spoofing of Trades
May 24, 2012 Traders Magazine Federal regulators are close to finishing "five or six" investigations that are based on emerging forms of false trading that use high-speed electronic access to markets.
Where is the Spec for the Large Trader Rule?
New Canadian Trade-At Rule Gets Mixed Reviews
May 15, 2012 Traders Magazine Canadian regulators have passed new rules governing dark pools in Canada, eliciting mixed responses from market participants, with no discernible consensus from either the buyside or sellside, or from the dark pools themselves.
Is the End of Single-Stock Circuit Breakers Near?
SEC to Examine Tick Size for Small Caps
April 17, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing a review to see if raising the minimum trading increment for so-called "emerging growth companies" and other small-cap stocks could increase liquidity in these thinly traded names.
SEC readies vote on circuit-breaker replacement
April 11, 2012 The Trade On 4 April, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced, after several extensions, that it would finally decide whether to approve a new volatility-mitigation plan for the US equities market by 31 May.
U.S. securities watchdog probes high-frequency trading firms - report
March 23, 2012 Reuters The U.S. securities watchdog is looking at whether some high-frequency trading firms have used their close links to computerised stock exchanges to gain an unfair advantage over other investors, the Wall Street Journal said.
TradeTech Coverage: Former SEC Official Says Volcker Rule Will Harm Market
March 9, 2012 Traders Magazine Implementation of the so-called Volcker Rule will do nothing but harm theU.S. equities market and trading because of the lack of clarity regarding what constitutes proprietary trading and market making, according to a former Securities and Exchange Commission official.
STA Helps Scuttle Trading Amendment
March 16, 2012 Traders Magazine A note to Congress: Please stop casually messing around with market structure in the equities marketplace. If there are going to be any major changes, we'd much rather they be handled by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Or at least not be tacked onto another bill as an afterthought.
Q&A: Beware a Tax On Cancelled HFT Orders
March 15, 2012 Advanced Trading As the SEC ponders how to slow down the furious pace of high frequency trading, different ideas have come to light. Advanced Trading spoke with Michael Jenkins, partner in the financial services and strategy practices of A.T. Kearney. Portions of this interview appeared in our March 2012 cover story.
Regulators Contemplate Slamming the Brakes on High-Frequency Trading
March 7, 2012 Advanced Trading Regulators, including the SEC and the CFTC, are struggling to keep up with -- and keep a grip on -- the warp-speed world of high-frequency trading. Fearing that the markets are dangerously out of control, regulators are considering some severe measures to slow down high-speed traders.
Little Chance Transaction Tax Will Make It to U.S.
Feb 17, 2012 Traders Magazine Although Frances cabinet, the Council of Ministers, has recently adopted a plan for a financial transactions tax, similar measures are highly unlikely in the United States.
High-Frequency Trades, CFTC Budget, Trading Tax: Compliance
Feb 13, 2012 Bloomberg High-frequency traders may win a partial reprieve from proposed European Union rules designed to prevent a repeat of the so-called flash crash after banks and exchanges including Deutsche Bank AG and NYSE Euronext warned they could damage markets and lead to an exodus of traders.
Feb 3, 2012 Traders Magazine Trading desks are starting to get visits from Washington's new super regulator: the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Formed in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act, FSOC is an inter-agency regulatory body chaired by the U.S. Treasury and charged with identifying risks in the U.S. financial system.
EU Blocks "Near-Monopoly" of D.Boerse-NYSE Merger
February 1, 2012 Advanced Trading EU regulators have blocked the tie-up of exchange operators Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext to stop them taking a stranglehold on the European futures market.
CFTC Weighs New Rules for High-Frequency Derivatives Trading
Jan 30, 2012 Bloomberg The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is working to complete Dodd-Frank Act rules for derivatives markets, is weighing new rules and oversight of companies that use automated and high-frequency trading systems.
CFTC panel to review high-frequency trading
Jan 30, 2012 Reuters The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is expected to review a rapid-fire technique that allows traders to buy and sell shares at lightning speed, a step that could help it better understand the impact of an activity critics say threatens market stability.
Jan 13, 2012 Traders Magazine As regulators start to press their agendas for the coming year, Traders Magazine asked some industry experts what they expect to be the biggest regulatory and market-structure issues of 2012.
Insight: SEC tightens leash on exchanges post "flash crash"
Jan 12, 2012 Reuters The May 2012 "flash crash" was bad for almost everyone involved in the stock market, but for the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was a disaster.
Ed Knight of Nasdaq OMX Discusses ....
Jan 9, 2012 Traders Magazine Ed Knight, general counsel and executive vice president at Nasdaq OMX, testified before the Senate Banking Committee in December during a hearing on the status of capital formation and job creation. Knight argued that the marketplace was overly fragmented and that exchanges needed government help in supporting the trading of small company stocks.
Wall Street Trades at Speed of Light Need Traffic Cops: View
Jan 2, 2012 Bloomberg The past year in U.S. stock markets earned a place in the volatility (VIX) Hall of Fame, coming in just behind the full-blown financial crisis years of 2008 and 2009
U.S. Clears NYSE-Deutsche Boerse Deal With Direct Edge Sale
Dec 28, 2011 Bloomberg NYSE Euronexts acquisition by Deutsche Boerse AG was cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice, putting the transaction in the hands of European antitrust authorities who have resisted approval.
SEC Rejects Nasdaq's 'Paid-For-Market-Making' Proposal
Dec 23, 2011 Traders Magazine Nasdaq OMX, on the verge of creating a stock exchange for small companies, was dealt a setback by the Securities and Exchange Commission over a plan to ask issuers to pay market makers for quoting.
Exchanges Say Colocation Is A Regulated Business
Dec 20, 2011 Wall Street and Tech All market participants are equidistant from the matching engines in colocation facilities, say exchange officials who've had to file their policies with regulators.
France Urges Tougher Rules on High-Frequency Trades, Dark Pools
Dec 16, 2011 Bloomberg Frances financial market regulator urged the European Union to toughen its planned overhaul of rules, highlighting the need for more oversight of high-frequency trading and new trading platforms.
Top Stories 2011: Regulators Look to Pacify the Market
Dec 15, 2011 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators had a busy year, addressing market concerns about how to create a more stable trading environment and restore confidence rattled by last year's flash crash. Regulators introduced a myriad of rules this year and floated new proposals to fix market structure flaws that led to the May 6, 2010 event and to get a better handle on the forces driving the market.
U.S. Transaction Tax, Clearinghouses, MF Global: Compliance
Nov 4, 2011 Bloomberg Two U.S. lawmakers outlined a proposal to tax U.S. transactions at a rate of 0.03 percent and urged the congressional deficit-reduction panel to include the idea in their final proposal.
Factbox: Key outcomes of G20 Cannes summit
Nov 4, 2011 Reuters Following are the main achievements of the Group of 20 heads of state summit in Cannes,France, on November 3-4.
CFTC Preparing Oversight for High-Frequency Firms, Gensler Says Nov 3, 2011 Bloomberg Derivatives exchanges may be required to establish and enforce new rules to limit risks of high- frequency trading firms, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler will tell lawmakers today.
Transaction Tax Proposals Not Gaining Much Headway
Nov 3, 2011 Advanced Trading Although liberal leaders in the U.S. and Europe are leading the charge for a tax that could slow down high-speed trading, the idea doesnt appear to be gaining any momentum.
High-Frequency Trading to Blame for Market Volatility?
Nov 1, 2011Advanced Trading As the markets continue their wild gyrations, regulators continue to struggle with high-frequency trading's role in the volatility and with how to stabilize the markets.
Sifma Sounds Off On New Circuit Breaker Rules
Oct 28, 2011 Traders Magazine The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has come out in favor of modifying market-wide circuit breaker rules, though the group has put its own spin on a proposal by self-regulatory organizations for the markets.
Larry Tabb's 2012 Financial Markets Forecast: Antacid - And Plenty of It
Oct 28, 2011 Wall Street & Technology The markets are in a state of shock. And all of the new rules coming in 2012 will only make it more difficult and more expensive for all financial market participants.
Circuit Breakers Mostly Worked, Report Finds
Oct 25, 2011 Traders Magazine The single-stock circuit breakers introduced after the May 6, 2010 flash crash were not as disruptive as many people feared they would be, according to a report released on Tuesday by Credit Suisse.
Proposed Taxes on High-Frequency Trading Won't Become Law(?)
Oct 24, 2011Advanced Trading Either in the U.S. or Europe, it's looking increasingly doubtful that high-frequency traders will face an additional transaction tax. Oct 24, 2011 Advanced Trading
Ketchum Prods Sellside Over New Trading Ahead Rule
Oct 21, 2011 Traders Magazine Rick Ketchum, president and chief executive officer of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, advised broker-dealers on Thursday to ensure that their institutional customers understand the ins and outs of NYSE Euronext's new trading ahead rule.
EU Seeks Curbs on Commodity Derivatives, High-Frequency Trading
Oct 20, 2011 Bloomberg The European Union will seek to limit trading in commodities derivatives and curb high-frequency trading as part of proposals to overhaul the regions financial- market rules.
Watchdogs to keep closer eye on ultra-fast trading
Oct 20, 2011 Reuters Global regulators published guidelines on Thursday to better monitor automated transactions while saying there was little hard evidence to justify reining in high-frequency trading.
Exchanges Need Controls for High-Frequency Trading, IOSCO Says
Oct 20, 2011 Bloomberg Trading venues should take steps to curb risks posed to the financial system by high-frequency and algorithmic trading, the International Organization of Securities Commissions said.
Industry Ready For Large Trader Rule, Experts Say
Oct 19, 2011 Traders Magazine The bulk of the Securities and Exchange Commission's large trader rule will go into effect at the end of November, and when it does, most firms will be ready, according to experts at a recent industry conference.
EU to fire starting gun on markets reform battle
Oct 17, 2011 Reuters Draft European Union securities reforms due on Thursday will fire the starting gun on a long battle over where to draw the line between curbs and competition in trading for banks, exchanges, and investors.
SEC Faults Direct Edge For Weak Controls That Caused Losses
Oct 14, 2011 Bloomberg Direct Edge Holdings LLC and two electronic exchanges it operates were faulted by U.S. regulators for having weak controls that led to about $2.8 million in trading losses and a systems outage.
Global watchdogs to discuss ultra fast trading rules
Oct 13, 2011 Reuters Regulators from across the world meet in London on Friday to better coordinate supervision of ultra fast computerized trading after concerns raised by last years flash crash on Wall Street.
New NYSE Front-Running Rules Alarm Buyside
Oct 11, 2011 Traders Magazine Recent rule changes by the exchanges operated by NYSE Euronext have some on the buyside worried about front-running by their brokers. In September, the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex, and NYSE Arca all changed their rules that prohibit trading ahead, or front-running, to mirror those of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Studies Find Shorting Bans Come Up Short
Oct 4, 2011 Traders Magazine As debates over short selling rage both in the United States and Europe, two new reports question the effectiveness of the short-selling bans enacted by a quartet of nations this summer. Reports released on Monday by both Credit Suisse and Instinet found that the Aug. 12 short-selling bans on certain financial companies instituted by Belgium, France, Italy and Spain did little to slow the slide in share prices for affected stocks.
Circuit Breakers Could Allow Market Disruption, Chilton Says
Oct 4, 2011 Bloomberg Proposed regulations aimed at halting volatile trading in U.S. securities markets may still allow for market disruptions and expose regulators to a backlash, said Bart Chilton, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
On Regulation and HFTs
Oct 3, 2011 Traders Magazine Guest columnists explain how a U.K. report can be read as a call for stronger action to deal with the poorly understood risks of this trading in the U.S. In particular, the paper could be read to support additional action by the SEC, CFTC and other U.S. financial market regulators in the future.
INSIGHT-US brokers point fingers over 'naked access' rule
Oct 2, 2011 Reuters Broker-dealers are taking very different approaches to a rule that requires them to scrutinize customers credit positions and block reckless orders before trades are executed, setting off finger-pointing and new challenges for regulators.
Copyright 2016 by Brian W. Leite. All rights reserved. Reproduction of all or part of this dictionary without explicit permission is prohibited..