Earlier this month the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its semi-annual regulatory agenda listing its priorities at the proposed rule stage, final rule stage and long-term priorities. Besides being evident on the wide range of responsibilities our industry’s chief regulator has even during a time when tolerance for new regulations is low and unwinding existing ones is high, the agenda is a very good resource for identifying issues and subsequent events that have or will impact market structure. While it is too early to finalize a 2018 ‘Top 5’ list of events that effected market structure, our industry has experienced a lot this year and as we approach the halfway mark, now is a good time to reflect on some of these regulatory and non-regulatory events. Consistent with our approach we continue to work closely with Williams & Jensen and with our Committees to develop our thinking around these developments. We are actively engaged with The Hill, the Commission and FINRA, and seek your ideas and input.
Listed Options Market – Q1′ 2018 & February 5th Activity
As recently noted by Liquidnet’s Adam Sussman, “the primary rationale for the access fee cap (in 2005) was to prevent market centers from abusing the protected quote status to extract high fees.” Today, it is more about conflicts of interest and the impact on routing customer order flow in an environment of never anticipated sub-penny commissions.