NEW YORK, Oct. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Operating Committees of the Securities Information Processors (“SIPs”) today announced that they have issued a proposal for adding Odd Lot quotes to the UTP and CTA/CQ data feeds. The Operating Committees are actively seeking input from the industry and the public for the next forty-five days. The proposal is posted on the Consolidated Trade Association (“CTA”) www.ctaplan.com/oddlots and Unlisted Trading Privileges (“UTP”) www.utpplan.com/oddlots websites and comments received will be posted there as well.
“The reason for this proposal is simple,” said Bob Books, Chairman of the SIP Operating Committees. “Over the past several years, the U.S. equity markets have seen a significant rise in odd lot activity, which accounts for an increasing portion of U.S. equity trading volume, particularly for high-priced securities. Given the higher levels of odd lot activity, the Participants felt the time was right to consider ways to enhance the transparency of odd lot quoting.”
Odd lot quotes are buy or sell orders for fewer shares than the standard order sizes set by the exchanges, known as round lots. For the vast majority of U.S. stocks, the round lot size is 100 shares. Quotes for odd lots of shares are not currently reported to the SIPs.
As currently constructed, the SIP Operating Committees’ proposal does not plan for the addition of odd lot quotes to change how the National Best Bid-Best Offer (“NBBO”) is calculated, nor would such quotes be considered protected quotes under Regulation NMS. The odd lot quote data would be extra data available to SIP customers who could then choose how to use it.
“As an initial step, the Participants are weighing a proposal for the SIPs to disseminate certain consolidated odd lot quotation data as ancillary information on the UTP and CTA/CQ data feeds. The Participants believe that this new data will provide market participants with important additional information about the price and liquidity of NMS stocks, and may be valuable for retail investors who trade in smaller share amounts, particularly in higher-priced securities,” added Books.
“In addition to the meaningful performance improvements the SIPs have made in recent years, there has also been a significant movement toward greater transparency,” Books noted. “Inviting the industry and the public in at this early stage of development lets them voice their opinion on this potential enhancement to our feeds.”
The investing public is invited to view the Odd Lot Proposal and submit comments by visiting the CTA website at www.ctaplan.com/oddlots or the UTP website at www.utpplan.com/oddlots. Public comments will be accepted until November 15, 2019. Additional details are found on the web sites.
ABOUT THE SIPs
The SIPs link the U.S. markets by processing and consolidating all protected equities bid/ask quotes and trades from every registered exchange and FINRA’s Alternative Display Facility (ADF) into a single, easily consumable data feed. The SIPs are an asset unique to U.S. market structure and play a critical role in making the U.S. equities markets transparent and accessible to investors worldwide.
Although often referred to in the singular, there are actually two SIPs: the combined CTA (Consolidated Tape Association) and CQ (Consolidated Quotation System) SIP, and the UTP (Unlisted Trading Privileges) SIP. The CTA/CQ SIP is responsible for the dissemination of real‐time quote and trade information in New York Stock Exchange listed securities (sometimes called “Network A” or “Tape A” securities) and Cboe, NYSE Arca, NYSE American and other regional exchange listed securities (sometimes called “Network B” or “Tape B” securities). The UTP SIP is responsible for the dissemination of real‐time quote and trade information in Nasdaq listed securities (sometimes called “Network C” or “Tape C” securities). This structure has been in place since the late 1970s, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) mandated that all registered exchanges that trade Network A, B, or C securities send their trades and quotes to the SIPs for consolidated worldwide distribution.
Each SIP is governed by a National Market System (“NMS”) Plan and run by an Operating Committee (“OC”) comprised of its Plan Participants. The OCs are counseled by an Advisory Committee made up of individuals representing firms from across the industry and representing the diverse viewpoints of the market. Among other duties, the OCs set their individual Plan policies, select a Processor that is responsible for providing the technology to power it, and review the performance of both the Processor and the network administrators, which are responsible for the administrative functions for each SIP, such as contracting, billing, auditing, policy development and vendor relations. New York Stock Exchange serves as the Administrator for the CTA/CQ SIP Plans and the Securities Industry Automation Corporation is the Processor. Nasdaq business units serve as the Administrator and Processor for the UTP SIP.
One of the primary objectives of both SIPs is transparency. Both the CTA/CQ Operating Committee and UTP Operating Committee meet quarterly, and the summary of the General Sessions of those meetings are posted to their respective websites: www.ctaplan.com and www.utpplan.com. Also provided on those websites are their Plans’ announcements, policies, quarterly and monthly performance metrics, revenue information, pricing schedules, technical specifications and more.