The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) had a controversial path on the way to becoming a key weapon of U.S. market regulators in their fight against the manipulation of financial markets and other abuses that leave an electronic trail. But it looks as if the CAT surveillance system might be on a challenging path again, as… Read More >>
Flash Crash Trader Hit with $38M+ in Sanctions
Navinder Singh Sarao, the U.K. resident known as the “Flash Crash Trader,” has been ordered by a U.S. court to pay a $25,743.174.52 civil monetary penalty and $12,871,587.26 in disgorgement for multiple charges of futures market manipulation. Sarao was extradited from the U.K. to the U.S., where he faced criminal charges for the same acts…. Read More >>
SEC Approves FINRA’s Plan to TRACE U.S. Treasuries
The SEC has approved the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s proposal to require FINRA members to report transactions in U.S. Treasury securities, with the sole exception of savings bonds, to TRACE, FINRA’s trade reporting and compliance engine. July 10, 2017 is the implementation date for the bond-trade reporting requirement, says FINRA, the nonprofit industry organization that… Read More >>
SEC Extends Pilot to Limit Market Volatility
The SEC has issued an order extending the pilot period of a key initiative under the Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS) plan for one year. Known as the limit up-limit down (LULD) mechanism, it was first formulated in 2012 to address today’s extraordinary, often technology-mediated market volatility. The LULD pilot is meant to control… Read More >>
Firms Shrug Off NYSE Trading Halt
Market participants weren’t phased by the widely publicized trading halt last week via the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to a recent survey showing that positive perceptions of the soundness of market infrastructure is the highest it’s been since the Flash Crash. The survey, “What Glitch? Market Structure Confidence Highest Since Before Flash Crash,”… Read More >>
CFTC’s ‘Flash Crash Trader’ Case Hits Home
The CFTC’s recent enforcement action against a U.K. futures trader charged with spoofing trades and contributing to the 2010 Flash Crash raises as many questions as it answers, but could nonetheless prove a solid first step toward preventing this type of behavior in the future, industry observers say. On April 21, British authorities, acting at… Read More >>
CFTC Charges U.K. Firm Played Key Role in Flash Crash
The CFTC is bringing enforcement actions against an individual and his firm for allegedly contributing to the May 6, 2010 Flash Crash, according to the regulator. The CFTC complaint charges U.K. resident Navinder Singh Sarao and his firm Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC with “unlawfully manipulating, attempting to manipulate, and spoofing — all with regard… Read More >>
Senate Hearing Yields CAT Calls
Legislators and panelists butted heads about what, exactly, the effects of high frequency trading are on securities trading during a Senate hearing Wednesday that went largely unobserved by the mainstream media. But all agreed that the SEC needs to stop dragging its feet and implement the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) that’s hung in limbo for… Read More >>
O’Malia and Those Hot-Button Issues
As we reported earlier this week, Scott D. O’Malia, commissioner for the CFTC, was the bearer of bad news about the regulator’s data gathering for its swaps data repository (SDR). Yet in his revelatory speech last week to SIFMA members O’Malia was very forthcoming about other thorny issues that got scant coverage.One of the thorniest… Read More >>
