National Market System

Last updated

The National Market System (NMS) is a regulatory mechanism that governs the operations of securities trading in the United States. [1] Its primary focus is ensuring transparency and full disclosure regarding stock price quotations and trade executions. [1] It was initiated in 1975, when, in the Securities Acts Amendments of 1975, Congress directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to use its authority to facilitate the establishment of a national market system. The system has been updated periodically, for example with the Regulation NMS in 2005 which took into account technological innovations and other market changes. [2]

Contents

History

In 1972, before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began its pursuit of a national market system, the market for securities was quite fragmented. The same stock sometimes traded at different prices at different trading venues, and the NYSE ticker tape did not report transactions of NYSE-listed stocks that took place on regional exchanges or on other over-the-counter securities markets. [3] This fragmentation made it difficult for traders to comparison shop.

In 1975, in the Securities Acts Amendments of 1975, Congress directed the SEC to facilitate the establishment of a national market system for securities. [4] The SEC was also directed to work with self-regulatory organizations in planning, developing, operating, or regulating a national market system. [4] The responsibility of the National Market System is to ensure fair market competition, efficient order execution, transparency in price quotations, best-price execution, and direct matching of buy and sell orders. [1]

In 2005, the rules promoting the National Market System were updated and consolidated into Regulation NMS. [5] [2]

The primary self-regulatory organization regulating member brokerage firms and exchange markets until 2007 was the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). In 2007 the NASD and NYSE member regulation group combined into the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). [6] Since 2007, the National Market System has been primarily managed by FINRA and Nasdaq.

System components

Overview

The National Market System includes and regulates all the facilities and entities which are used by broker-dealers to fulfill trade orders for securities. These include:

Major exchanges

Self-regulatory organizations

Federal regulators

Regulators of the US dollar: FDIC, OCC, FRBG, and FOMC

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the Federal Open Market Committee all together impact the payment systems used for settlement on securities markets, both directly by regulations and indirectly via monetary policy which affects the value of the dollar.

Regulators of securities

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an important regulator for commodities futures and options. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the most important federal regulator of corporate stocks, as well as other securities.

National ticker tape services

One of the most important elements of the National Market System is that all qualified trades are reported onto a consolidated system.

Clearing corporations

Settlement facilities

Custody system

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasdaq</span> American stock exchange

The Nasdaq Stock Market is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list of stock exchanges by market capitalization of shares traded, behind the New York Stock Exchange. The exchange platform is owned by Nasdaq, Inc., which also owns the Nasdaq Nordic stock market network and several U.S.-based stock and options exchanges. Although it trades stock of healthcare, financial, entertainment, retail, and food businesses, it focuses more on technology stocks.

An American depositary receipt is a negotiable security that represents securities of a foreign company and allows that company's shares to trade in the U.S. financial markets.

TradeStation Group, Inc. is the parent company of online securities and futures brokerage firms and trading technology companies. It is headquartered in Plantation, Florida, and has offices in New York; Chicago; Richardson, Texas; London; Sydney; and Costa Rica. TradeStation is best known for the technical analysis software and electronic trading platform it provides to active traders and certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation Group was a Nasdaq GS-listed company from 1997 to 2011, until it was acquired by Monex Group, a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed parent company of one of Japan's leading online securities brokerage firms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Securities Exchange Act of 1934</span> 1934 U.S. legislation establishing rules and regulatory bodies for financial markets

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is a law governing the secondary trading of securities in the United States of America. A landmark piece of wide-ranging legislation, the Act of '34 and related statutes form the basis of regulation of the financial markets and their participants in the United States. The 1934 Act also established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency primarily responsible for enforcement of United States federal securities law.

The OTC (Over-The-Counter) Bulletin Board or OTCBB was a United States quotation medium operated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for its subscribing members. FINRA closed the OTCBB on November 8, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasdaq, Inc.</span> American multinational financial services corporation

Nasdaq, Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation that owns and operates three stock exchanges in the United States: the namesake Nasdaq stock exchange, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and the Boston Stock Exchange, and seven European stock exchanges: Nasdaq Copenhagen, Nasdaq Helsinki, Nasdaq Iceland, Nasdaq Riga, Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq Tallinn, and Nasdaq Vilnius. It is headquartered in New York City, and its president and chief executive officer is Adena Friedman.

OTC Markets Group, Inc. is an American financial market providing price and liquidity information for almost 12,400 over-the-counter (OTC) securities. The group has its headquarters in New York City. OTC-traded securities are organized into three markets to inform investors of opportunities and risks: OTCQX, OTCQB and Pink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market data</span> Electronic financial trading price and related data

In finance, market data is price and other related data for a financial instrument reported by a trading venue such as a stock exchange. Market data allows traders and investors to know the latest price and see historical trends for instruments such as equities, fixed-income products, derivatives, and currencies.

A self-regulatory organization (SRO) is an organization that exercises some degree of regulatory authority over an industry or profession. The regulatory authority could exist in place of government regulation, or applied in addition to government regulation. The ability of an SRO to exercise regulatory authority does not necessarily derive from a grant of authority from the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Options Clearing Corporation</span> Financial services business

Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is a United States clearing house based in Chicago. It specializes in equity derivatives clearing, providing central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 16 exchanges. It was started by Wayne Luthringshausen and carried on by Michael Cahill. Its instruments include options, financial and commodity futures, security futures, and securities lending transactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Williams Act</span>

The Williams Act (USA) refers to 1968 amendments to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 enacted in 1968 regarding tender offers. The legislation was proposed by Senator Harrison A. Williams of New Jersey.

Regulation National Market System is a 2005 US financial regulation promulgated and described by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as "a series of initiatives designed to modernize and strengthen the National Market System for equity securities". The Reg NMS is intended to assure that investors receive the best (NBBO) price executions for their orders by encouraging competition in the marketplace. Some contend that the rule has contributed to the rise of high-frequency trading, which is sometimes regarded as controversial.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) as well as to the member regulation, enforcement, and arbitration operations of the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S. government agency that acts as the ultimate regulator of the U.S. securities industry, including FINRA, is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Consolidated Tape Association (CTA) oversees the Securities Information Processor that disseminates real-time trade and quote information in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (AMEX) listed securities. It is currently chaired by Emily Kasparov of the Chicago Stock Exchange, the first woman and the youngest chair elected to the position.

A trading halt occurs in the U.S. when a stock exchange stops trading on a specific security for a certain time period. The halt, which can happen a few times a day per security if FINRA deems it, usually lasts for one hour, but is not limited to that. Trading halts can happen any time of day. The listed company is supposed to call the exchange where it is listed, 10 minutes prior to any material news that they are releasing, in order for the exchange to halt the stock before the news is released. The first 5 minutes of a halt is for "news pending" before any information is released that could affect a stock significantly, also known as the "5 minute window".

The Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI) is an open standard, unique identifier of financial instruments that can be assigned to instruments including common stock, options, derivatives, futures, corporate and government bonds, municipals, currencies, and mortgage products. Also see: Open Data

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Securities market participants (United States)</span>

Securities market participants in the United States include corporations and governments issuing securities, persons and corporations buying and selling a security, the broker-dealers and exchanges which facilitate such trading, banks which safe keep assets, and regulators who monitor the markets' activities. Investors buy and sell through broker-dealers and have their assets retained by either their executing broker-dealer, a custodian bank or a prime broker. These transactions take place in the environment of equity and equity options exchanges, regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or derivative exchanges, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For transactions involving stocks and bonds, transfer agents assure that the ownership in each transaction is properly assigned to and held on behalf of each investor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Depository of Armenia</span>

The Central Depository of Armenia (CDA) is the Central Depository of Armenia, established in 1996. The CDA is one of the oldest securities market institutions in the country and is headquartered in Yerevan. The Central Bank of Armenia is the regulatory body of the CDA. The CDA is a full member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges.

A securities information processor (SIP) is a part of the infrastructure of public market data providers in the United States that process, consolidate, and disseminate quotes and trade data from different US securities exchanges and market centers. An important purpose of the SIPs for US securities is to publish the prevailing National Best Bid Offer (NBBO).

References

  1. 1 2 3 "National Market System (NMS)". CorporateFinanceInstitute.com. October 23, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Definition of National Market System (NMS)". AllBusiness.com. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  3. ↑ Seligman, Joel. "Rethinking Securities Markets: The SEC Advisory Committee on Market Information and the Future of the National Market System ". The Business Lawyer, Vol. 57, No. 2. February 2002, p. 641.
  4. 1 2 "S. 249 — 94th Congress: Securities Acts Amendments". www.GovTrack.us. 1975. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Regulation NMS - Proposed rules and amendments to joint industry plans". US Securities and Exchange Commission. November 1, 2005.
  6. ↑ "NASD and NYSE Member Regulation Combine to Form the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority - FINRA". Financial Industry Regulatory Authority . July 30, 2007. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.