The Nasdaq OMX Group (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced that it will voluntarily cease offering flash order types, effective September 1st, 2009.
We appreciate that Chairman Schapiro and the Commissioners will assume overall leadership for the industry to conduct a comprehensive review of all issues related to flash orders. We recognize the SEC's rulemaking process will take time, yet as an exchange we have the ability to move on our own. We respectfully call on other markets offering similar functionality to make the same decision.
Separately, BATS Exchange, an innovative and technology leading U.S. securities exchange, today announced it will voluntarily cease offering the BATS Optional Liquidity Technology (BOLT) order type effective September 1.
"BATS Exchange is pleased to make this announcement, particularly because Nasdaq has also heeded our July 30th call to eliminate flash orders in a coordinated fashion with the rest of the industry.
"On July 7th we were the first to call for a thorough industry review of flash orders and we highlighted some of our issues of concern with this particular practice," said Joe Ratterman, CEO of BATS Exchange and BATS Global Markets.
"The move announced by BATS Exchange today reflects our commitment to doing what we can to Make Markets Better and it is our hope that, through serious discussion, a rational conclusion can be made as to whether these order types are detrimental to the markets and should be prohibited going forward.
"In the interim, we continue to encourage the remaining exchanges and ECNs using flash order types to voluntarily withdraw them as an act of goodwill to the industry," he said.