Securities Lawyer's Deskbook                          published by The University of Cincinnati College of Law

Rule 611 -- Order Protection Rule

1. Reasonable policies and procedures.
   
   
   1. A trading center shall establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent trade-throughs on that trading center of protected quotations in NMS stocks that do not fall within an exception set forth in paragraph (b) of this section and, if relying on such an exception, that are reasonably designed to assure compliance with the terms of the exception.
      
      
   2. A trading center shall regularly surveil to ascertain the effectiveness of the policies and procedures required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section and shall take prompt action to remedy deficiencies in such policies and procedures.
      
      
2. Exceptions.
   
   
   1. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was effected when the trading center displaying the protected quotation that was traded through was experiencing a failure, material delay, or malfunction of its systems or equipment.
      
      
   2. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was not a “regular way” contract.
      
      
   3. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was a single-priced opening, reopening, or closing transaction by the trading center.
      
      
   4. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was executed at a time when a protected bid was priced higher than a protected offer in the NMS stock.
      
      
   5. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was the execution of an order identified as an intermarket sweep order.
      
      
   6. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was effected by a trading center that simultaneously routed an intermarket sweep order to execute against the full displayed size of any protected quotation in the NMS stock that was traded through.
      
      
   7. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was the execution of an order at a price that was not based, directly or indirectly, on the quoted price of the NMS stock at the time of execution and for which the material terms were not reasonably determinable at the time the commitment to execute the order was made.
      
      
   8. The trading center displaying the protected quotation that was traded through had displayed, within one second prior to execution of the transaction that constituted the trade-through, a best bid or best offer, as applicable, for the NMS stock with a price that was equal or inferior to the price of the trade-through transaction.
      
      
   9. The transaction that constituted the trade-through was the execution by a trading center of an order for which, at the time of receipt of the order, the trading center had guaranteed an execution at no worse than a specified price (a “stopped order”), where:
      
      
      1. The stopped order was for the account of a customer;
         
         
      2. The customer agreed to the specified price on an order-by-order basis; and
         
         
      3. The price of the trade-through transaction was, for a stopped buy order, lower than the national best bid in the NMS stock at the time of execution or, for a stopped sell order, higher than the national best offer in the NMS stock at the time of execution.
         
3. Intermarket sweep orders. The trading center, broker, or dealer responsible for the routing of an intermarket sweep order shall take reasonable steps to establish that such order meets the requirements set forth in Rule 242.600(b)(30).
   
   
4. Exemptions. The Commission, by order, may exempt from the provisions of this section, either unconditionally or on specified terms and conditions, any person, security, transaction, quotation, or order, or any class or classes of persons, securities, quotations, or orders, if the Commission determines that such exemption is necessary or appropriate in the public interest, and is consistent with the protection of investors.
   
   

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