The equity exchanges and FINRA have proposed a uniform market wide suspension of trading on individual securities contained in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) that experience a 10% or greater price change within a five minute period. The proposals from the equity exchanges and FINRA (respectively, the “Exchange Proposals” and the “FINRA Proposal”) were made in consultation with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff in response to the market volatility of May 6, 2010. According to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, circuit breakers for individual stocks across securities exchanges “would help to limit significant volatility. They would also increase market transparency, bolster investor protection, and bring uniformity to decisions regarding trading halts in individual securities.”1
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