Is the SEC voting on the ADF listed side today (8/27/02)? It is supposed to be the final hurdle for the release of SM. Anyone heard anything?
I just read the Washington Post business section report on the SEC's approval of SM. Must have been a handout from Nasdaq PR department. According to this, SM will be a big benefit for investors because they can now see more liquidity and there will be less volatility and more transparency. Evil ECN's were against it because they would lose the ability to hide orders. Total nonsense. The fix has been in on this for a long time, I guess. Get ready to bend over and take it.
In case you are interested in the full story with prospective dates: Nasdaq Wins Final Approval to Start SuperMontage Washington, Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Nasdaq Stock Market won final approval from regulators to start its new SuperMontage trading system within the next six weeks. The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously approved letting the market begin using SuperMontage on either Sept. 6 or Oct. 11. The start date will depend on whether any electronic trading networks, known as ECNs, sign up in the next nine days for a computer display system to post prices at which their customers are willing to buy and sell stocks. Nasdaq built SuperMontage to win back business from ECNs, which have siphoned off trades from the second-biggest U.S. stock market, luring away almost half of the daily trading in Nasdaq shares by offering anonymous transactions and lower costs. SuperMontage will offer similar features. ``We expect to see an increase in Nasdaq's role in trading of Nasdaq stocks because of SuperMontage,'' said Dean Furbush, who oversees trading systems at the stock market. ``I'm so pleased we can finally pull this thing out of the garage and take it for a spin.'' Nasdaq's new system has been running test trades for several months and was deemed ready for real trading by the Nasdaq staff in late July. As part of a compromise, the SEC voted on July 26 to establish an Alternative Display Facility, or ADF, a computer system that ECNs could use as an alternative to SuperMontage. ECNs Registrations To date, only one electronic trading network, Bloomberg Tradebook, has said it will register to use the alternative display facility. That may have been in part because registration required that ECNs commit to using the facility. Misrepresenting their intention carried criminal penalties, a stipulation that the SEC removed today, Peterson said. Bloomberg Tradebook, an electronic system that competes with ECNs, is owned by Bloomberg LP, which is also the parent of Bloomberg News. If no other trading systems sign up for the facility within five business days of when the new certification will be available, SuperMontage can begin. That would put the start-up date as early as Sept. 6. In that case, Nasdaq's Furbush said, SuperMontage would begin on Sept. 17, so as not to start the week of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. If an electronic network does sign the certification saying it intends to use the facility, SuperMontage can start on Oct. 11, 75 days after the original July 26 regulatory approval of ADF. The facility is an electronic bulletin board where ECNs and Nasdaq dealers can post prices at which their customers are willing to buy and sell stock. For the first three months, posting prices in the system will be free. Unlike SuperMontage, the facility does not allow customers to execute trades. Nasdaq's parent, the National Association of Securities Dealers, will run the facility. The Nasdaq Stock Market is in the process of converting from a mutual owned by its members to a publicly held company. --Monique Wise in New York (212) 318-2608 or mwise@bloomberg.net, with reporting by Vicky Stamas in Washington. Editor: Parry, Mirabella, Serafino.