[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 147 (Wednesday, July 30, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44303-44305]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-17440]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-58224; File No. SR-ISE-2007-94]


Self-Regulatory Organizations; International Securities Exchange, 
LLC; Order Granting Accelerated Approval of a Proposed Rule Change as 
Modified by Amendments No. 1 and 3 Thereto Relating to Reduction of 
Certain Order Handling and Exposure Periods From Three Seconds to One 
Second

July 25, 2008.

I. Introduction

    On October 5, 2007, the International Securities Exchange, LLC 
(``ISE'' or ``Exchange''), filed with the Securities and Exchange 
Commission (``Commission'') pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the 
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Act'') \1\ and Rule 19b-4 
thereunder,\2\ a proposed rule change to reduce certain order exposure 
times from three seconds to one second. On December 4, 2007, ISE filed 
Amendment

[[Page 44304]]

No. 1 to the proposed rule change. On May 22, 2008, ISE filed Amendment 
No. 2 to the proposed rule change and withdrew this Amendment on May 
29, 2008. On June 23, 2008, ISE filed Amendment No. 3 to the proposed 
rule change. The proposed rule change, as modified by Amendments No. 1 
and 3, was published for comment in the Federal Register on July 3, 
2008.\3\ The Commission received one comment on the proposal.\4\ This 
order approves the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendments No. 
1 and 3, on an accelerated basis.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(l).
    \2\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
    \3\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 58041 (June 26, 
2008), 73 FR 38263 (``Notice'').
    \4\ See letter from Lisa J. Fall, General Counsel, Boston 
Options Exchange (``BOX''), to Nancy M. Morris, Secretary, 
Commission, dated May 14, 2008 (``BOX Comment'').
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II. Description of the Proposal

    The Exchange proposes to reduce the order handling and exposure 
periods contained in Exchange Rules 716 (Block Trades), 717 
(Limitations on Orders), 723 (Price Improvement Mechanism for Crossing 
Transactions), and 811 (Directed Orders) from three seconds to one 
second.
    Rule 716 contains the requirements applicable to the execution of 
orders using the Block Order Mechanism, Facilitation Mechanism, and 
Solicited Order Mechanism. The Block Order Mechanism allows members to 
obtain liquidity for the execution of a block-size order, whereas the 
Facilitation and Solicited Order Mechanisms allow members to enter 
block-size cross transactions. Rule 723 contains the requirements 
applicable to the execution of orders using the Price Improvement 
Mechanism (``PIM''). The PIM allows members to enter cross transactions 
of any size. Orders entered into any of these mechanisms currently are 
exposed to all market participants for three seconds, giving 
participants an opportunity to enter additional trading interest before 
the orders are automatically executed.
    Rule 717 requires members to expose agency orders to the 
marketplace before executing them as principal \5\ or executing them 
against orders solicited from other members.\6\ Under Rule 717, an 
order can be exposed either by entering it onto the Exchange and 
waiting at least three seconds before entering the contra-side 
proprietary or solicited order, or by utilizing the various mechanisms 
that have an exposure period built into the functionality.
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    \5\ Rule 717(d).
    \6\ Rule 717(e). The Exchange proposes to make a non-substantive 
clean-up of Rule 717(e) to specify that members can use the 
Facilitation Mechanism to execute solicited crosses. The 
Facilitation Mechanism rule was amended earlier this year to allow 
members to enter solicited crosses, and Rule 717(e) should have been 
updated at that time. See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 55557 
(March 29, 2007), 72 FR 16838 (April 5, 2007).
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    Rule 811 contains the requirements applicable to the handling and 
execution of Directed Orders. A Directed Market Maker is required to 
enter Directed Orders into the PIM or release the order to the 
Exchange's limit order book within three seconds of receipt.\7\ 
Additionally, there are three instances when a Directed Order is 
exposed to all market participants for three seconds after being 
released to the Exchange's limit order book: (i) Before a Directed 
Order is matched against the Directed Market Maker at the national best 
bid or offer (``NBBO''); \8\ (ii) before executing a Directed Order 
against the Directed Market Maker's Guarantee; \9\ and (iii) before 
being given to the Primary Market Maker for handling where the Directed 
Market Maker is also the Primary Market Maker.\10\ Finally, if a 
Directed Order is placed on the Exchange's limit order book, the 
Directed Market Maker is not permitted to enter a proprietary order to 
execute against the Directed Order during the three seconds following 
the release of the Directed Order.
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    \7\ Rule 811(c)(3). If the Directed Market Maker fails to do so 
within three seconds, the Exchange's system automatically releases 
the order. Rule 811(c)(3)(ii).
    \8\ If a Directed Market Maker is quoting at the NBBO at the 
time it releases a Directed Order, the Directed Market Maker is last 
in priority, and the order is exposed to all market participants 
before the Directed Order is executed against the Directed Market 
Maker's quote.
    \9\ If the Directed Market Maker is quoting at the NBBO on the 
opposite side of the market from a Directed Order at the time the 
Directed Order is received by the Directed Market Maker, and the 
Directed Order is marketable, the Exchange's system will 
automatically guarantee execution of the Directed Order against the 
Directed Market Maker at the price and the size of the Directed 
Market Maker's quote. Rule 811(d).
    \10\ As provided in Rule 714, when the Exchange's best bid or 
offer is inferior to another exchange, incoming marketable customer 
orders are handled by the Primary Market Maker pursuant to Rule 
803(c), which requires the Primary Market Maker to either execute 
the order at a price that matches the NBBO or attempt to obtain the 
better price for the customer according to the Linkage rules 
contained in Chapter 19.
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    Under the proposal, all of the three-second exposure periods 
referred to above would be reduced to one second.
    The Commission received one comment letter regarding the proposed 
rule change.\11\ The commenter expresses concern that the combined 
effect of the proposed rule change and another ISE proposal \12\ would 
lead to greater rates of internalization and reduced amounts of price 
improvement being made available to public customers on ISE, especially 
to small orders under 50 contracts.\13\
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    \11\ See BOX Comment, supra note 4.
    \12\ The BOX Comment, supra note 4, was submitted in connection 
with SR-ISE-2008-29. In SR-ISE-2008-29, the ISE proposed to allow 
members to enter orders into the PIM at a price that matches the 
NBBO when the ISE market is inferior to the NBBO. The Commission 
approved SR-ISE-2008-29. See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 
57847 (May 21, 2008), 73 FR 30987 (May 29, 2008).
    \13\ See BOX Comment, supra note 4.
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III. Discussion and Commission Findings

    After carefully reviewing the proposed rule change and the comment 
submitted, the Commission finds that the proposal is consistent with 
the requirements of the Act and the rules and regulations thereunder 
applicable to a national securities exchange.\14\ In particular, the 
Commission finds that the proposed rule change is consistent with 
Section 6(b)(5) of the Act,\15\ which, among other things, requires 
that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to promote 
just and equitable principles of trade, to foster cooperation and 
coordination with persons engaged in regulating transactions in 
securities, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a 
free and open market and a national market system and, in general, to 
protect investors and the public interest. The Commission also finds 
that the proposed rule change is consistent with Section 6(b)(8) of the 
Act,\16\ which requires that the rules of an exchange not impose any 
burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in 
furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
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    \14\ In approving this proposed rule change, the Commission has 
considered the proposed rule's impact on efficiency, competition, 
and capital formation. See 15 U.S.C. 78c(f).
    \15\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
    \16\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(8).
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    The Commission believes that, given the electronic environment on 
ISE, reducing each of the exposure periods from three seconds to one 
second as proposed could facilitate the prompt execution of orders, 
while continuing to provide market participants with an opportunity to 
compete for exposed bids and offers. To substantiate that ISE members 
could receive, process, and communicate a response back to the Exchange 
within one second, the Exchange stated that it distributed a survey to 
ISE members that regularly participate in orders executed through the 
mechanisms that would be affected by the proposal. ISE stated that the 
survey results indicated that it typically takes, at most, 110 
milliseconds, for members to receive, process, and

[[Page 44305]]

respond to broadcast messages related to the various mechanisms. 
According to the ISE, members who responded to the survey also 
indicated that reducing the exposure period to one second would not 
impair their ability to participate in orders executed through the 
mechanisms.\17\ Accordingly, the Commission believes that it is 
consistent with the Act for ISE to reduce the order handling and 
exposure times discussed herein from three seconds to one second.
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    \17\ The ISE stated that all of the eight members that responded 
to the specific timing questions, and two of the three members that 
did not answer the specific timing questions, indicated that 
reducing the crossing exposure timer to one second would not impair 
their ability to participate in ISE crossing orders. The ISE stated 
that one member responded that it could not measure the specific 
times and indicated that it would prefer to keep the exposure 
periods at three seconds. See Notice.
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    The Commission does not agree with the concerns raised by the 
commenter. Based on the ISE's statements regarding the survey results, 
the Commission believes that market participants should continue to 
have opportunities to compete for exposed bids and offers within a one 
second exposure period.
    The Commission finds good cause to approve the proposed rule change 
prior to the thirtieth day after publication for comment in the Federal 
Register. The Commission notes that the proposed rule change was 
noticed for the full comment period and no additional comments were 
received.\18\ The Commission also notes that the proposed rule change 
is substantially similar to a recently approved proposal submitted by 
the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated \19\ and the 
Commission believes that ISE has provided reasonable support for ISE's 
belief that ISE market participants would continue to have an 
opportunity to compete for exposed bids and offers if exposure periods 
were reduced to one second. Therefore, the Commission finds good cause, 
consistent with Section 19(b)(2) of the Act,\20\ to approve the 
proposed rule change on an accelerated basis.
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    \18\ The BOX Letter was received prior to the publication of the 
Notice. See BOX Comment, supra note 4.
    \19\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 58088 (July 2, 
2008), 73 FR 39747 (July 10, 2008).
    \20\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2).
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IV. Conclusion

    It is therefore ordered, pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the 
Act,\21\ that the proposed rule change (SR-ISE-2007-94), as modified by 
Amendments No. 1 and 3, be, and hereby is, approved on an accelerated 
basis.
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    \21\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2).

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\22\
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    \22\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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Florence E. Harmon,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. E8-17440 Filed 7-29-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P