Document ID: SEC-2018-1835-0001
Agency: sec
Document Type: Notice
Title: Self-Regulatory Organizations; Proposed Rule Changes: Nasdaq PHLX, LLC
Posted Date: 2018-11-30T05:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 231 (Friday, November 30, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61700-61705]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-25997]

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-84645; File No. SR-Phlx-2018-73]

Self-Regulatory Organizations; Nasdaq PHLX LLC; Notice of Filing 
and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Amend the 
Exchange's Provisions for Excluding Days for Purposes of Pricing Tiers

November 26, 2018.
    Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act'') \1\, and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given 
that on November 14, 2018, Nasdaq PHLX LLC (``Phlx'' or ``Exchange'') 
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'' or 
``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I and 
II, below, which Items have been prepared by the Exchange. The 
Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the 
proposed rule change from interested persons.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
    \2\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
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I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance 
of the Proposed Rule Change

    The Exchange proposes to amend the Exchange's provisions for 
excluding a day from its volume calculations for purposes of 
determining pricing tiers.
    The text of the proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's 
website at http://nasdaqphlx.cchwallstreet.com/, at the principal 
office of the Exchange, and at the Commission's Public Reference Room.

II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

    In its filing with the Commission, the Exchange included statements 
concerning the purpose of and basis for the proposed rule change and 
discussed any comments it received on the proposed rule change. The 
text of these statements may be examined at the places specified in 
Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared summaries, set forth in 
sections A, B, and C below, of the most significant aspects of such 
statements.

A. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

1. Purpose
    The purpose of the proposed rule change is to amend the Exchange's

[[Page 61701]]

provisions for excluding a day from its volume calculations for 
purposes of determining pricing tiers, as further discussed below.
Background
    To avoid penalizing members when aberrant low volume days result 
from systems or other issues at the Exchange, or where the Exchange 
closes early for holiday observance, the Exchange currently has 
language in its Pricing Schedule allowing it to exclude certain days 
from its average daily volume (``ADV'') calculations or calculations 
that are based on a percentage of industry volume. Currently, Section 
1(b) of the Exchange's Pricing Schedule provides that for Phlx options, 
any day that the market is not open for the entire trading day or the 
Exchange instructs members in writing to route their orders to other 
markets may be excluded from the ADV calculation or calculation based 
on a percentage of industry volume; provided that the Exchange will 
only remove the day for members that would have a lower ADV or 
percentage of industry volume with the day included. If a day is 
removed from a calculation based on a percentage of monthly industry 
volume, volume executed that day will be removed from both the 
numerator and the denominator of the calculation.\3\ The proviso 
language in Section 1(b) (hereinafter, the ``better of rule'') ensures 
that members would only have the day removed when doing so is 
beneficial for the member. As such, the Exchange only applies the 
better of rule to ADV calculations and calculations based on a 
percentage of industry volume, and not for other volume-based pricing 
where members would not benefit from having the day excluded (e.g., 
straight volume accumulations).
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    \3\ The Exchange removes the day from both the numerator and 
denominator to ensure that members benefit from this rule as 
removing the day from the numerator only (i.e., the member's volume) 
without removing it from the denominator (i.e., industry volume) 
would penalize the member.
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    In a recent review of the rule, the Exchange determined that it 
would be beneficial to further expand upon and provide additional 
detail regarding how the Exchange applies this rule.
Proposal
    The Exchange first proposes to delete the lead-in ``For Phlx 
Options'' in Section 1(b) of Options 7, and retitle this section as 
``Removal of Days for Purposes of Pricing Tiers.'' The fees for Phlx 
options and PSX equities are no longer included in the same pricing 
schedule, and the Exchange therefore believes that the current 
clarifying lead-in is no longer necessary.\4\ The Exchange also 
proposes to adopt the following language to replace current rule text 
in Section 1(b):
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    \4\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 84495 (October 29, 
2018), 83 FR 55210 (November 2, 2018) (SR-Phlx-2018-66).
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    (1)(A) Any day that the Exchange announces in advance that it will 
not be open for trading will be excluded from the options tier 
calculations set forth in its Pricing Schedule; and (B) any day with a 
scheduled early market close (``Scheduled Early Close'') may be 
excluded from the options tier calculations only pursuant to paragraph 
(3) below.
    (2) The Exchange may exclude the following days (``Unanticipated 
Events'') from the options tier calculations only pursuant to paragraph 
(3) below, specifically any day that: (A) the market is not open for 
the entire trading day, (B) the Exchange instructs members in writing 
to route their orders to other markets, (C) the Exchange is 
inaccessible to members during the 30-minute period before the opening 
of trade due to an Exchange system disruption, or (D) the Exchange's 
system experiences a disruption that lasts for more than 60 minutes 
during regular trading hours.
    (3) If a day is to be excluded as a result of paragraph (1)(B) or 
(2) above, the Exchange will exclude the day from any member's monthly 
options tier calculations as follows:
    (A) the Exchange may exclude from the ADV calculation any Scheduled 
Early Close or Unanticipated Event;
    (B) the Exchange may exclude from the calculation based on a 
percentage of industry volume any Scheduled Early Close or 
Unanticipated Event; and
    (C) the Exchange may exclude from any other applicable options tier 
calculation provided for in its Schedule of Fees (together with (3)(A) 
and (3)(B), ``Tier Calculations'') any Scheduled Early Close or 
Unanticipated Event; provided, in each case, that the Exchange will 
only remove the day for members that would have a lower Tier 
Calculation with the day included. If a day is removed from a 
calculation based on a percentage of monthly industry volume, volume 
executed that day will be removed from both the numerator and the 
denominator of the calculation.
    The proposed rule change: (i) Expands upon the existing scenarios 
where the Exchange may remove a day to adopt two additional situations 
related to Exchange systems disruptions, (ii) categorizes the scenarios 
into days that are known in advance (i.e., days in proposed paragraph 
(1), including Scheduled Early Closes) and days that are not (i.e., 
Unanticipated Events in proposed paragraph (2)), (iii) clarifies how 
each scenario would apply to the options tier calculations in the 
Pricing Schedule, (iv) adds a ``catch-all'' provision for other volume 
based options tier calculations set forth in its Pricing Schedule, but 
are not specified within paragraphs (3)(A) and (3)(B), to clarify how 
the Exchange would exclude days for other such Tier Calculations going 
forward, and (v) generally adds more detail to clarify the application 
of the better of rule. As it relates to Unanticipated Events, the 
Exchange will inform all members if any such day will be excluded from 
its Tier Calculations through a publicly published alert. The Exchange 
notes that it is not proposing any changes to the existing rebates or 
to the current tier calculation thresholds required to achieve each 
rebate tier.
Exchange Systems Disruptions
    The Exchange proposes to adopt two additional scenarios as 
``Unanticipated Events'' that the Exchange may determine to exclude 
from its Tier Calculations. First, the Exchange proposes to exclude 
days where the Exchange is inaccessible to members during the 30-minute 
period before the opening of trade (i.e., between 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 
a.m. Eastern Time) due to an Exchange system disruption, even if the 
Exchange does not instruct members to route away to other markets. As 
discussed above, the Exchange's current ability to remove days from its 
calculations of ADV and industry volume percentages is limited to days 
where the market is not open for the entire trading day, and where the 
Exchange instructs members to route away to other markets. This allows 
the Exchange to exclude days, for example, where the Exchange honors a 
market-wide trading halt declared by another market, closes early for 
holiday observance, or instructs members to route away to other markets 
because of a systems issue in the morning, which ultimately does not 
carry over into the trading day. The Exchange notes, however, that it 
may not always instruct members to route away. For instance, the 
Exchange may be inaccessible to members in the morning due to a systems 
disruption but the Exchange resolves the issue shortly before 9:30 a.m. 
and as a result, the Exchange does not instruct members to route away. 
In such cases, the Exchange is not permitted to exclude the day from 
its ADV calculation or calculation based on a percentage of industry 
volume. The Exchange generally experiences a high

[[Page 61702]]

volume of member participation within the 30-minute window leading up 
to the opening of trade from members who submit eligible interest be 
included in the Exchange's opening process. As a result, days where 
members are precluded from submitting eligible interest during this 30-
minute time period due to an Exchange systems disruption, even if the 
issue is ultimately resolved by the Exchange before the market opens 
(and members therefore are not instructed to route away), are likely to 
have lower trading volume. Including such days in calculations of ADV 
or percentage of industry volume will therefore make it more difficult 
for members to achieve particular pricing tiers for that month. 
Accordingly, excluding such days from the monthly tier calculations 
will diminish the likelihood of a cost increase occurring because a 
member is not able to reach a pricing tier on that date that it would 
reach on other trading days during the month.
    Second, the Exchange proposes to exclude days where there is an 
Exchange system disruption that lasts for more than 60 minutes during 
regular trading hours (i.e., 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time), even 
if such disruption would not be categorized as a complete outage of the 
Exchange's system. Such a disruption may occur where a certain options 
series traded on the Exchange is unavailable for trading due to an 
Exchange systems issue, or where the Exchange may be able to perform 
certain functions with respect to accepting and processing orders, but 
may have a failure to another significant process, such as routing to 
other market centers, that would lead members who rely on such 
processes to avoid using the Exchange until the Exchange's entire 
system was operational. The Exchange believes that certain system 
disruptions that are not complete system outages could preclude some 
members from submitting orders to the Exchange. The Exchange notes that 
this proposal is consistent with the rules of other options 
exchanges.\5\
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    \5\ See, e.g., BATS BZX Options Exchange Fee Schedule (defining 
an ``Exchange System Disruption'' as any day that the exchange's 
system experiences a disruption that lasts for more than 60 minutes 
during regular trading hours); and NYSE Arca Options Fee Schedule 
(defining an ``Exchange System Disruption'' as a disruption affects 
an Exchange system that lasts for more than 60 minutes during 
regular trading hours).
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    The Exchange believes that the two scenarios proposed above are 
reasonable and equitable because the intent of the current rule has 
always been to avoid penalizing members that might otherwise qualify 
for certain tiered pricing but that because of aberrant low volume days 
resulting, for instance, from Exchange systems disruptions, did not 
participate on the Exchange to the extent they might have otherwise 
participated.
    In addition, to avoid penalizing members that step up and trade on 
a day with artificially low volume, the Exchange currently only removes 
days for members that would have a lower ADV calculation or calculation 
based on a percentage of industry volume with the day included (i.e., 
the better of rule). The Exchange believes that applying the better of 
rule to the proposed system disruption-related scenarios would be 
similarly helpful as it would ensure that members that continue to 
execute a large volume of contracts on such days are not inadvertently 
disadvantaged when the Exchange removes a systems disruption-related 
day from its calculations of ADV or industry volume percentages.
    The Exchange also proposes that if a systems disruption-related day 
is removed from a calculation based on a percentage of monthly industry 
volume, volume executed that day will be removed from both the 
numerator and denominator of the calculation. Removing the day from 
both the numerator and denominator of the calculation will ensure that 
members benefit from this rule as removing the day from the numerator 
only (i.e., the member's volume) without removing it from the 
denominator (i.e., industry volume) would penalize the member. The 
Exchange takes the same approach for removing days from such 
calculations under the current rule.
Categories of Excluded Days
    In light of the foregoing proposal to adopt two additional 
situations that the Exchange may exclude from its pricing tier 
calculations, the Exchange seeks to restructure the existing rule by 
separating out the different scenarios between days that are known in 
paragraph (1) and days that are not in paragraph (2), and define the 
latter as Unanticipated Events.
    For planned days, the Exchange proposes to further distinguish 
between days that the Exchange announces in advance that it will not be 
open for trading in paragraph (1)(A) (e.g., Thanksgiving), and 
Scheduled Early Closes in paragraph (1)(B) (e.g., the trading day after 
Thanksgiving). The Exchange notes that it currently considers Scheduled 
Early Closes as a subset of days that the market is not open for the 
entire trading day. The Exchange believes it would be more clear to 
distinguish Scheduled Early Closes in paragraph (1) as a day that is 
planned for in advance, and separately consider days that are not open 
for the entire trading day as Unanticipated Events in paragraph (2)(A). 
As proposed, (2)(A) would continue to cover unplanned days where the 
Exchange declares a trading halt in all securities or honors a market-
wide trading halt declared by another market. The other scenarios that 
will be categorized as Unanticipated Events in paragraph (2) are the 
two systems-related disruptions proposed above, and days that the 
Exchange instructs members in writing to route their orders to other 
markets, which is an existing scenario covered under the current rule 
as described above.
Exclusion of Days by Tier Calculation
    The Exchange proposes to further amend the existing rule to specify 
how the days in paragraphs (1) and (2) will be excluded from its tier 
calculations. As discussed above, the Exchange currently removes the 
days set forth in paragraphs (1)(B), (2)(A), and (2)(B) from its 
calculations of ADV and industry volume percentages only for members 
that would have a lower ADV or percentage of industry volume with the 
day included. The Exchange is not changing how it currently excludes 
these days from these calculations. And as further discussed above, the 
Exchange is proposing to adopt the same principle-based approach for 
excluding the system disruption-related days in paragraphs (2)(C) and 
(2)(D). As such, proposed paragraph (3) will specify for the ADV 
calculation and calculation based on a percentage of industry volume 
that the Exchange may exclude any Scheduled Early Close or 
Unanticipated Event, subject, in each case, to the better of rule.
    As it relates to days where the Exchange announces in advance that 
it will not be open for trading, the Exchange notes that it will 
exclude those days from all options tier calculations set forth in its 
Pricing Schedule. This is also the case today since no trading activity 
occurs on those days, and the Exchange is only clarifying its current 
practice within the proposed rule text in paragraph (1)(A).
Catch-All Provision
    The proposal also adds a ``catch-all'' provision in paragraph 
(3)(C) that would apply to other applicable options tier calculations 
that are set forth in its Pricing Schedule (``Tier Calculations''), but 
are not specified within paragraphs (3)(A) and (3)(B) (i.e., not an ADV 
calculation or calculation based on a percentage of industry volume). 
This

[[Page 61703]]

catch-all provision is to provide the Exchange with flexibility to 
apply the better of rule going forward to all pricing programs 
administered by the Exchange that are based on volume calculations.\6\ 
Specifically, the Exchange may exclude any Scheduled Early Close or 
Unanticipated Event from such other Tier Calculations only if the 
member will have a lower Tier Calculation with the day included. This 
is the same principle-based approach that the Exchange currently takes 
for its ADV calculation and calculation based on a percentage of 
industry volume, and is similarly intended to ensure that days are 
removed from a member's volume calculations only if doing so would be 
beneficial for the member.
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    \6\ As such, the proposed language will not apply to straight 
volume accumulations, and the Exchange will continue to not exclude 
days from such calculations, as is current practice, since members 
do not benefit when a day is removed from straight volume 
accumulations.
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Clarifying Changes
    The Exchange proposes to add further detail throughout the rule 
text to bring greater transparency as to how the Exchange will apply 
the better of rule when removing days from its tier calculations. The 
Exchange proposes to make clear that it will only remove days pursuant 
to the better of rule by specifying in paragraphs (1)(B) and (2) that 
such days may be excluded from the Tier Calculations only pursuant to 
paragraph (3). Paragraph (3) will then provide that if a day is to be 
excluded as a result of paragraph (1)(B) or (2), the Exchange will be 
required to exclude the day from any member's monthly options tier 
calculations as detailed within paragraph (3) (i.e., excluding a 
Scheduled Early Close or Unanticipated Event from a specified tier 
calculation only for members that would have a lower tier calculation 
with the day included). With the proposed changes, the Exchange seeks 
to clarify current practice by expressing that it will exclude days 
from any member's tier calculations in a uniform manner to ensure that 
days are removed only in situations where the member benefits. 
Currently, the Exchange looks at each potential excluded day in a month 
and calculates for every member their ADV or industry volume percentage 
based on their trading volume on that day. If any member would have a 
lower ADV or percentage of industry volume with the particular day 
included, the Exchange will exclude that day for that member. As such, 
the proposed changes specify that the Exchange will apply the better of 
rule in a uniform manner for all members, and that there is no 
arbitrary selection of ``winners'' or ``losers'' when the Exchange 
excludes days. Lastly, the Exchange proposes to make two technical 
changes within the better of rule; first, to clarify that the rule 
applies in each case of the tier calculations specified in paragraph 
(3), and second, to use the defined term ``Tier Calculations'' instead 
of ``ADV or percentage of industry volume'' to reflect the changes 
proposed herein.
2. Statutory Basis
    The Exchange believes that its proposal is consistent with Section 
6(b) of the Act,\7\ in general, and furthers the objectives of Sections 
6(b)(4) and 6(b)(5) of the Act,\8\ in particular, in that it provides 
for the equitable allocation of reasonable dues, fees and other charges 
among members and issuers and other persons using any facility, and is 
not designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, 
issuers, brokers, or dealers.
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    \7\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
    \8\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4) and (5).
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    The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is reasonable 
and equitable as it provides a framework for removing days from the 
Exchange's volume calculations that the Exchange believes is beneficial 
to members. The proposed rule change would permit the Exchange to 
remove a day from its Tier Calculations in more circumstances, and 
ensures that the Exchange will only do so in circumstances where 
beneficial for the member due to the member executing a lower ADV or 
percentage of industry volume during the excluded day. The Exchange 
believes it is reasonable and equitable to exclude a day from its tier 
calculations when the Exchange's system experiences a disruption during 
the 30-minute period prior to the opening of trade that renders the 
Exchange inaccessible to members as this preserves the Exchange's 
intent behind adopting volume-based pricing. Without this change, 
members that are precluded from submitting eligible interest during the 
30-minute window before the opening of trade may be negatively 
impacted, even if the Exchange resolves the issue before the market 
opens and as a result, does not instruct members to route away. The 
proposed change to exclude such days will diminish the likelihood of a 
cost increase occurring because a member is not able to reach a volume 
tier calculation on that date that it would reach on other trading days 
during the month. Furthermore, while the Exchange may have resolved the 
systems disruption from its perspective prior to the opening of trade, 
a member may now have issues managing their orders with the Exchange as 
a result of the original disruption, causing a downstream ripple 
effect.
    Similarly, excluding a day where the Exchange's system experiences 
a disruption that lasts for more than 60 minutes intra-day is 
reasonable and equitable because the proposal seeks to avoid penalizing 
members that might otherwise qualify for certain tiered pricing but 
that, because of an Exchange systems disruption, did not participate on 
the Exchange to the extent they might have otherwise participated. The 
Exchange believes that certain systems disruptions could preclude some 
members from submitting orders to the Exchange even if such issue is 
not actually a complete systems outage. Other options exchanges 
similarly exclude exchange systems disruptions from their pricing 
tiers.\9\
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    \9\ See footnote 5 above.
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    In addition, the Exchange believes that it is reasonable and 
equitable to apply the better of rule to both systems disruption-
related scenarios. Without these changes, members that step up and 
trade significant volume on excluded trading days may be negatively 
impacted, resulting in an effective cost increase for those members. 
The proposal would align the Exchange's approach to how it applies this 
rule today for days where the market is not open for the entire trading 
day or where the Exchange instructs members to route away. Furthermore, 
removing the proposed days from both the numerator and denominator of a 
calculation based on a percentage of industry volume is reasonable and 
equitable as this treatment ensures that the member actually benefits 
from having the day removed. Again, this would align the Exchange's 
current approach to how it removes days from such calculations.
    In light of the Exchange's proposal to adopt the two additional 
scenarios related to systems disruptions, the Exchange is making 
related, restructuring changes to the existing language in Options 7, 
Section 1(b) to bring greater transparency to the application of its 
rule. Specifically, the Exchange is distinguishing between planned and 
unplanned days in paragraphs (1) and (2), defining the latter as 
Unanticipated Events, and stipulating how the Exchange will exclude 
such days pursuant to this rule. Categorizing days in this manner will 
clarify the application of its rule in light of the Exchange's proposal 
to expand the rule to adopt additional days that

[[Page 61704]]

may be excluded from its tier calculations. Similarly, the Exchange 
believes that the proposed changes to specify how each of the days in 
paragraphs (1) and (2) will be excluded from its tier calculations will 
bring greater transparency to the application of the rule by clearly 
delineating the various circumstances in which the rule will apply. 
Providing in paragraph (1)(A) that the Exchange will always exclude 
from its tier calculations days that it announces in advance it will 
not be open for trading will clarify current practice. Providing in 
paragraph (3) that the Exchange may exclude any Scheduled Early Close 
or Unanticipated Event from the specified tier calculations, subject to 
the better of rule, will make clear that the Exchange will take a 
consistent approach when excluding days for purposes of its volume 
based pricing tiers. Furthermore, the clean-up changes specifying that 
the days in paragraphs (1)(B) and (2) may be excluded only pursuant to 
paragraph (3), and requiring the Exchange to exclude such days pursuant 
to the specifications in paragraph (3) will likewise make clear that 
the Exchange will take a consistent approach with respect to excluding 
days from its tier calculations. As discussed above, these 
modifications will clarify that the Exchange will apply the better of 
rule in a uniform manner to all members, and that there is no arbitrary 
selection of ``winners'' or ``losers.'' The Exchange also believes that 
the two technical changes proposed in the better of rule to reflect the 
changes proposed herein will likewise bring greater clarity to its 
rule. For the foregoing reasons, the Exchange believes that the 
proposed changes to clarify and restructure its existing rule are 
reasonable and equitable.
    Furthermore, the Exchange believes that the proposed changes to 
adopt a catch-all provision in paragraph (3)(C) to other Tier 
Calculations not already specified in the rule to allow the Exchange to 
apply the better of rule going forward to all pricing programs based on 
other volume calculations is reasonable and equitable for the same 
reasons as allowing the Exchange to apply the better of rule for 
calculations based on ADV and industry volume percentages. The Exchange 
notes that aberrant low volume days resulting from, for instance, an 
Unanticipated Event, impacts all volume-based calculations, and 
allowing the Exchange to exclude such days from any volume-based tier 
calculation if the member would have a lower tier calculation with the 
day excluded will further protect members from being inadvertently 
penalized.
    Finally, the Exchange further believes that the proposed rule 
change is not unfairly discriminatory because it will apply equally to 
all members. While the Exchange currently has rules in place for 
removing a day from its pricing, the Exchange believes that the 
proposed changes will benefit all members by providing more 
circumstances to remove a day, and ensuring that days are removed only 
in situations where the member benefits.

B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition

    The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will 
impose any burden on competition not necessary or appropriate in 
furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The proposed rule change is 
designed to protect members from the possibility of a cost increase by 
excluding days when overall member participation might be significantly 
lower than a typical trading day. The Exchange believes that the 
proposed modifications to its tier calculations are pro-competitive and 
will result in lower total costs to end users, a positive outcome of 
competitive markets. The Exchange operates in a highly competitive 
market in which market participants can readily direct their order flow 
to competing venues. In such an environment, the Exchange must 
continually review, and consider adjusting, its fees and rebates to 
remain competitive with other exchanges. For the reasons described 
above, the Exchange believes that the proposed fee changes reflect this 
competitive environment.

C. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the Proposed 
Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others

    No written comments were either solicited or received.

III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for 
Commission Action

    The foregoing rule change has become effective pursuant to Section 
19(b)(3)(A) of the Act and paragraph (f) of Rule 19b-4 thereunder. At 
any time within 60 days of the filing of the proposed rule change, the 
Commission summarily may temporarily suspend such rule change if it 
appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate 
in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or otherwise 
in furtherance of the purposes of the Act.

IV. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule 
change is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of 
the following methods:

Electronic Comments

     Use the Commission's internet comment form (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml); or
     Send an email to [email protected]. Please include 
File Number SR-Phlx-2018-73 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities 
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-Phlx-2018-73. This file 
number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To help 
the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, 
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on 
the Commission's internet website (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml). 
Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all written 
statements with respect to the proposed rule change that are filed with 
the Commission, and all written communications relating to the proposed 
rule change between the Commission and any person, other than those 
that may be withheld from the public in accordance with the provisions 
of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for website viewing and printing in 
the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 
20549, on official business days between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 
3:00 p.m. Copies of the filing also will be available for inspection 
and copying at the principal office of the Exchange. All comments 
received will be posted without change. Persons submitting comments are 
cautioned that we do not redact or edit personal identifying 
information from comment submissions. You should submit only 
information that you wish to make available publicly. All submissions 
should refer to File Number SR-Phlx-2018-73, and should be submitted on 
or before December 21, 2018.

[[Page 61705]]

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\10\
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    \10\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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Eduardo A. Aleman,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-25997 Filed 11-29-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P