Scribd
Upload
4 views1 page

Understanding Naked Access in Trading

The letter discusses concerns with the practice of "naked access" or sponsored access, where a non-broker-dealer participant is permitted to directly enter orders into an exchange or alternative trading system without going through the sponsoring broker-dealer's systems. It notes that this raises issues with the broker-dealer's obligations under SEC Rule 200(g)(1) regarding supervision of orders. The letter offers to provide a detailed discussion of why naked access fails to comply with this rule. It highlights challenges with short sale obligations for broker-dealers as an example of regulatory obligations that would not apply to a non-broker-dealer participant engaging in naked access.

Uploaded by

James Hopkins
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
4 views1 page

Understanding Naked Access in Trading

The letter discusses concerns with the practice of "naked access" or sponsored access, where a non-broker-dealer participant is permitted to directly enter orders into an exchange or alternative trading system without going through the sponsoring broker-dealer's systems. It notes that this raises issues with the broker-dealer's obligations under SEC Rule 200(g)(1) regarding supervision of orders. The letter offers to provide a detailed discussion of why naked access fails to comply with this rule. It highlights challenges with short sale obligations for broker-dealers as an example of regulatory obligations that would not apply to a non-broker-dealer participant engaging in naked access.

Uploaded by

James Hopkins
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Lime

Brokerage

June 30, 2009

Mr. James Brigagliano, Co-Acting director of Division of Trading and Markets


Mr. Marc McKayle, Special Counsel , Division of Trading and Markets
Mr. John Roeser, Assistant Director, Division of Trading and Markets
Mr. David Shillman, Associate Director, Division of Trading and Markets
Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, NE
Washington , DC 20549

Re: Release No. 34-59275: File No. SR-NASDAQ-2008-104

Dear Messrs. Brigagliano, Shillman , Roser and McKayle:

As per our conversation with the SEC on January 8, 2009 please find a detailed discussion on why
sponsored access fails prima facie to comply with the requirements of SEC Rule 200(g)(1).

To begin this discussion, it is essential to understand what Sponsored Access is, and why an entity
would desire to engage in it. While Sponsored Access can be viewed as a variety of different
practices, for this discussion , we are defining Sponsored Access as the practice of an SEC­
registered broker-dealer ("BD") , the sponsoring member ("Member" or "Sponsor"), permitting a
sponsored participant ("Participant") to interact and enter orders directly into an SEC-registered ATS
or Exchange ("Trading Center") without the interaction flowing first through the Member's trading
systems ("System" or "Systems"). While the Participant could be a broker-dealer, for the purposes of
this analysis we are confining this discussion solely to Participants that are not SEC-registered
broker-dealers as the obligations of the Member under SEC Rule 200(g)( 1) are different for entering
sale orders depending upon the end-customer's status - the "aggregation unit" methodology,
discussed later on in this document, is only available to BDs, and is not available to Participants that
are not BDs. Hereafter, we will refer to this subset of Sponsored Access as "Naked Access".

As to why an entity would desire to be a Participant and enter into a Naked Access relationship,
there are multiple reasons, but we will highlight two. First, broker-dealers are subject to a substantial
amount of regulatory obligations, and these obligations may downstream to the end-customer. The
most obvious and easy to highlight examples are the long and short sale obligations of Regulation
SHOo As per SEC Rule 203(b) , a BD, prior to affecting a short sale in any equity security, must
"Iocate" shares avaflable for borrowing . Looking at the Final Rule Interpretation of Regulation SH01,
it is interesting to note that the Commission went out of its way to highlight that the locate obligation
rests with the 8D and not the end-customer on whose behalf the BD is effecting the short sale :

"As proposed, Rule 203(b) would have allowed the ''person for whose account the short sale
is executed" to perform a locate. We agree with commenter that the locate requirement
should apply to a regulated entity - the broker-dealer effecting the sale - and have modified

1 [Link]/[Link]
6 2 5 Broad wa y · 12 lh Flo or · Ne w Yor k, NY 100 12 Ph one: 2 12.82".500 0 . Fax: 112.824.5 5 50 . sales@)li lllebrok e. ag [Link] m . [Link]

You might also like