SEC Launches Market Structure Data and Analysis Website

The SEC launched a new website to provide investors and others with the ability to interactively explore a range of new market metrics, and access empirical research and analyses that inform the broader public debate on market structure.

The new website will serve as a central location for the SEC to publicly share data, research and analysis as the agency continues its review of the equity of market structure. The information on the website includes data from the internal Market Information Data Analytics System ("MIDAS"), which the SEC launched earlier this year. The new website allows users to explore key market metrics and trends based on aggregate analyses of MIDAS records, including:

• ratios related to the number and volume of orders that are canceled instead of traded;
• percentages of on-exchange trades and volume that are not disseminated on the public tape ("odd-lot trades");
• percentages of on-exchange trades and volume that are the result of hidden orders; and
• quarterly distributions analyzing the lifetime of quotes ranging from one millionth of a second to one day.

See: SEC Market Structure Website; SEC Press Release. Related News: SEC Chair White Delivers Speech on Equity Market Structure (with Lofchie Comment) (October 2, 2013); SEC Associate Director Gregg E. Berman Delivers Speech on Transformational Technologies, Market Structure and the SEC (June 19, 2013).