[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18280-18282]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7246]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-66636; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2012-035]


Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; 
Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To 
Assess a Fee for the QView Service

March 21, 2012.
    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 March 15, 2012, The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (the ``Exchange'' 
or ``NASDAQ'') filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the 
``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I, II, 
and III 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 assess a fee for the QView service, which 
provides a subscribing member firm with increased transparency over its 
trading activity on the Exchange by allowing the member to track its 
Exchange order flow. The Exchange will implement the proposed fee 
effective March 15, 2012.
    The text of the proposed rule change is below. Proposed new 
language is in italics; proposed deletions are in brackets.

7058. QView

    QView is a web-based tool designed to give a subscribing member 
the ability to track its order flow on Nasdaq, and create both real-
time and historical reports of such order flow. Members may 
subscribe to QView for a fee of $600 per month, per member firm [at 
no cost].
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[[Page 18281]]

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 the 
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

1. Purpose
    The Exchange is proposing to assess a fee of $600 per month, per 
member firm for subscription to QView effective March 15, 2012. The 
Exchange initially adopted QView on December 1, 2011 at no cost to 
subscribers.\3\ QView is a Web-based, front-end application, which 
provides a subscribing member firm with increased transparency over its 
trading activity on the Exchange by allowing the member firm to track 
its Exchange order flow.\4\ In particular, a QView subscriber is able 
to track all of its trading activity on the Exchange through detailed 
order and execution summaries. QView provides a subscribing member with 
statistics concerning the total number of executions, total volume, 
dollar value of executions, executions by symbol, add versus remove, 
buy versus sell, display versus non-display, number of open orders, use 
of routing strategies and liquidity code designation. QView also 
provides information concerning how the subscribing member firm ranks 
in NASDAQ market activity as compared to other NASDAQ participants. The 
data provided by QView is available to the subscribing member both in 
real-time and historically. Subscribing member firms are also able to 
export such data from QView to other systems.
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    \3\ Securities Exchange Act Release No. 65851 (November 30, 
2011), 76 FR 75924 (December 5, 2011) (SR-NASDAQ-2011-157).
    \4\ A subscribing member possessing multiple MPIDs must 
designate the MPIDs for which it would like to receive QView 
information. A subscribing member, however, may elect to monitor 
only the activity occurring through certain ports associated with a 
subscribed MPID. A member firm seeking to subscribe to QView that 
accesses the Exchange through a sponsored arrangement with another 
Exchange member must provide the Exchange with an executed sponsored 
access data agreement prior to subscribing to QView. The sponsored 
access data agreement makes clear that the subscribing member firm 
is permitted to designate the sponsoring firm's MPID for 
subscription to QView. A copy of this form may be found here: http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/content/productsservices/trading/QView/QView_SponsoredAccessAgreement.pdf.
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    A member firm must subscribe to NASDAQ TradeInfo \5\ to subscribe 
to QView. QView was developed to work in conjunction with TradeInfo, so 
that a subscriber to QView is able to seamlessly filter down to the 
specific order or execution information of the orders and executions 
provided in the QView dashboard interface. The dashboard also allows a 
QView subscriber to track its executions and open orders in real-time, 
as well as view its executions and open orders as an overall summary, 
with all totals displayed by quantity, share volume, or dollar value. 
As such, QView provides both an overall summary of a subscribing member 
firm's activity, as well as detailed order and execution information, 
thus providing the subscriber a comprehensive tool to track its trading 
activity.\6\
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    \5\ TradeInfo is a web-based tool that, among other things, 
allows users access to all of the NASDAQ order and execution 
information for their entire firm for both equities and options 
through a single interface. TradeInfo is offered complimentary as 
part of the NASDAQ Workstation or separately for a fee of $95 per 
user per month. See Rule 7015(f) (Securities Exchange Act Release 
No. 55135 (January 19, 2007), 72 FR 3893 (January 26, 2007) (SR-
NASDAQ-2006-062)).
    \6\ For example, QView will inform a subscribing member of its 
executions in a particular day and provide a link to the details of 
those executions, which is provided by TradeInfo.
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    A member firm that is a subscriber to QView as of March 14, 2012 
may cancel its subscription to QView at any time prior to close of 
business March 30, 2012 and not pay the proposed subscription fee.\7\
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    \7\ NASDAQ has provided notice to member firms of the March 30, 
2012 cancelation date.
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2. Statutory Basis
    The Exchange believes the proposed rule change is consistent with 
Section 6(b)(4) of the Act \8\ 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 or system which the 
Exchange operates or controls, and it does not unfairly discriminate 
between customers, issuers, brokers or dealers. The Exchange believes 
that the proposed fee is equitable and not unfairly discriminatory 
because member firms that voluntarily elect to subscribe to this 
service will be charged the same fee. QView provides subscribing member 
firms with a top down view of their trading activity on the Exchange 
and the proposed fee is assessed on a per member firm basis. The value 
of QView to a subscribing member firm is the convenience of aggregating 
and displaying the firm's data in a single interface regardless of the 
amount of data (executions, open orders, etc.) or the number of MPIDs 
that the firm has. In this regard, the Exchange notes that the number 
of MPIDs that a subscribing member firm possesses is not indicative of 
quantity and value of the data provided by QView. In many cases, a firm 
with a single MPID may in fact have more data than a firm with multiple 
MPIDs. As such, the Exchange believes that it is equitable to assess 
the fee on a per firm basis, as opposed to a per MPID basis. The 
Exchange also believes that the proposed fee does not unfairly 
discriminate because it is available to all member firms on equal terms 
and there is no differentiation among member firms in regard to the fee 
assessed to subscribers. In addition, the Exchange believes that it is 
not unfair discrimination to limit the service to broker-dealers that 
are members of the Exchange because it provides information solely 
concerning a subscribing member firm's trading activity on the 
Exchange.
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    \8\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4).
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    The Exchange determined that the proposed fee is reasonable based 
on member firm interest in QView, costs associated with developing and 
supporting QView, and the value that QView provides to subscribing 
member firms. The information provided by QView relates to the 
subscribing member firm's activity on the Exchange and the member firm 
may access and aggregate this information by other means, including its 
own internal systems. As such, the Exchange believes that if a member 
firm determines that the fee is not cost-efficient for its needs, it 
may decline to subscribe to QView and access such information from 
other sources. Finally, the maximum fee for a member that elects to 
subscribe to this service, regardless of the number of MPIDs held by 
the firm, is $600 per month. Subscription to QView is per member firm, 
therefore a firm must subscribe only once to QView to receive the 
service for as many of its MPIDs as it wishes.

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

    The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will 
result in any burden on competition that is not necessary or 
appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act, as amended. To 
the contrary, the proposed rule change is pro-competitive in that it 
will allow the Exchange to disseminate a new service on a voluntary 
basis. QView

[[Page 18282]]

is voluntary on the part of the Exchange which is not required to offer 
such products and services, and voluntary on the part of prospective 
users that are not required to use it and may obtain the information 
from other sources.

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

    Written comments were neither solicited nor 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)(ii) of the Act.\9\ 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. If the Commission takes such action, the Commission shall 
institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule should be 
approved or disapproved.
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    \9\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A)(ii).
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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-NASDAQ-2012-035 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

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

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NASDAQ-2012-035. 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 Web site (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 Web site 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 
a.m. and 3 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; the Commission does 
not edit personal identifying information from submissions. You should 
submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. All 
submissions should refer to File Number SR-NASDAQ-2012-035 and should 
be submitted on or before April 17, 2012.
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    \10\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\10\
Kevin M. O'Neill,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-7246 Filed 3-26-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P