🔴 Top Stories
24X asked the SEC for permission to launch its 9pm-4am overnight equity session before the SIPs (consolidated tape) are able to operate during those hours, arguing that SIP delays were holding back its core business model. The SEC declined to grant that request as asked — instead it issued a conditional backstop: 24X may only start overnight trading on January 24, 2027, and only if the SIPs miss their December 6, 2026 extended-hours go-live date, with relief expiring the earlier of SIP implementation or July 2, 2027. In practice, if the SIPs launch on time (which the SEC expects), nothing changes and all exchanges with approved overnight rules start together; if they slip, 24X alone could trade overnight backed only by a free proprietary data feed, no consolidated tape.
IEX RELEVANT IEX filed a comment letter opposing the request, and the SEC's conditional relief means IEX and other exchanges are not disadvantaged unless the SIPs slip — in which case 24X could gain a first-mover overnight window that IEX would have to seek comparable relief to match.
Proposal history
Cboe BYX wants to add a first-of-its-kind "Contingent Instruction" to its Periodic Auction Only Orders — essentially a non-binding (conditional) block order, like those used in dark pools/ATSs, where a participant is pinged when a match occurs and must send a firm Confirmation Order to trade. It also adds an Auction-or-Cancel time-in-force, randomizes the auction end (70ms + 0–30ms), and creates an automated scoring system that ranks users on response rate/size/price and can bar poor responders for the day. The SEC did not reject the proposal but opened formal 19b-4(2)(B) proceedings, meaning it has concerns about consistency with Section 6(b)(5) (investor protection, manipulation, information leakage from non-firm orders on an exchange) and is demanding public comment before deciding; this pauses the launch for months and raises real disapproval risk, though Cboe can amend to address concerns.
IEX RELEVANT If approved, conditional block order functionality on a lit exchange would give Cboe a novel institutional liquidity-sourcing tool that competes for block flow and sets a precedent IEX would likely need to match, while the SEC's scrutiny of information leakage and non-firm quoting is a signal relevant to IEX's investor-protection positioning.
Proposal history
IEX is sweetening its volume-based incentive for non-displayed (dark) trading by adding a new $0.0004 per share rate for members who have qualified for Incremental Fee Tier 2 three months running and whose eligible volume exceeds three times their baseline — previously that excess volume snapped back to the full $0.0010 rate, blunting the incentive to keep growing. IEX is also renaming its fee schedule 'IEX Equities Fee Schedule' and moving shared FINRA registration and CAT funding fees to a standalone 'Additional Fees' schedule ahead of the October 2, 2026 launch of IEX Options. Because this was filed as immediately effective under Section 19(b)(3)(A)(ii), the pricing is already live as of August 1, 2026 with no SEC approval needed; the SEC retains a 60-day window to suspend it, but that is rare for routine transaction fee filings, so members should expect the new rate to stand.
IEX RELEVANT This is IEX's own filing: it lowers the marginal cost of high-volume non-displayed trading to defend and grow dark liquidity share against competing venues, and formally splits the fee schedule in preparation for the IEX Options launch.
🔵 IEX Competitive Intel
The options exchanges and FINRA maintain a joint plan under Rule 17d-2 that divvies up options market surveillance duties (position limits, large options position reports, exercise declarations, OCC adjustments) so that firms belonging to many SROs aren't examined multiple times for the same rules. This amendment adds IEX and MX2 as plan participants and renames Nasdaq BX to Nasdaq Texas; the SEC approved and declared it effective immediately, so it is a done deal rather than a proposal. Practically, IEX and MX2 now take their turn as Designated Options Surveillance Regulator for allocated common members, and firms avoid duplicative options surveillance across the new venues.
IEX RELEVANT This formalizes IEX's regulatory plumbing as an options exchange — IEX joins the Options Surveillance Group and will share DOSR duties, a necessary operational step tied to its options market expansion (and it simultaneously admits MX2, a new competing options venue).
Proposal history
2022-11-30
approval order
Program for Allocation of Regulatory Responsibilities Pursuant to Rule 17d-2; Notice of F…
2024-08-07
approval order
Program for Allocation of Regulatory Responsibilities Pursuant to Rule 17d-2; Notice of F…
IEX is correcting its trading-halt rules ahead of the August 10, 2026 industry-wide SIP implementation of harmonized regulatory/operational halt standards. Its previously approved rule text said IEX would cancel all resting orders during a Regulatory or Operational Halt, but that never matched actual IEX functionality — orders stay on the book (unavailable to trade) and members can cancel them themselves. The filing took effect immediately and the SEC waived the 30-day operative delay so it lines up with the SIP go-live; nothing changes operationally for IEX members, the rulebook now simply reflects existing behavior (matching Nasdaq's approach).
IEX RELEVANT This is IEX's own filing conforming its halt rules to its actual order-handling behavior, so IEX members' resting orders survive halts rather than being cancelled — consistent with Nasdaq but different from MEMX and NYSE.