🔴 Top Stories
The CAT Participants (all 28 exchanges plus FINRA, including IEX) blew the December 2022 deadline for the final CAT build milestone by roughly 19 months because of technical defects in the customer/account database (CAIS), which under the CAT NMS Plan's financial accountability penalty means they forfeit 100% of the right to bill broker-dealers for ~$327M of Period 4 costs. They are asking the SEC to exempt them from that penalty for the ~$391M of non-CAIS costs (mostly cloud/processor costs for the transaction database that was delivered on time), which would let them assess about $261M on Industry Members, plus waive the plan's minimum 24-month recovery window so they can collect it in one year before the March 2028 cutoff. This notice is only the SEC opening a comment period (comments due Oct 5, 2026) — nothing is granted yet, and the SEC has sat on three prior similar requests without acting; if granted, broker-dealers face a new Historical CAT Assessment of roughly $0.000022 per equivalent share, and if denied, the exchanges themselves eat the full $490M.
IEX RELEVANT IEX is a CAT Participant and would absorb its share of the ~$327M in unrecoverable Period 4 costs if the exemption is denied, so the outcome directly affects IEX's balance sheet and the CAT fees its members pay.
Proposal history
2023-03-21
notice of filing
Joint Industry Plan; Notice of Filing of Amendment to the National Market System Plan Gov…
… 7 more …
2026-04-01
approval order
Joint Industry Plan; Order Approving an Amendment to the National Market System Plan Gove…
🔵 IEX Competitive Intel
NYSE American won SEC approval to trade up to 100 highly liquid multi-listed equity/ETF options outside regular hours — a 7:30–9:25 a.m. early session and a 4:00–4:15 p.m. late session — so investors can hedge stock positions during extended equity hours. The SEC granted accelerated approval because the plan closely mirrors already-approved Cboe and Nasdaq MRX frameworks, so the rules are final rather than pending, though NYSE American has committed not to launch until OCC's related clearing rule change is approved. In practice, market makers' participation is voluntary, market orders and most complex/conditional order types are barred in the extended sessions, and no exchange can begin extended equity options trading until OCC is cleared — creating a synchronized industry start.
IEX RELEVANT Extended-hours options trading at NYSE American reinforces the industry migration toward longer equity-linked trading sessions, which pressures IEX to evaluate its own extended-hours equity offering and any future options ambitions.
Proposal history
2026-06-22
notice of filing
Notice of Filing of Proposed Change To Amend Its Rules To Extend Trading Hours for Certai…
Cboe C2, an options exchange, is adopting a "Step Up Mechanism" — a sub-second auction that exposes marketable orders at the NBBO so local participants can match or beat the away-market price rather than having the order routed out to another exchange. The filing took effect immediately (the SEC even waived the usual 30-day delay) because it copies functionality already live at Cboe Options, Cboe EDGX, and IEX Options; the SEC's role here was purely procedural, not an endorsement of the merits, and it retains a 60-day window to suspend, which is unlikely. Practically, C2 participants get a new price-improvement/order-retention mechanism now, and C2 will keep more order flow in-house instead of routing away.
IEX RELEVANT C2 is explicitly modeling its Step Up Mechanism on IEX Rule 22.270, eroding a distinguishing feature of IEX Options' order-retention/price-improvement functionality as Cboe rolls it across all its options venues.
Nasdaq is setting up the connectivity pricing for its new overnight "Night Session" (9:00 p.m.–4:00 a.m. ET, Sunday–Thursday), which requires members to buy separate ports because it runs on a distinct system environment from the day market. To encourage firms to onboard ahead of the roughly December 6, 2026 launch, Nasdaq will waive fees for the first five Night Session ports of each type (FIX, OUCH, CORE FIX, purge, DROP) plus the first five test-facility ports, charging standard rates from the sixth port onward. Because this is a fee filing, it took effect immediately upon filing on September 1, 2026 without SEC approval; the SEC could suspend it within 60 days but that is unlikely for a waiver that lowers costs, so in practice most firms can connect to overnight Nasdaq trading for free.
IEX RELEVANT Nasdaq is subsidizing connectivity to lock in overnight order flow ahead of its December 2026 Night Session launch, raising the competitive bar for IEX as 24/5 equity trading and extended SIP hours become a mainstream exchange offering.
Nasdaq is creating an optional $50,000 'Premier' annual listing fee for ETP issuers (versus the standard $4,000), which buys their fund eligibility for a new Quality Liquidity Provider program that pays a designated market maker a $3,000 monthly stipend plus incremental Tape C add rebates of up to $0.00055/share for meeting stricter quoting, depth, and auction-spread standards in low-volume ETFs. The filing took effect immediately upon filing (no SEC approval needed) and the SEC even waived the usual 30-day operative delay, so it is live as of September 1, 2026 — though the SEC retains a 60-day window to suspend it, which is unlikely given similar programs at NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX were previously approved. In practice, issuers of thinly traded Nasdaq ETFs can now effectively pay for better market making, and market makers gain a new revenue stream tied to quoting quality on Nasdaq.
IEX RELEVANT Issuer-funded market maker incentives concentrate ETP liquidity and quoting on Nasdaq's book, making it harder for IEX to attract displayed liquidity in low-volume ETPs where it cannot offer comparable listing-fee-funded subsidies.
🟠 Other Notable Filings
Cboe wants to list binary options that pay out based on companies' reported key performance indicators (e.g., subscriber counts, unit sales) rather than on stock prices — a novel event-contract-style product that pushes into territory closer to prediction markets. The SEC did not approve or reject anything here; it simply gave itself more time, pushing its decision deadline to October 13, 2026, which signals the proposal raises non-trivial questions (product design, manipulation, whether KPIs are appropriate underlying interests) that staff want more time to evaluate. Nothing changes for market participants now; Cboe cannot list these contracts until the SEC acts, and the extension leaves open approval, further proceedings, or eventual disapproval.
Proposal history
2026-07-15
notice of filing
Notice of Filing of a Proposed Rule Change To Amend its Rules To Permit the Listing of Bi…
💬 Open Comment Periods
⏰ Comments close 2026-11-03