SEC Form ATS-R

What Is Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R?

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R is a quarterly update that alternative trading systems (ATS) are required to file with the SEC. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R reports the volume and dollar amount of all trades in securities conducted through the trading system during the previous quarter.

Understanding Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R

SEC Regulation ATS laid out a regulatory framework for ATS. An ATS meets the definition of an exchange under federal securities laws however isn't required to register as a national securities exchange in the event that the ATS operates under the exemption provided under Exchange Act Rule 3a1-1(a). To operate under this exemption, an ATS must comply with the requirements in Rules 300-303 of Regulation ATS.

To be in compliance with SEC Regulation ATS, an alternative trading system must file a SEC Form ATS-R. SEC Form ATS-R reports the quarterly activities of an alternative trading system's quarterly activities — both the unit volume and dollar volume of trades in every type of security it handles.

Definition of an Alternative Trading System (ATS)

An ATS meets the definition of an exchange under federal securities laws yet isn't required to register as a national securities exchange (as long as the ATS operates under the exemption provided under Exchange Act Rule 3a1-1(a); to operate under this exemption, an ATS must comply with the requirements in Rules 300-303 of Regulation ATS.)

The function of an ATS is to match buyers with sellers, generally for large blocks of assets.

For instance, an institutional investor (like The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. or JPMorgan Chase and Co.) could utilize an ATS to find another institutional investor who needs to buy 1,000,000 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) stock.

An ATS is considered a dark pool. A dark pool is a privately organized financial forum or exchange for trading securities; the price and size of a user's order are not shown to other users. Transactions are finished in private so the large transaction doesn't unintendedly affect the stock's price. (Big transactions that appear on the order books of big exchanges can cause a cascading type of influence.)

An ATS is a terminology utilized in the U.S. what's more, Canada. In Europe, an alternative trading system is known as a multilateral trading facility. An ATS must file the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R in somewhere around 30 days of the finish of each calendar quarter.

The SEC provides this definition of an ATS.

"Any organization, association, person, group of persons, or systems:

that constitutes, keeps up with, or provides a marketplace or facilities for bringing together purchasers and sellers of securities or for otherwise performing with respect to securities the functions commonly performed by a stock exchange inside the significance of Rule 3b-16 under the Exchange Act;
that doesn't (I) set rules governing the conduct of subscribers other than the conduct of such subscribers' trading on such organization, association, person, group of persons, or system, or (ii) discipline subscribers other than by exclusion from trading."

Types of Assets on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R

The form must provide these subtleties for activity conducted through the system, remembering transactions for the accompanying:

Listed equity securities
Nasdaq National Market securities
Nasdaq SmallCap Market securities
Rule 144A equity securities
Penny stocks
Other equity securities
Rights and warrants
Listed options
Unlisted options
Government securities
Municipal securities
Corporate debt securities
Mortgage-related securities
Other debt securities

The ATS must likewise provide unit and dollar volume transaction figures in the greater part of these categories for after-hours trading that happens on the ATS.

Features

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R reports the volume and dollar amount of all trades in securities conducted through the trading system during the previous quarter (both the unit volume and dollar volume of trades in every type of security it handles).
An ATS is a broker-dealer rather than a securities exchange; its function is to match buyers with sellers, generally for large blocks of assets.
In a dark pool, transactions are finished in private with the goal that the large transaction doesn't unintendedly affect the stock's price.
An ATS is considered a dark pool, which is a privately organized financial forum or exchange for trading securities; the price and size of a user's order are not shown to other users.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form ATS-R is a quarterly update that alternative trading systems (ATS) are required to file with the SEC.