Self-Regulatory Organizations; New York Stock Exchange LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change To Amend the Content of the NYSE Best Quote & Trades Data Feed

Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”) and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, notice is hereby given that on May 18, 2018, New York Stock Exchange LLC (“NYSE” or the “Exchange”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) the proposed rule change as described in Items I and II below, which Items have been prepared by the self-regulatory organization. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule change from interested persons.

I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of the Substance of the Proposed Rule Change

The Exchange proposes to amend the content of the NYSE Best Quote & Trades (“NYSE BQT”) data feed. The proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's website at www.nyse.com,, at the principal office of the Exchange, and at the Commission's Public Reference Room.

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 self-regulatory organization 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 those 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 parts of such statements.

A. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change

1. Purpose

The Exchange proposes to amend the content of NYSE BQT to include data feeds from the Exchange's affiliate, NYSE National, Inc. (“NYSE National”). The Exchange recently filed a proposed rule change to establish NYSE National market data feeds, including NYSE National BBO (“NYSE National BBO”) and NYSE National Trades (“NYSE National Trades”) and now proposes to amend the content of the NYSE BQT market data feed to include NYSE National BBO and NYSE National Trades.

The NYSE BQT data feed currently provides a unified view of best bid and offer (“BBO”) and last sale information for the Exchange and its affiliates, NYSE Arca, Inc. (“NYSE Arca”) and NYSE American LLC (“NYSE American”) and consists of data elements from six existing market data feeds: NYSE Trades, NYSE BBO, NYSE Arca Trades, NYSE Arca BBO, NYSE American Trades and NYSE American BBO.

NYSE BBO, NYSE Arca BBO, and NYSE American BBO are existing data feeds that distribute on a realtime basis the same BBO information that NYSE, NYSE Arca, and NYSE American, respectively, report under the Consolidated Quotation (“CQ”) Plan for inclusion in the CQ Plan's consolidated quotation information data stream. NYSE Trades, NYSE Arca Trades, and NYSE American Trades are existing data feeds that distribute on a real-time basis the same last sale information that NYSE, NYSE Arca, and NYSE American, respectively, report under the Consolidated Tape Association (“CTA”) Plan for inclusion in the CTA Plan's consolidated data streams.

The NYSE BQT data feed has three channels: One channel for the last sale data (the “last sale channel”); another channel for the BBO data (the “best quotes channel”); and a third channel for consolidated volume data (the “consolidated volume channel”).

The last sale channel provides an aggregation of the same data that is currently available through NYSE Trades, NYSE Arca Trades, and NYSE American Trades. With this proposed rule change, the last sale channel would also include data available through NYSE National Trades.

The best quotes channel provides the NYSE BQT BBO, which is the best quote from among the NYSE BBO, NYSE Arca BBO, and NYSE MKT BBO based on the following criteria, in order:

• Price: The exchange with the highest bid or the lowest offer has overall priority;
• Size: The largest size takes precedence when multiple exchanges submit the same bid and/or offer price; and
• Time: The earliest time takes precedence when multiple exchanges submit the same bid and/or offer price with the same sizes.

With this proposed rule change, the best quotes channel would also include data available through NYSE National BBO.

For each security, the best quotes channel would only include one best bid and one best offer from among the four exchanges. The NYSE BQT BBO would be marked with a market center ID identifying the exchange from which the BBO originated.

The consolidated volume channel carries consolidated volume for all listed equities in a manner consistent with the requirements for redistributing such data as set forth in the securities information processor plans.

As it does today, NYSE BQT would also provide related data elements for NYSE National, such as trade and security status updates (e.g., trade corrections and trading halts).

The Exchange believes that NYSE BQT would continue to provide high-quality, comprehensive last sale and BBO data for the Exchange, NYSE Arca, NYSE American, and now, NYSE National, in a unified view and would respond to subscriber demand for such a product.

With respect to cost, the Exchange will file a separate rule filing to amend the fees for NYSE BQT. To ensure that vendors could continue to compete with the Exchange by creating the same product as NYSE BQT and selling it to their clients, the Exchange would continue to charge its clients for the NYSE BQT feed an amount that represents the cost to a market data vendor to obtain the underlying data feeds, plus an access fee to perform an aggregation and consolidation function that the Exchange performs in creating NYSE BQT. The Exchange believes that a competing vendor could create and offer a product similar to the proposed NYSE BQT data feed at a similar cost. For these reasons, the Exchange continues to believe that vendors could readily offer a product similar to NYSE BQT on a competitive basis.

The Exchange will announce the date through a market data notice that the amended NYSE BQT feed that includes NYSE National BBO and NYSE National Trades data would be available and by when a subscriber must subscribe to NYSE National BBO and NYSE National Trades to continue receiving NYSE BQT. This proposed change to NYSE BQT will not be operative until NYSE National has established the NYSE National BBO and NYSE National Trades and related fees via a proposed rule change(s) and NYSE National has re-launched operations.

2. Statutory Basis

The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with Section 6(b) of the Act (“Act”), in general, and furthers the objectives of Section 6(b)(5) of the Act, in particular, in that it is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices, to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to foster cooperation and coordination with persons engaged in facilitating transactions in securities, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest, and it is not designed to permit unfair discrimination among customers, brokers, or dealers. This proposal is in keeping with those principles in that it promotes increased transparency through the dissemination of the NYSE BQT market data feed to those interested in receiving it.

The NYSE BQT data feed is a product that relies on the Exchange's receipt of underlying data, which is available to all market participants, before it can aggregate and consolidate information to create the NYSE BQT; this is a process that a vendor could also perform. Accordingly, the Exchange is not the only distributor of the NYSE BQT data feed.

The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent with Rule 603 of Regulation NMS, which provides that any national securities exchange that distributes information with respect to quotations for or transactions in an NMS stck [sic] do so on terms that are not unreasonably discriminatory. In adopting Regulation NMS, the Commission granted self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) and broker dealers increased authority and flexibility to offer new and unique market data to consumers of such data. It was believed that this authority would expand the amount of data available to users and consumers of such data and also spur innovation and competition for the provision of market data.

The Exchange further notes that the existence of alternatives to the Exchange's product, including real-time consolidated data, free delayed consolidated data, and proprietary data from other sources, as well as the continued availability of the Exchange's separate data feeds, ensures that the Exchange is not unreasonably discriminatory because vendors and subscribers can elect these alternatives as their individual business cases warrant. Additionally, the Exchange has taken into consideration its affiliated relationship with NYSE Arca, NYSE American and NYSE National in its design of the NYSE BQT data feed to assure that similarly situated competing vendors would be able to offer a similar product on the same terms as the Exchange, both from the perspective of latency and cost.

The Exchange believes that NYSE BQT offers an alternative to the use of consolidated data products and proprietary data products such as NASDAQ Basic and NLS Plus. NASDAQ Basic, which is offered by The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. (“NASDAQ”) provides best bid and offer and last sale information for all U.S. exchange-listed securities (including NYSE and its affiliates) based on liquidity within NASDAQ, as well as trades reported to the FINRA/NASDAQ Trade Reporting Facility (“TRF”), including NASDAQ last sale, NASDAQ BBO, NASDAQ opening and closing prices, and other market status information. Further, NLS Plus provides all trade data from NASDAQ, the FINRA/NASDAQ TRF, NASDAQ BX, and NASDAQ PSX, as well as consolidated volume information as part of each trade message.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (“Cboe”) also offers a market data product that provides a unified view of the aggregated quote and trade updates for all the Cboe equity exchanges. The Exchange believes that NYSE BQT offers a competitive alternative to the two existing NASDAQ products and the Cboe product.

In addition, this proposal would not permit unfair discrimination because NYSE BQT will continue to be available to all of the Exchange's customers through SFTI and market data vendors on an equivalent basis. In addition, any customer that wished to continue to be able to purchase one or more of the individual underlying data feeds would be able to do so.

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

In accordance with Section 6(b)(8) of the Act, the Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change will enhance competition because it would enable the Exchange to include NYSE National BBO and NYSE National Trades as part of NYSE BQT, thereby enabling it to better compete with market data products offered by NASDAQ and Cboe. As noted above, the Exchange already offers NYSE BQT and this proposed rule change simply amends the content of the current market data product to include data elements from two additional data feeds from the Exchange's affiliate, NYSE National. Although the Exchange, NYSE Arca, NYSE American and NYSE National are the exclusive distributors of the eight BBO and Trades feeds from which certain data elements are taken to create NYSE BQT, the Exchange would not be the exclusive distributor of the aggregated and consolidated information that would compose the amended NYSE BQT data feed. Vendors would be able, if they chose, to create a data feed with the same information as NYSE BQT and distribute it to their clients on a level-playing field with respect to latency and cost as compared to the Exchange's product.

With respect to latency, the Exchange, NYSE Arca, NYSE American and NYSE National are located in the same data center in Mahwah, New Jersey. The system creating and supporting the NYSE BQT data feed would need to obtain the eight underlying data feeds from the four exchanges before it could aggregate and consolidate information to create NYSE BQT and then distribute it to end users. Likewise, a competing market data vendor co-located at the Exchange's Mahwah, New Jersey facility could perform the aggregation and consolidation function in the Mahwah facility and redistribute a competing product from that location to similarly situated customers on a level-playing field with respect to the speed that the Exchange could create and redistribute the NYSE BQT data feed.

The Exchange believes that NYSE BQT will continue to promote competition among exchanges by offering an alternative to NASDAQ Basic, NLS Plus and Cboe Equites One Feed. For these reasons, the Exchange believes that NYSE BQT will continue to promote, rather than unnecessarily or inappropriately burden, competition for market data products that are offered in the capacity as a vendor and are not core exchange market data products.

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

No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the proposed rule change.

III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for Commission Action

Because the proposed rule change does not (i) significantly affect the protection of investors or the public interest; (ii) impose any significant burden on competition; and (iii) become operative for 30 days from the date on which it was filed, or such shorter time as the Commission may designate, it has become effective pursuant to Section 19(b)(3)(A) of the Act and Rule 19b-4(f)(6) thereunder.

A proposed rule change filed pursuant to Rule 19b-4(f)(6) under the Act normally does not become operative for 30 days after the date of its filing. However, Rule 19b-4(f)(6)(iii) permits the Commission to designate a shorter time if such action is consistent with the protection of investors and the public interest. The Exchange has asked the Commission to waive the 30-day operative delay so that the proposed rule change may become operative upon filing. The Exchange states that waiver of the operative delay would be consistent with the protection of investors and the public interest because it will allow the Exchange to provide an amended NYSE BQT market data feed that will include the NYSE National Market Data Feeds immediately upon launch of NYSE National, which the Exchange states is intended in May 2018, and will further allow the Exchange to compete directly with the similar NASDAQ and Cboe market data products on a timely basis. The Commission believes that waiving the 30-day operative delay is consistent with the protection of investors and the public interest. Therefore, the Commission hereby waives the operative delay and designates the proposal as operative upon filing.

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.

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 rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include File Number SR-NYSE-2018-22 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

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

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSE-2018-22. 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 website ( 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 website 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 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 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. Persons submitting comments are cautioned that we do not redact or edit personal identifying information from comment submissions. You should submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSE-2018-22, and should be submitted on or before June 28, 2018.