On August 7, 2003, the Chicago Stock Exchange, Inc. (“CHX” or “Exchange”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”), pursuant to section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”), and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, a proposed rule change to render voluntary a CHX specialist's obligation to fill limit orders for the Nasdaq-100 Index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (collectively “Exempt ETFs”) resting in the specialist's book when the primary market is trading at the limit price, or when the bid or offering at the limit price has been exhausted in the primary market. On January 20, 2004, the Exchange filed Amendment No. 1 to the proposed rule change.
17 CFR 240.19b-4.
The Commission notes that the Exchange has represented that to the extent the CHX Board of Governors designates subject issues other than or in addition to the Exempt ETFs identified in this proposed rule change, the Exchange will file those changes with the Commission as an interpretation of an existing rule pursuant to Section 19(b)(3)(A) of the Act and Rule 19b-4 thereunder.
The proposed rule change, as amended, was published for comment in the Federal Register on February 3, 2004. The Commission received no comments on the proposal. This order approves the proposed rule change, as amended.
See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 49130 (January 27, 2004), 69 FR 5227.
The CHX has represented that the proposed rule change is warranted because the Exchange believes that it is difficult, if not impossible, for a CHX specialist to obtain liquidity on behalf of his customers via the Intermarket Trading System in the case of Exempt ETFs given the dynamic and rapidly changing nature of the exchange-traded fund market.
The Commission finds that the proposed rule change is consistent with the requirements of the Act and the rules and regulations thereunder that are applicable to a national securities exchange. Specifically, the Commission finds that the proposal is consistent with the requirements of section 6(b) of the Act, in general, and section 6(b)(5) of the Act, in particular, which requires that the rules of an Exchange be designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to remove impediments and to perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system, and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest.
In approving the proposal, the Commission has considered the rule's impact on efficiency, competition, and capital formation. See 15 U.S.C. 78c(f).
15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
The Commission believes that the obligations on specialists to execute limit orders resting on the specialist book when the primary market is trading at the limit price, or when the bid or offer at the limit price has been exhausted in the primary market were obligations that the CHX assumed voluntarily in order to make its market more attractive to sources of order flow. The Commission believes that the business decision to potentially forego order flow by no longer requiring specialist to provide such protections to certain limit orders is a judgment the Act allows the CHX to make.
It is therefore ordered, pursuant to section 19(b)(2) of the Act, that the proposed rule change, as amended, (File No. SR-CHX-2003-27) be, and hereby is, approved.
For the Commission, by the Division of Market Regulation, pursuant to delegated authority.
J. Lynn Taylor,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 04-5948 Filed 3-16-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-P