Execution Quality Statistics

How to Find Information on Order Execution and Routing Practices

SEC rules aimed at improving public disclosure of order execution and routing practices require all market centers that trade national market system securities to make monthly electronic reports.  These reports must contain information about each market center's quality of executions on a stock-by-stock basis — including how market orders of various sizes are executed relative to the public quotes.  These reports must also disclose information about effective spreads (the spreads actually paid by investors whose orders are routed to a particular market center).  In addition, market centers must disclose the extent to which they provide executions at prices better than the public quotes to investors using limit orders.

You can access these monthly reports by visiting the websites listed below:

	American Stock Exchange
	Boston Stock Exchange
	Chicago Stock Exchange
	Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (market centers that selected FINRA to display their reports)
	National Stock Exchange (formerly the Cincinnati Stock Exchange)
	New York Stock Exchange
	Pacific Exchange
	Philadelphia Stock Exchange

Each exchange provides a list of the market centers that trade securities on that exchange. Similarly, FINRA provides a list of the market centers for which it is responsible, including Nasdaq market makers and alternative trading systems. You can find out which market makers trade a particular Nasdaq security by visiting the Nasdaq Trader website and typing in the ticker symbol.

Be aware that you will most likely find order execution data for any given exchange-listed security in more than one report. That's because many securities trade on multiple exchanges, and some Nasdaq market makers also trade exchange-listed securities.