Tougher for GNLN ot manip MTXX at close & open?: "NASDAQ Announces Plans to Launch Official Opening Price, Enhance
2003-10-03 13:12 (New York)
NASDAQ Announces Plans to Launch Official Opening Price, Enhance
Current Official Closing Price
NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 10/03/03 -- The Nasdaq Stock
Market, Inc. (NASDAQ(R)) today announced plans to launch the NASDAQ
Official Opening Price and enhance the current NASDAQ Official
Closing Price, pending approval from the Securities and Exchange
Commission. To make these changes, NASDAQ will build the NASDAQ
Cross -- a centralized order facility that will provide a single
price for both the Open and Close -- and work with market
participants to build the proper interfaces to the facility.
Creating opening and closing prices that are the result of bringing
together all significant orders ensures that NASDAQ's official
opening and closing prices are tradeable, accessible, and indicative
of the deep liquidity in the market.
"NASDAQ is committed to meeting the evolving needs of the securities
industry. A number of important developments have contributed to the
decision to implement these changes including the shift in liquidity
concentration resulting from the conversion to decimals and increased
interest in index-related products, making the open and close key
indicators of valuation," said Adena Friedman, Executive Vice
President of NASDAQ Data Products.
In redesigning the Market Open, NASDAQ will introduce new order types
within SuperMontage including market-on-open and limit-on-open
orders. Current order types will also be eligible to participate in
the new Market Open. While orders are gathered in the minutes
leading up to the 9:30 a.m. Market Open, NASDAQ will publish an order
imbalance indicator available on the NWII and over the NASDAQ
TotalView data feed to make investors aware of the collective buying
and selling interest.
At 9:30 a.m., all eligible orders in SuperMontage will be executed
via the NASDAQ Opening Cross, at a single price, which will be used
as the benchmark for establishing index values and pricing derivative
products on major expiration days. NASDAQ plans to have the NASDAQ
Opening Cross in production during the second quarter 2004. NASDAQ
will also establish the NASDAQ Closing Cross, similar to the NASDAQ
Opening Cross, which is also scheduled for launch in 2004.
Prior to the launch of the new NASDAQ Opening Cross, NASDAQ will make
more immediate enhancements to the calculation of the NASDAQ opening
price. NASDAQ will create and disseminate a NASDAQ Official Opening
Price, determined by the first execution within SuperMontage at 9:30
a.m. For stocks where there is no match at 9:30 a.m., NASDAQ will
use the first last-sale eligible trade reported to NASDAQ's ACT
system. The NASDAQ Official
Opening Price will be distributed to
market data vendors over NASDAQ's proprietary index data feed. The
NASDAQ Official Opening Price is scheduled for implementation in
January 2004.
"NASDAQ is always looking for ways to augment its products to meet
the changing needs of the industry, so we also plan to enhance the
current NASDAQ Official Closing Price process," continued Ms.
Friedman. "Our planned enhancements will ensure a more robust and
definitive closing price for NASDAQ stocks, providing even greater
certainty in pricing major transactions and daily mutual fund Net
Asset Values."
The NASDAQ Official Closing Price (NOCP) will be enhanced for
industry use as the benchmark for market-on-close orders, index
valuations, and mutual fund net-asset-valuations. The NOCP was
launched in April 2003 and has been widely adopted by the industry as
the benchmark price for the market close.
NASDAQ is the world's largest electronic stock market. With
approximately 3,400 companies, it lists more companies and, on
average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It
is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all
areas of business including technology, retail, communications,
financial services, media and biotechnology. For more information
about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.NASDAQ.com or the
NASDAQ Newsroom(SM) at www.NASDAQnews.com.
Contacts:
Melissa Fox
212-401-8721
Melissa.Fox@nasdaq.com
Bethany Sherman
212-401-8714
Bethany.Sherman@nasdaq.com
Provider ID: 02058249
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