The Consolidated Tape Association (CTA) oversees the

Securities Information Processor A securities information processor (SIP) is a part of the infrastructure of public market data providers in the United States that process, consolidate, and disseminate quotes and trade data from different US securities exchanges and market centers ...

that disseminates real-time

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

and quote information (

market data In finance, market data is price and other related data for a financial instrument reported by a trading venue such as a stock exchange. Market data allows traders and investors to know the latest price and see historical trends for instruments ...

) in

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

(NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (AMEX) listed securities (

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

s and bonds). It is currently chaired by Emily Kasparov of the Chicago Stock Exchange, the first woman and the youngest chair elected to the position. CTA manages two Plans to govern the collection, processing and dissemination of trade and quote data: the Consolidated Tape Plan, which governs trades, and the Consolidated Quotation Plan, which governs quotes. The Plans were filed with and approved by the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

(SEC) in accordance with Section 11A of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934 The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (also called the Exchange Act, '34 Act, or 1934 Act) (, codified at et seq.) is a law governing the secondary trading of securities (stocks, bonds, and debentures) in the United States of America. A land ...

. Since the late 1970s, all SEC-registered exchanges and market centers that trade NYSE or AMEX-listed securities send their trades and quotes to a central consolidator where the

Consolidated Tape System The Consolidated Tape System (CTS) is the United States electronic service, introduced in April 1976, that provides last sale and trade data for issues admitted to dealings on the American Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, and U.S. region ...

(CTS) and Consolidated Quotation System (CQS) data streams are produced and distributed worldwide. The CTA is the operating authority for CQS and CTS.

Participant exchanges

The current Participants include: * Cboe BZX Exchange (BZX) * Cboe BYX Exchange (BYX) * Cboe EDGX Exchange (EDGX) * Cboe EDGA Exchange (EDGA) *

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Associati ...

(FINRA) * Nasdaq ISE (ISE) * Nasdaq OMX BX (BSE) * Nasdaq OMX PHLX (PHLX) * Nasdaq Stock Market (NASDAQ) *

(NYSE) * NYSE Arca (ARCA) * NYSE American (AMEX) * NYSE Chicago (CHX) * NYSE National (NSX) * MIAX Pearl Equities * Investors Exchange * Long-Term Stock Exchange

Acquisition and distribution of market data

The New York Stock Exchange is the Administrator of Network A, which includes NYSE-listed securities, and the American Stock Exchange is the Administrator of Network B, which includes AMEX-listed securities. CTS and CQS receive trade and quote information, respectively from NYSE, AMEX, and the other regional market centers using a standard

message A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

format. Each system validates its respective message format, verifies the information against its databases (e.g., valid

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

, etc.), consolidates the information with the other market centers' information, and disseminates the information to the data recipients in its respective common standard message format via the IP multicast network. Included in every trade and quote message is a

timestamp A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolu ...

which represents the time that the message is disseminated. Every trade and quote is stored in the system for both

on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

and after hours processing. Each system maintains a master

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

by symbol. CTS maintains in its database, by symbol, a consolidated high, low, last price and volume; and for each market center that trades that symbol, the market’s last sale and volume information. This information is updated with each trade. Market centers are required, as authorizing

self-regulatory organization Self-regulation may refer to: *Emotional self-regulation *Self-control, in sociology/psychology *Self-regulated learning, in educational psychology *Self-regulation theory (SRT), a system of conscious personal management *Industry self-regulation, ...

s (SROs) per the CTA Plan, to report their trade activity within 90 seconds of execution time to CTS; otherwise the trade report must be designated as a late report. It is the responsibility of the SRO to determine when a trade is late. Late trades do not impact the national last sale price. CTS provides an automated correction processing capability in the event that a market center incorrectly reported its information. When a market center issues a correction message, CTS processes the correction and disseminates the revised trade report along with the updated consolidated and market center information that is maintained in the database. CTS also disseminates at End of Day, closing messages that provide summary information from its database for each listed stock. For every quote message received from a market center, CQS calculates a

National Best Bid and Offer National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(NBBO) based on a price, size and time priority scheme. If the quote is a NASDAQ

market maker A market maker or liquidity provider is a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a tradable asset held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the difference, which is called the ''bid–ask spread'' or ''turn.'' Thi ...

quote, CQS also calculates a NASDAQ BBO. CQS disseminates the Market center's

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

quote with an appendage that includes the National and NASDAQ BBOs. In the event that a market center is experiencing technical difficulties in providing quote information, CQS also has a facility that, at the direction of the market center, disseminates zero quotes in its securities thus eliminating any stale quotes and taking that market center out of the BBO calculations.

Technology infrastructure

Both the CTS and the CQS systems are operated on fault tolerant computer platforms at different physical computer sites; CTS is operated at CTA’s complex in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

; CQS is operated at CTA’s complex in lower

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, thereby providing redundancy in the event of a site disaster. If a site disaster should occur at either location, all of the computer processing would be transferred to the surviving site at reduced capacity. CTS and CQS receive their data from the market centers over network-based

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

connections. Each market center has redundant communication paths into the two operating environments and each uses diverse common telephone carriers to send its trade and quote data to the

Securities Industry Automation Corporation The Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC) is a subsidiary of the NYSE Euronext. Its purpose is to provide technical services for the exchanges themselves, members and other financial institutions. In this role, SIAC provides the comput ...

(SIAC). SIAC simultaneously distributes, via IP multicast, trade and quote information to the CTS and CQS subscribers from both sites. Independent of where the system is physically located (i.e., in lower Manhattan or in Brooklyn), both streams of data are simultaneously distributed out of both sites using an SIAC-developed Multicast Packet Replicator (MPR) thus providing "live" redundant

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

to data recipients. The use of IP multicast, introduced to the market data industry in 1997, was the first widespread implementation of such technology. SIAC's design and implementation of this technology has been recognized and accepted into the permanent archives of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. This technology allows trade and quote data to be distributed in a

broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

mode over a network and eliminates any dependency where one data recipient having a problem might impact another data recipient. In situations where a data recipient has experienced data loss in receiving the information (e.g., due to a system problem at the receiving site) an automated retransmission facility is available to allow that data recipient to automatically request and receive

retransmissions.

References

{{reflist Finance in the United States Self-regulatory organizations in the United States Computer networking

Participant exchanges

Acquisition and distribution of market data

Technology infrastructure

See also

References