OATS Report - December 4, 2000

December 4, 2000

OATS currently collects price information in a decimal format [i.e., Numeric (18,8), left justified] and therefore will be unaffected, in terms of formatting, by the conversion to decimals.

A common question is whether members need to modify open orders in OATS to reflect changes to any prices for open limit orders, stop orders, or stop/limit orders resulting from rounding. The answer is that it depends on how your system handles the price changes. Members that will use a systematic process to convert their order management systems from fractions to decimals will not need to file any reports (i.e., Cancel/Replace reports) with OATS. However, if the member's system will automatically generate a New Order ID to reflect the price modification, then that member must transmit a Cancel/Replace Report to OATS. As always, customer modifications of open orders must be reported to OATS via a Cancel/Replace report.

If you have any questions regarding this topic or on OATS in general, please contact Business and Technology Support Services at (800) 321-NASD.