OATS Report - October 5, 2000

October 5, 2000

NASD member firms receiving orders in Nasdaq securities during after-hours sessions are required to submit those orders to the Order Audit Trail System (OATS) per NASD Rules 6950-6957, as they would report any other order in Nasdaq securities. The only difference is that after-hours orders are considered as received on the following OATS Business Day and, therefore, are not required to be submitted to OATS until the next OATS Reporting Day. For the purposes of OATS reporting, a business day begins after the close of The Nasdaq Stock Market on one market day and ends at the close of The Nasdaq Stock Market on the next market day. An OATS Reporting Day is the time period during which an order event must be reported to OATS or be marked late by the NASD. Events occurring during an OATS Business Day must be submitted to OATS by 4:00:00 a.m., Eastern Time (ET), the next calendar day.

For example, orders received during the regular market session from 9:30 to 4:00 on Monday are required to be submitted to OATS by 04:00 a.m. on Tuesday. However, orders received in Monday's after-hours session are required to be submitted to OATS by 04:00 a.m. on Wednesday as they are considered part of Tuesday's OATS Business Day.

Firms not reporting after-hours orders are subject to disciplinary action for OATS reporting violations. Should you have any questions regarding after-hours reporting please call 1-800-321-NASD.