OATS Technical Specifications

The OATS Reporting Technical Specifications document covers the requirements and procedures for clock synchronization; system access requirements for supplying OATS files to FINRA; order reporting scenarios that describe, from a business perspective, responsibilities for reporting to OATS; details regarding the required layout of OATS files; procedures for providing corrections to OATS data and for receiving feedback from FINRA; and the procedures for registration, self-administration, and testing and certification. It also contains a data dictionary that describes all of the data elements in OATS files; a list of report formats, including field names, data types, and lists of permissible values; examples of order reports; and a glossary. The OATS Reporting Technical Specifications is not intended to provide information about how to develop an electronic system that reports order information; it is only intended to describe what such a system must deliver to FINRA.

FINRA released a new edition of the OATS Reporting Technical Specifications dated July 31, 2020.

This edition includes changes related to:

  • The delayed onboarding of the Long-Term Stock Exchange for Exchange Route Matching, effective August 28, 2020. Specifically, the Market Center ID related to the LTSE was revised to “XL”, a change from what was specified in the previous Technical Specifications dated March 26, 2020.
  • The onboarding of the Members Exchange for Exchange Route Matching, effective September 21, 2020.
  • The onboarding of the MIAXPearl Equities Exchange for Exchange Route Matching, effective September 29, 2020.

For the Long-Term Stock Exchange, the above referenced changes will be available in the OATS Certificate Test Environment on August 15, 2020 and in the OATS Production Environment on August 28, 2020.

For the Members Exchange, the above referenced changes will be available in the OATS Certificate Test Environment on August 15, 2020 and in the OATS Production Environment on September 21, 2020.

For the MIAXPearl Exchange, the above referenced changes will be available in the OATS Certificate Test Environment on August 29, 2020 and in the OATS Production Environment on September 29, 2020.

View OATS Reporting Technical Specifications (7/31/2020 edition) (PDF 3.82 MB)

View our archive of past specifications.

If you are having problems accessing these files, please contact FINRA Business and Technology Support Services at 1-800-321-6273.