In addition to the existing FINRA/Nasdaq Trade Reporting Facility® (FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret), FINRA and Nasdaq are proposing to establish a second Trade Reporting Facility in Chicago (FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago).¹ FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago will provide FINRA members with a new alternative for meeting their trade reporting obligations under FINRA rules and complying with FINRA’s requirements with respect to back-up trade reporting arrangements pursuant to FINRA’s Trade Reporting Notice.

FINRA members that choose to utilize FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago may do so as their primary trade reporting facility (TRF) or as an alternate facility. Members also may choose to allocate their trade reports among multiple TRFs as a means of further increasing resiliency and mitigating their risks, including the risks associated with outages.

Testing FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago in the Nasdaq Test Facility (NTF):

• Nasdaq has established a new Nasdaq Testing Facility to support testing for the FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago
• FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago will be available for testing in the NTF starting on June 1, 2018. The following features and functionality will be available to test as of June 1:
  • Trade Report submission, confirmation and reconciliation to ACT via FIX
  • FIX port connectivity and performance using Native FIX 4.2 gateway to ACT
  • Customer ACT Workstation functional testing will be available in the NTF on July 2, 2018
• Firms may connect to the NTF for testing FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago using one of the following options below:
  • Cross-connect within the data center to either a co-located cabinet, or a customer direct connect router;
  • Extranet;
  • Site-to-site VPN though the Internet
• To get started, please reach out to Nasdaq Subscriber Services to discuss connectivity options, service request forms and participation agreements. For additional information about the Nasdaq Test Facility or to access NTF service forms directly, please refer to the NTF Getting Started page.

NTF Hours of Operation and Support

Firms may access the NTF for testing FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago during standard business hours:

• Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

For any technical or operational questions, please contact U.S. Market Operations.

Testing Opportunities

Firms wishing to test FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago functionality in the NTF are invited to use the NTF for a free 60-day test period. Firms must contact ntfbilling@nasdaq.com via email prior to testing to begin the free test period.

Saturday Production User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

• The Nasdaq Production system will be available for FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago and FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret testing on the following Saturdays, in accordance with the Nasdaq Saturday Testing Policy. Production User Acceptance Testing will enable end to end testing with CTA / UTP SIPs, MPP, and OATS on all test dates. (Note: NSCC testing will not be available in production UAT. NSCC testing is currently available in the NTF).
  • July 7th
  • August 4th
  • September 8th
• Saturday UAT Production testing will be 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. Please register in advance for Saturday UAT with Trading Services.
• For FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago Fix Production Ports, please contact Subscriber Services for port request forms. (Note: port set up generally takes several days to connect).
• On UAT test dates, Trading Services will be available for questions and support.

FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago – Key Facts

• FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago will have the same technology, features and functionality as FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret and it will benefit from any upgrades, enhancements or modifications that are made to FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret, and vice versa. Moreover, FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago will be governed by the same rules, pricing and policies that currently govern FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret.
• FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago will process the same set of NMS stocks as FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret, including ETMFs.
• FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago will receive and process information independently from FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret. Each TRF will accept, modify or cancel only those trades that were previously submitted to it, i.e. a trade submitted to FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago can be cancelled or corrected on FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago only. In addition, FINRA rules generally prohibit the submission to one TRF of any non-tape report (including reversals, step-outs and clearing reports) associated with a previously executed trade that was not reported to the same TRF, except with respect to the second leg of a riskless principal or agency transaction.²
• The FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago and FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret will use the industry standard FIX 4.2 protocol and share a common FIX Interface Specification.³
• FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago target launch is September 2018, pending SEC approval.

¹ As of April 2018, the FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Chicago is pending SEC approval. Current status of the filing can be found here: (https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/finra.htm#SR-FINRA-2018-013).

² See, e.g., FINRA Rule 7230A(i).

³ FINRA / Nasdaq TRF Carteret also uses Nasdaq’s proprietary CTCI protocol. Both the FIX and CTCI specifications for Trade Reporting have been updated and are available on our website.