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Wednesday, March 18, 2026

UTP Vendor Alert #2026 - 9
Testing Opportunities - Regulation NMS Mandated Odd Lot Changes

Markets Impacted:

Products Impacted:

Contact Information:

What you need to know:

  • As previously announced in UTP Vendor Notice 2025-18, beginning April 27, 2026, as set forth in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Final Rule Notice, the SEC has adopted new definitions for “Odd Lot” information under the Market Data Infrastructure (MDI) Rules to enhance the transparency for investors and other market participants of quotes and orders in NMS stocks.

  • The objective of this project is to improve the transparency of quotation data for orders by exchanges and FINRA that are at increments less than a defined round lot, by enhancing the SIPs to support Odd Lot Quotation reporting. Odd Lot Quotation is an activity in which a participant has order interest that is at or better than their protected quote but does not have enough interest (shares available) to represent a round lot size.

  • U.S. equity exchanges do not currently report to the SIP’s orders that are less than a round lot. However, some may provide this transparency within proprietary data services. This initiative enhances the existing SIPs products to support Odd Lot quotation reporting.

  • The UTP SIP changes are described in updated specifications, which are available on the UTP Plan webpage and will be implemented as a “Hot Cut” release.

What is Changing?

The objective of this project is to improve the transparency of quotation data for orders by exchanges and FINRA that are at increments less than a defined round lot, by enhancing the SIPs to support Odd Lot Quotation reporting. Odd Lot Quotation is an activity in which a participant has order interest that is at or better than their protected quote but does not have enough interest (shares available) to represent a round lot size.

What is the timeline for this enhancement?

Beginning on Monday April 27, 2026, The UTP SIP will introduce the new messages via a “Hot Cut” release, all Direct data Recipients must be prepared to process the new messages.

What are the testing opportunities?

Type of Testing Scheduled Dates Description
Evening Test Transmissions Nightly beginning February 23, 2026 through production launch Each weeknight between 9:30 pm – 10:30 pm, the test data will be available on the “Test Broadcast” IP Multicast channels. No registration is required to participate in evening testing.
Saturday User Acceptance Test (UAT) March 7, 2026;
March 21, 2026 (Intraday Fallback);
March 28, 2026;
April 11, 2026 SIP Failover MWCB Level 1/2 Test (with Odd Lot code enabled)
April 18, 2026
April 25, 2026 (Confidence Test) 		Participants will enter data and process this through the SIP. As it is generated, the UTP SIP will disseminate the data via the UTP data feed production channels.
Production Launch April 27, 2026 UTP SIP plans for a “Hot Cut” production implementation to begin April 27, 2026.

In addition to the weekend and nightly testing the UTP is providing the Odd Lot code within the Nasdaq Testing Facility (NTF) beginning Monday February 23, 2026 continuing through production launch.

What is the plan for March 21, 2026 Fallback testing?

Time Test CategoryData Recipients Expected Results
~7:58 AMSODUTP Start-of-Day message
~7:58 - 8:00 AM Symbol Reference DataUTP to publish Symbol Symbol Directory (Category A Type B) messages for all symbols
9:30:00 AMMarket OpenQuotes and trades accepted and disseminated via the multicast output lines. All quote messages are published by SIP in the new Odd Lot formats.
9:30 - 11:00 AMData VerificationData Subscribers can verify Data over the Output Multicast lines. All quote messages are published in the new Odd Lot message formats.
11:00 - 11:15 AMFallbackSIP to initiate release fallback to the legacy format (non-odd lot message formats), which involves configuration rollback within the UTP Processor environments. Output multicast data dissemination for all lines will go dormant (no message dissemination) Services will remain in our Primary Data Center Location.
11:15 AMPost FallbackOutput multicast data dissemination for all lines will begin to disseminate messages in the legacy non-odd lot message formats. Messages should persist from where they went dormant prior to the fallback decision. Any missed messages can be requested to be retransmitted via the normal retransmission request service.
Participants that were submitting Quote messages in the Odd Lot format must switch their quote reporting to the legacy format (i.e. non-Odd Lot format), before reconnecting to SIP. Participants should consider restating their quote positions in the legacy message format.
Data Subscribers to accept and process quotes and trades disseminated on the output lines in the old (non-Odd Lot) message formats. Note - Data Subscribers are expected to be able to handle the legacy format. UTP Retransmission requests will return messages with the legacy formats, for retransmission of quote data prior to the fallback.
11:15 - 11:30 AMData VerificationData Subscribers can verify Data over the Output Multicast lines.
12:00:00 PM End of Regular Trading Hours (typically 04:00 PM) LULD Bands cleared by SIP
12:30:00 PM End of Test

Who should I contact for additional information?