US gov't floats rules for high-speed trading

[September 10, 2013]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators took a step toward stricter oversight of the high-speed trading market, putting forward a broad range of possible rules for public comment.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission floated the potential restrictions less than a month after the Nasdaq exchange suffered a three-hour trading outage. The outage was the latest in a series of disruptions to stoke concerns about high-speed trading.

Among the ideas put forth by the CFTC: Requiring exchanges to routinely tests equipment at trading firms; develop training standards for individuals at firms who oversee the automated systems; have exchanges set maximum sizes for trading orders.

The public has 90 days to comment on the ideas. After that, the agency would likely begin drafting a more formal proposal.

[Associated Press]

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