March 30, 2022
Equities Notice 2022-006
TMX Equity Trading Notice
TSX DRK Conditional Orders Enforcements Facility Implementation and Fee Resumption
TSX DRK (TSXV - TSX DRK), Canada's fastest growing dark pool, is excited to announce the implementation of our Conditional orders enforcement facility on April 1st, 2022. TSX DRK Conditional orders allow members to source price improving, block sized liquidity, while minimizing market impact. The enforcement mechanism is designed to minimize information leakage and improve participants' experience. TSX DRK will implement an enforcement mechanism to monitor and police Conditional Order interactions and fall-downs (i.e., invitations not firming up). The integrity and confidentiality of the information is of utmost importance to the operation of our Conditional book.
TSX and TSXV (collectively, the "Exchanges" or "we") will have the ability to suspend a participant's ability to enter Conditional Orders if TSX or TSXV, as the case may be, determines, in its sole discretion, that Conditional Orders are being misused. In particular, we will monitor participants' Score (as defined below). If a participant (by Trader ID) does not maintain a threshold percentage (the "Threshold") Score of greater than 50%, we may, in our sole discretion, suspend a participant's ability (by Trader ID) to enter Conditional Orders for one trading day (a "Suspension"). A score will be calculated based on the aggregate firm volume ‘firmed up' by a participant over the aggregate Conditional Order volume entered by such participant (the "Score"). NBBO movement during the invitation and firm-up process will not be considered a fall-down. Prior to a Suspension, participants will be alerted by the applicable Exchange if their Score falls below the Threshold. We Anticipate that Suspensions will, initially, be applied to the trading day immediately following the day on which the Threshold is breached, and Suspensions may, in the future, be applied intraday. Repeated breaches of the Threshold may result in longer periods of Suspension. We may, in our sole discretion, amend the Threshold or the number of orders to use for the Score calculation, from time to time, to minimize misuse of Conditional Orders. Any change in the Threshold will be communicated to participants. The Exchange anticipates that it will provide participants with quarterly reports on their usage and Score.
In addition, further to Equity Trading Notice 2022-001, the "fee holiday" for Conditional Orders will end after March 31, 2022. Fees for trading Conditional Orders on both TSX and TSXV will become applicable effective April 1, 2022. The new revised Conditional fee schedules can be found here for TSX and TSXV.
For more information regarding this notice, please contact the Account Management Team.