The Investment Industry Regulatory
Organization of Canada (IIROC) today published Notice 11-0001
relating to securities trading halts in coordination with the
application of 'circuit breakers' on U.S. markets. In the
U.S., trading halts occur based on trigger levels of 10%, 20% and
30% drops of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, calculated at the
beginning of each quarter using the previous month's average
closing value. The NYSE thresholds for the first quarter of
2011 are 1,150 points, 2,300 points and 3,450
points respectively.
It is IIROC's policy that it will coordinate trading halts
with U.S. markets, but for days when Canadian markets are open and
American markets are closed, IIROC has published related triggers
based on drops in the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The TSX
trigger levels are: Level 1 (10%) - 1,350 points; Level 2 (20%) -
2,700 points and Level 3 (30%) - 4,000 points, with the effects of
the triggers depending on the time of day the threshold
