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ARTICLE · 18 JUNE 2026

The SEC Is Through With The Trade-Through Rule

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed rescinding Rule 611, the Trade-Through Rule, which for two decades has required market participants to execute against the best-priced quotations across exchanges.

United StatesFinance and Banking
Wayne M. Aaron
Wayne M. Aaron
James Brady
James Brady
Susan Light
Susan Light
Patrick Smith
Patrick Smith
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After a series of industry roundtables and clear messaging from Chairman Paul S. Atkins regarding his ongoing objections following his dissent more than two decades ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC or the Commission) proposed on June 11, 2026 to rescind Rule 611 under Regulation NMS, known formally as the Order Protection Rule and informally as the Trade-Through Rule.1 That moniker tracks the rule's requirement that market participants cannot trade "through" (i.e., buy at a price higher than the lowest offer or sell at a price lower than the highest bid) the best-priced quotations of published exchanges without executing against those best-priced quotations. The Commission also proposed to rescind Rule 610(c) under Regulation NMS, which currently prohibits market participants from locking or crossing another market center’s published quotation. Both rules were adopted in 2005 as part of Regulation NMS. Chairman Atkins, then an SEC Commissioner, and

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