Starting January 3, IEX Exchange will charge for market data. I know reading this sentence might make you want to show up at my house with a pitchfork, but before you do, I'm hoping you'll at least read the rest of this blog.

It doesn't matter if a trading venue has 99% market share of a stock if you don't have an interest in buying or selling that symbol.

Two recent court decisions cleared the way for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to implement important market reforms, notwithstanding the continuing opposition of the large exchange companies that sued to block the changes. Chair Gensler suggested in a recent speech that the SEC may take the opportunity to accelerate key parts of those reforms.  It's a good idea, and the Commission should seize the chance to do so.

A high level of transparency is one of the great strengths of U.S. equity markets. Transparency in our markets is heavily dependent on the use of displayed bid and offer prices by exchanges. Only exchanges are required to provide this level of transparency, and only exchanges now do so. But the proportion of market activity occurring on exchanges and resulting from displayed prices, also called "lit trading," has been steadily eroding for many years.

Starting January 3, IEX Exchange will charge for market data. I know reading this sentence might make you want to show up at my house with a pitchfork, but before you do, I'm hoping you'll at least read the rest of this blog.