SEC moves toward requiring market-wide ‘audit trail’ to dissect trading, disruptions

SEC proposing uniform ‘audit trail’ for orders

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are moving toward requiring a market-wide system among U.S. exchanges for tracking all securities orders.

They say a uniform “audit trail” would make it easier to investigate market disruptions like the May 6 plunge that sent the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 1,000 points in less than 30 minutes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was proposing Wednesday requiring exchanges to maintain a consolidated tracking system covering trading orders from start to routing to execution.