The global exchange operator has clarified the issues affecting its opening and closing crosses for the past seven years, Nasdaq officials announced today, August 31.
At the close of business on Friday, August 24, it released a system status alert noting that its platform would trade through orders priced more aggressively priced than the auction price in the crossing book for some instances.
Nasdaq officials attributed the issue to when the exchange implemented a new version of its minimum quantity orders that could rest on the continuous book while excluding them from the opening and closing crosses.
"As a result, there were instances where orders resting on the continuous book did not execute because resting Minimum Quantity orders ahead of them in priority (by price or time) were included in the execution process," wrote the authors of the alert.
Nasdaq staff found 1,622 instances where one or more orders were affected after reviewing all opening and closing crosses since the beginning of the year.
After further research, the exchange operator noted that the issues affected 1,297 minimum quantity orders over 1,231 opening and closing crosses.
The alert authors also noted that the exchange had executed 48,266,472 orders across 892,409 opening or closing auctions since January 2, 2018.
Nasdaq plans exclude minimum quantity orders from all aspects of its auctions via a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The exchange operator expects to implement its change on September 24, pending the Commission's approval.
