FINRA announced that short-exempt marking is being reinstated for OATS, and reminded firms and reporting entities to get familiar with OATS technical specifications, updated last on 8/30/10. 

    Short Exempt Marking.   On 10/4, the SEC approved FINRA's proposal to reinstitute short-exempt marking for trade reporting and OATS.  The applicable OATS changes is now available for testing in the OATS Test environment;  changes become effective in the OATS Production environment on 11/8, with population of short sale related fields becoming mandatory on 11/10.  Firms are encouraged to refer to OATS Reporting Technical Specifications (8/30) and new FAQ's C86 for more details.  [FINRA / Compliance / Mkt Transparency / OATS Announcements, 10/5, 11]

    OATS Tech Specs.  Firms and reporting entities are reminded that the latest OATS release - see OATS Reporting Tech Specs (8/30) is now available in the OATS Testing environment.  It's recommended that firms test their new code prior to the 11/8 OATS Production release.   To view the release, click onto:   [ OATS Tech Specs, 8/30 ]