[ by Howard Haykin ] The Nasdaq filed for immediate effectiveness to modify Chapter VII, Section 6 (Market Maker Quotations) of the Nasdaq Optizons Market (NOM).  The purpose of the change is to eliminate market maker pre-opening obligations on NOM.  The Exchange also is changing Chapter VII, Section 5 (Obligations of Market Makers) to conform it to Section 6. Text of the Proposed Rule Change (a) Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Act")1 and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,2 The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC ("NASDAQ" or "Exchange") is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") a proposed rule change to modify Chapter VII, Section 6 (Market Maker Quotations) of the NASDAQ Options Market, LLC ("NOM"). Purpose. The purpose of the proposed rule change is to modify Chapter VII, Section 6 of the NOM rulebook to remove obligations imposed on NOM market makers ("Market Makers") to participate in the pre-opening phase in terms of continuous quotes; and to conform Section 5 to Section 6 as modified.  This is done to put Market Makers on par with the market makers on other options Exchanges that do not have pre-market continuous quoting obligations. Currently, Section 6 of Chapter VII requires ... that a Market Maker must enter continuous bids and offers in options in which the Market Maker is registered on NOM, an all-electronic market.  Specifically, Section 6(d)(i) requires that on a daily basis a Market Maker must: 1) participate in the pre-opening phase; and 2) thereafter make markets consistent with the applicable quoting requirements specified in NOM rules, on a continuous basis in at least 60% of the series in options in which the Market Maker is registered. Additionally, subsection 6(d)(i)1) indicates that to satisfy the Section 6(d)(i) requirement with respect to quoting a series, a Market Maker must: 3) quote such series 90% of the trading day (as a percentage of the total number of minutes in such trading day) or such higher percentage as Nasdaq may announce in advance.  The Exchange does not propose to change any of the continuous quoting requirements applicable to a Market Maker (e.g. continuous quoting in 60% of the Market Maker's registered series for 90% of the trading day) other than to eliminate the requirement to participate in the pre-opening phase in Section 6(d)(i), which is noted in 1) above. Subsequent to this proposal, a Market Maker will ... continue to have all of the other quoting obligations that the Market Maker now has pursuant to Section 6, and pursuant to Section 6(d)(i), during regular market hours will be responsible to quote on a continuous basis in at least 60% of the series in options in which the Market Maker is registered for 90% of the trading day - as a percentage of the total number of minutes in such trading day).  The change that the Exchange is adopting to Section 6(d)(i) is removal of the Market Maker pre-opening quoting obligation and the insertion of text clarifying that the quoting obligation is during regular market hours.  Other than to eliminate the requirement to participate in the pre-opening phase in Section 6(d)(i), which is noted in 1) above.  A As a result Exchange’s proposed rule filing, the NOM continuous quoting requirement on NOM’s electronic market makers will not have a pre-opening quoting obligation, just as other options exchanges (e.g. Phlx and ISE) do not impose a pre-opening obligation on their electronic market makers. Phlx and ISE have a continuous quoting obligation during their regular market hours, which are similar to NOM’s market hours.8  However, Phlx and ISE do not have an obligation for their market makers to participate in a pre-opening phase.  On Phlx, for example, a Remote Streaming Quote Trader ("RSQT"),9 which is similar in nature to a NOM Market Maker, has an obligation during trading hours to quote markets in not less than 60% of the series in which such RSQT is assigned (this is akin to NOM Market Maker registration in a series).  Unlike a NOM Market Maker, which currently has a preopening obligation, a Phlx RSQT does not have a pre-opening market maker obligation. And as a second example, there is a quoting requirement for an ISE market maker. However, just like Phlx, and unlike NOM, ISE does not have a pre-opening market maker For further details, go to: [Nasdaq Rule Filing 12-95, 8/20/12].