Update: OPRA Data Issue Halts Options Exchanges

OPRA had begun the software upgrade—which was designed to improve message processing efficiency—on Friday, Sept. 13 in a phased rollout. However, during the process on Monday, the OPRA SIP (Securities Information Processor) discovered that duplicate quotes were being generated for some securities, which would have affected calculation of the NBBO.

To fix the problem, OPRA notified exchange participants and the Securities and Exchange Commission, then rolled back to the previous version of the software and restarted the system between 1:30pm and 1:46pm, since when it has been publishing data normally. SIAC has not yet set a date to resume the upgrade.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange, International Securities Exchange, MIAX Options Exchange and Nasdaq OMX’s NOM (Nasdaq Options Market), BX and PHLX marketplaces all reported trading halts as a result of OPRA’s system issues. Nasdaq had earlier reported that its NOM systems were operating normally, despite some customers reporting delays in dissemination of some orders on NOM through data vendors.

CBOE halted trading between 1:40pm Eastern time and 1:52pm ET, when systems began operating normally again, though connectivity was not fully restored to traders until 2:30pm. At 1:58 pm, MIAX reported that its systems were operating normally again, followed by Nasdaq at 2:27pm, after purging all quotes from its SQF low-latency order entry mechanism.

ISE initially continued trading based on initial information from OPRA that the event would be a temporary interruption while OPRA restarted its systems. “When it became clear from OPRA that this may be a longer interruption than anticipated, we made the decision to halt our markets until OPRA resumed data dissemination. Once OPRA was back up, we re-opened for trading at 2:20pm after doing a systems check,” an ISE spokesperson says.