The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) today published Notice 11-0001 relating to securities trading halts in coordination with the application of 'circuit breakers' on U.S. markets. In the U.S., trading halts occur based on trigger levels of 10%, 20% and 30% drops of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, calculated at the beginning of each quarter using the previous month's average closing value. The NYSE thresholds for the first quarter of 2011 are 1,150 points, 2,300 points and 3,450 points respectively.
It is IIROC's policy that it will coordinate trading halts with U.S. markets, but for days when Canadian markets are open and American markets are closed, IIROC has published related triggers based on drops in the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The TSX trigger levels are: Level 1 (10%) - 1,350 points; Level 2 (20%) - 2,700 points and Level 3 (30%) - 4,000 points, with the effects of the triggers depending on the time of day the threshold drop occurs. Triggering the Level 1 threshold between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. would result in a 30 minute halt in trading, while trading would be shut down for the rest of the day should a Level 3 halt occur.
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