The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) today published Notice 12-0122 relating to securities trading halts in coordination with the application of "circuit breakers" on U.S. markets for the second quarter of 2012. 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 Q2 2012 are 1,300 points, 2,600 points and 3,900 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%) - 1,250 points; Level 2 (20%) - 2,500 points and Level 3 (30%) - 3,750 points, and result in trading halts ranging from 30 minutes to the balance of the trading session, depending on the time of day and magnitude of the market decline.
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