On July 11, the SEC approved a rule to require the national securities exchanges and FINRA to establish a market-wide consolidated audit trail to enhance regulators’ ability to monitor and analyze trading activity. The rule requires the exchanges and FINRA to jointly submit a plan detailing how they would implement an audit trail to collect and identify every order, cancellation, modification, and trade execution for all exchange-listed equities and equity options across all U.S. markets. The rule will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. SEC Release.