The SEC obtained an emergency court order to freeze the assets of a trader in China who profited after trading in a U.S. brokerage account prior to a public announcement that Qihoo 360 Technology Co., Ltd. ("Qihoo") received a buyout offer. According to the SEC, the trader purchased out-of-the-money call options in advance of the buyout announcement. After Qihoo's stock price rose sharply, the trader sold all of his options, after which he instructed his brokerage firm to transfer more than half of his proceeds into a foreign bank account. The trader, who is the CEO of a Chinese online gaming

The national securities exchanges and associations (together, the "SROs") filed a proposal with the SEC to amend the plan that governs the selection of a plan processor for the Consolidated Audit Trail (the "CAT Plan Processor"). The proposal would require an SRO that (1) submitted a bid; (2) was an affiliate of an entity that submitted a bid; or (3) was included (or was an affiliate of an included entity as a material subcontractor) that submitted a bid (a "Bidding Participant"), to be recused from voting to select the CAT Plan Processor. According to the SROs, the proposal (if approved)

The SEC approved an amendment to the national market system's plan to create, implement and maintain a consolidated audit trail (the "NMS CAT Plan"). The amendment will allow the national securities exchanges and national securities associations (together, the "SROs") to accept revised bids, and to narrow the list of shortlisted bids for the role of CAT plan processor prior to the SEC's approval of the CAT NMS Plan. Before the amendment was green-lighted, a shortlisted bidder was eligible only to revise its bid and the SROs were permitted only to narrow the set of shortlisted bidders once the

The SEC issued a no action letter granting an exemption to Cambria ETF Trust from Exchange Act Rule 14e-5 requirements. The exemption concerns transactions in which equity securities purchased by a "covered person" are the subject of a tender offer and related securities. See: SEC No-Action Relief.

A recent study (the "Study") by VU University of Amsterdam professors Vincent van Kervel and Albert J. Menkveld explored how high-frequency trading firms ("HFTs") interact with large institutional orders. The Study examined a sample of order executions by four large institutional investors for Swedish stocks in 2011-2013. It found that, although HFTs trade initially in the opposite direction of large institutional investors, if an institutional investor takes longer than a few hours to execute its order, the HFTs will turn around and trade in the same direction as the large institutional