Admiral ATS

amendment_reason

We added language to Part II Item 7a that alerts the reader to the additional language provided in an attached text document. This applies equally to subscribers and the broker dealer operator.

ats_name

Admiral Securities LLC

operator_crd

000324098

operator_name

ADMIRAL SECURITIES LLC

order_types

The Admiral ATS utilizes the price-time priority matching algorithm. In this algorithm, all orders at the same price level are filled according to time priority; the first order at a price level is the first order matched. All orders entered into the Admiral ATS are firm orders. An order is actionable and eligible for matching at any time until such order has expired by its terms, is canceled, or is executed. A reduction in an order's size does not affect the order's original time priority. The Admiral ATS accepts buy, sell, and sell short orders. The Admiral ATS accepts limit and post-only orders. Post-only orders can only post (i.e., add liquidity) and cannot remove liquidity on entry. If the post-only order is marketable on entry, it is rejected. Here is an example of how orders might come in, rest, and then match: ORDER A: tagged with identifier SUBSCRIBER1, a post-only, LIMIT DAY buy order to buy 500 shares of ABC @ $10 is entered in the system at 2:00 p.m.; ORDER B: tagged with identifier SUBSCRIBER2, a post-only , LIMIT DAY order to sell 500 shares of ZZZ @ $10 is entered in the system at 2:01 p.m.; ORDER A and ORDER B are "resting" orders i.e., they are posted on the ATS and they are awaiting a contra aggressive interest; ORDER C: tagged with identifier SUBSCRIBER3, a LIMIT DAY sell order to sell 500 shares of ABC @ $10 is entered in the system at 2:02 p.m.; ORDER C is immediately executed (matched with a contra interest) @ $10 at 2:02 p.m. against resting ORDER A; ORDER B remains resting on the ATS and will be held on the ATS until the end of the session, until the order is canceled, or until it is executed (matched with a contra interest) Day orders are canceled at 4:00 p.m. The minimum price variation ("MPV") or minimum trading increment is $0.01. Orders that do not meet this criterion are rejected. The Admiral ATS only accepts orders that are marked for cash (T+0) settlement. Orders must be marked with FIX tag <63> ("SettlType") equal to value 1 ("Cash") in order to be accepted. Subscribers are responsible for ensuring that orders sent to the Admiral ATS can settle on T+0. A subscriber sending orders that cannot settle on T+0 is financially liable to Admiral and Vision for the costs of remediation (e.g. loss in value of position or borrowing costs) and this could also result in a temporary or permanent expulsion from the Admiral ATS. Orders are rejected if they contain instructions or order attributes that are not supported by the ATS, such as a non-existent stock symbol or invalid time in force. The Admiral ATS does not accept orders that adjust their price as changes to the order book occur (e.g., price sliding orders or pegged orders) or have a discretionary range. Orders are not eligible for routing out to other trading venues. Time in Force (TIF) values are as follows: * Immediate Or Cancel (IOC) - immediately fills for as much volume as possible, the remaining shares are canceled back to the subscriber. * Fill or Kill (FOK) - an IOC order where the entire size must be filled, else the order is canceled. * DAY - available for trading during the regular market session until is canceled or executed (expires at market close). Orders that do not specify a TIF are rejected.

means_of_entry

All trading communications between subscribers and the Admiral ATS pass through Vision using FIX 4.2 protocol. Before orders reach the Admiral ATS, Vision performs numerous risk checks. Vision performs these exact same checks to all orders sent by its correspondents and customers. These checks include buying power, duplicate orders, sub-penny stocks, price checks, and wash trades. If an Admiral subscriber order fails any of these Vision risk checks, the order will be rejected, and thus not reach the Admiral ATS. If an order passes the Vision risk checks, Vision sends the order to the Admiral ATS via a FIX connection. In addition, TRAFiX is a broker-neutral execution management system that provides a system to effectively manage the order flow for Vision's execution business. TRAFiX technology sits in the middle of the trading stack as the hosted OMS/EMS that receives inbound order flow, normalizes it, and routes it out to execution venues using Vision's routing rules. It enforces Vision's pre-trade risk controls (Rule 15c3-5 style checks and firm/trader/account limits) before orders leave Vision. If an order passes the risk checks, Vision sends the order to the Admiral ATS via a FIX connection. When an order reaches the Admiral ATS, Admiral performs a number of checks before the order enters the order book. These checks include, but are not limited to, the validity of the ticker, the order type (e.g. Admiral does not accept market orders), and the order size. If an order fails any Admiral check, it is rejected and sent back. TRAFiX also produces the compliance/audit outputs Vision needs (e.g., CAT lifecycle reporting and trade-reporting interfaces like ACT/ORF, along with order marking and supervisory controls). After fills, TRAFiX pushes post-trade messages into Vision's downstream workflow via real-time FIX drop copies and/or end-of-day files. In sum, Vision uses TRAFiX as the plumbing that ties together connectivity, routing, risk/compliance, and post-trade processing across the full order lifecycle.

pricing_methodology

The ATS receives NBBO data from the Nasdaq SIP feed. Admiral's market data provider is Options Technology. The data is used to ensure that executions do not happen at prices outside the NBBO bounds, as discussed in Part III, Item 11c.

financial_condition_summary

Admiral does not charge a subscription, onboarding, or connectivity or message traffic fee (or any other fee that is not transaction-based) for use of the ATS services. Admiral does not provide market data to subscribers ("market data" refers to publicly disseminated equity market data and not data from the Admiral ATS.). Admiral does not charge subscribers any display fees (see Item 15). Fees are on a per-share basis, with $0.005 per share for taking liquidity and $0 for making liquidity. Admiral may, on a limited-time basis, reduce the standard $0.005-per-share taker fee by up to 50 percent (i.e., as low as $0.0025 per share). These discounts are offered only for promotional, volume-based, or liquidity-enhancement purposes, and run for a predefined period.

compliance_officer

DEFINITION OF CONFIDENTIAL TRADING INFORMATION Confidential trading information (CTI) of subscribers to the Admiral ATS consists of: *The identity of the subscriber *All orders and related messages transmitted to the Admiral ATS by a subscriber *All transactions executed in the Admiral ATS *FIX logs of incoming subscribers' order management operations and outgoing order states reports. *Database Information: Transaction and configuration data stored in the Admiral ATS databases *ATS System Logs: ATS order management/execution management system logs, ATS matching engine logs, ATS Market Data Feeder logs, EOD/BOD process logs, logs of the ATS Administrative front-end *E-mail, issue tracking system communications, and notes related to the ATS system support operations between the subscriber and Admiral

compliance_officer

DEFINITION OF CONFIDENTIAL TRADING INFORMATION Confidential trading information (CTI) of subscribers to the Admiral ATS consists of: *The identity of the subscriber *All orders and related messages transmitted to the Admiral ATS by a subscriber *All transactions executed in the Admiral ATS *FIX logs of incoming subscribers' order management operations and outgoing order states reports. *Database Information: Transaction and configuration data stored in the Admiral ATS databases *ATS System Logs: ATS order management/execution management system logs, ATS matching engine logs, ATS Market Data Feeder logs, EOD/BOD process logs, logs of the ATS Administrative front-end *E-mail, issue tracking system communications, and notes related to the ATS system support operations between the subscriber and Admiral Please find additional information regarding safeguards and procedures for protecting CTI in the attached document.

hours_of_operation

The ATS accepts orders between 9:30am ET and 4:00pm ET on weekdays, and follows the New York Stock Exchange hours of operation on partial trading days and holidays.

display_best_quotes

The Admiral ATS immediately displays, via FIX messaging, to all subscribers (and only subscribers) the best bid and offer prices currently posted on the Admiral ATS, for each NMS security. These communications happen through a direct FIX connection between Admiral and the subscriber (i.e., not through Vision). These are displayed until the corresponding orders are either canceled or executed. In addition, the sizes of the best bids and offers are also displayed to subscribers. Subscribers cannot opt out of having their bid or offer prices displayed, if they are top of the book. Subscribers are permitted to disseminate the Admiral ATS top of book data to other parties. If there are no bid and/or offer prices for a particular security, no bid and/or offer price will be displayed. During a trade stoppage, no prices will be displayed. Under no circumstance are the identities of subscribers posting the best prices be disseminated.

execution_services

The Admiral ATS does not accept orders for each security until the primary market for that security has opened. The status of the primary market is provided by Admiral's market data provider. Orders will be accepted regardless of whether the book contains both bids and offers, and are matched based on price time priority. During a stoppage (block) on the primary market, the Admiral ATS does not accept new orders. After a stoppage (as discussed in more detail in Item 20 below) on the primary market for a given security, the Admiral ATS does not accept or match orders in that security until the primary market for the stock has recommenced trading. Existing orders are not cancelled during a pause, but are cancelled during a stoppage.