Is the SEC Repealing the Trade-Through Rule (Rule 611)?

No, not yet. The SEC proposed on June 11, 2026 to rescind Rule 611 of Regulation NMS, known as the trade-through rule, together with Rule 610(e), which deals with locked and crossed quotes. As of October 2026, the SEC has not adopted a final rule: the comment period closed on August 17, 2026, and Rule 611 currently applies as written. If the proposal were adopted, exchanges and other trading venues would no longer be required to keep procedures that prevent trades at prices worse than another exchange's best displayed quote, and a broker's separate best-execution duty would remain.

Is the SEC repealing Rule 611, and what stage is the proposal at?

The proposal is at the stage of a proposed rule, and nothing has been repealed. The SEC announced it in press release 2026-54 on June 11, 2026, as Release No. 34-105655 under File No. S7-2026-20. It was published in the Federal Register on June 17, 2026, and the SEC's file page for S7-2026-20 still lists it as a proposed rule with comments due by August 17, 2026.

Headlines that say the SEC "scraps" or "ends" the trade-through rule describe the proposal, not a decision. After a comment period, the Commission can adopt a rule, change it, or leave it where it is, and the file page shows no final action as of October 2026. Until the SEC votes on a final rule and that rule takes effect, the current text of Rule 611 is the one that governs trading.

If you are checking how this affects your own account today, the answer is that nothing has changed in the rulebook. Everything below about a repeal describes what the proposal would do, not what is already happening.

What does the trade-through rule do today?

Rule 611 requires each trading center, which includes exchanges, alternative trading systems and broker-dealers that execute orders internally, to maintain written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent trade-throughs. As the proposing release describes it, a trade-through is a trade in an NMS stock during regular trading hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, at a price worse than a protected quotation: below a protected bid or above a protected offer.

A protected quotation is an automated quote that is the best bid or best offer of an exchange. The release notes that 17 exchanges currently quote and trade NMS stocks and that no one actively quotes in FINRA's alternative display facility, so in practice the rule covers the best round-lot prices on the exchanges and nothing deeper in the book.

Two points are easy to miss. First, Rule 611 does not require anyone to send an order to the venue with the best price. The release says the rule restricts trades at worse prices without affirmatively requiring routing, and a venue can execute at prices equal to or better than the protected quote. Second, the rule has nine exceptions, including trades executed with intermarket sweep orders (ISOs), which are limit orders sent together with orders that sweep the better-priced protected quotes, and a one-second window that covers quotes that flicker in fast markets.

Because the rule only applies from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, it does not govern pre-market, after-hours or overnight trades. A trader's right to best execution from a broker is a separate matter, governed by FINRA Rule 5310, and it is not part of Rule 611.

What exactly did the SEC propose to change?

The Commission proposed to rescind Rule 611 and Rule 610(e) in their entirety and to remove the defined terms that exist only to support them, including "trade-through," "protected quotation," "protected bid or protected offer," "automated quotation" and "intermarket sweep order." It also proposed conforming amendments elsewhere in Regulation NMS. One of them concerns the access fee cap in Rule 610(c), which currently refers to "protected quotation" and, under the proposal, would refer to the best bid or offer of an exchange or association instead.

The SEC's reasoning, as stated in the release, is that markets are now highly automated and interconnected, that Rule 611 adds cost and complexity, and that it is no longer needed as a backstop to a broker's duty of best execution. Chairman Atkins framed the proposal in the press release as a way to simplify market structure and let competition shape it. The release also says that a firm's commercial incentives should lead it to route to the best price at an away market when that is consistent with best execution.

The release itself acknowledges that the national market system is interconnected and that changes could have unintended consequences elsewhere, which is why the SEC asked for public comment. This article does not predict what would happen to execution prices after a repeal. What the documents support is narrower: the SEC says rescission could reduce costs and complexity, and how brokers and venues would behave without the rule is an open question.

What would a repeal look like for an order in ABC?

Consider a purely hypothetical stock, ABC, at 10:30 a.m. ET on a regular trading day. The best automated offer on Exchange A is $50.10. A marketable buy order arrives at Exchange B, whose book would fill it at $50.12. Today, unless an exception such as an ISO applies, Exchange B must have procedures reasonably designed to prevent that $50.12 trade, because it would trade through the $50.10 protected offer.

If Rule 611 were rescinded, that requirement would no longer exist at the rule level, and a venue could execute at $50.12 without breaking Rule 611. The broker handling the order would still owe its customer best execution under FINRA Rule 5310. This example does not say whether the customer's price would end up better or worse, because that depends on how a firm routes and executes, which the proposal does not dictate.

The SEC's own release adds context that matters for a retail trader. In a footnote, it says retail brokers route most of their customers' marketable orders to off-exchange wholesalers, which usually execute them as principal, so most marketable retail orders do not directly interact with protected quotes. For many individual orders, then, Rule 611 is not the mechanism that sets the price, and any effect of a repeal on a given order could be small. That is the SEC's description of order flow, not a forecast of results.

What are locked and crossed markets, and what is Rule 610(e)?

A locked market occurs when the best bid equals the best offer, and a crossed market occurs when the best bid is higher than the best offer. In ABC, a bid of $50.00 on Exchange A and an offer of $50.00 on Exchange B would be a locked market, and a bid of $50.02 against an offer of $50.00 would be a crossed market.

Rule 610(e) does not forbid these quotes by itself. According to the release, it requires exchanges and FINRA to adopt and enforce rules under which their members reasonably avoid displaying quotes that lock or cross protected quotes, and to reconcile such quotes when they occur. That is why traders may hear of "price to comply" order types: they adjust a price automatically to avoid locking or crossing a displayed quote.

The SEC proposed to rescind 610(e) as well. It says doing so could allow narrower spreads and better price discovery, and that automation has reduced the risk of investor confusion when markets lock or cross. In the release's economic discussion it also raises the possibility of a quoted spread of zero in some stocks. The release also acknowledges that dropping the crossed-market restriction could raise concerns about intentional crossing, distorted quotes in the absence of access fee caps, and illiquid stocks staying crossed for long stretches. The SEC's answer is that the caps on access fees, which it is not proposing to rescind, should leave room for arbitrage that clears a cross quickly, and that exchanges could decide for themselves whether to keep their own rules. These are the SEC's views, put out for comment, and not settled outcomes.

What would the proposal not change?

The proposal does not change the minimum tick size or the level of the access fee caps; its only edit to Rule 610(c) is the wording change described above. Those two items come from a separate set of amendments the SEC adopted in September 2024: a half-penny minimum increment of $0.005 in certain stocks, and lower access fee caps. Their compliance dates were deferred by a separate order, Release No. 34-105656, issued on June 11, 2026, the same day as the proposal. The order exempts Rules 600(b)(89)(i)(F), 612 and 610(c) until the first business day of November 2027. The earlier deadline was the first business day of November 2026. If you have read that a half-penny tick is coming this November, that date no longer applies. For how that tick size would matter for spreads, see hi2morrow's guide to why bid-ask spreads suddenly widen.

The proposal also leaves a broker's best-execution duty in place. And it does not change how orders work outside regular hours, since Rule 611 does not apply there now. If your concern is a fill that differs from the quote you saw, hi2morrow's guides on why a market order can fill at a different price and why a stock order gets a bad fill cover causes that exist with or without Rule 611.

What happens next, and when could a decision come?

The next step belongs to the Commission, and no date has been announced. The comment period closed on August 17, 2026. From here the SEC could adopt the rule as proposed, adopt a modified version, issue a revised proposal, or take no action, and the documents do not say which or when. Any final rule would also come with its own effective and compliance dates, so a vote would not by itself change how your orders are handled the next day.

What is not known as of October 2026 is the timing of a decision, the form of any final rule, and how brokers and venues would change routing or order types in response. No broker has been confirmed to plan any specific change, and this article does not assume one. Anyone who wants to follow the status can check the SEC's S7-2026-20 file page, which lists final action if and when there is any.

Alexander Styopin's professional view: the useful habit for a retail trader does not depend on how the vote goes. Fill quality is already measurable, because brokers publish order execution reports and customers can ask for routing information, so the sensible way to judge any rule change is to compare your own fills against the quote at the time of the order, before and after, rather than trusting a headline. A repeal, if adopted, would shift responsibility from a fixed prohibition to each firm's best-execution judgment, which makes the quality of that judgment worth monitoring.

Educational material only. Not investment or legal advice. Order handling, margin, and settlement rules can vary by broker, account type, and jurisdiction.

Author: Alexander Styopin, hi2morrow analyst and economist with 25 years of experience in the US stock market