Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)

Since the late 1990s, the U.S. securities industry has utilized the Order Audit Trail System (OATS) to simplify an order’s progression from its initial receipt to its eventual execution or cancellation, for tracking or auditing purposes.

However, the SEC has released a plan to replace OATS by establishing a Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), one of the world’s largest data repositories that will contain a complete record of all equities and options traded in the United States. This module will examine SEC Rule 613 and FINRA’s Rule 6800 Series which provide details of the provisions and terminology related to the CAT system.