Flash trading

Flash trading, otherwise known as a flash order, is a marketable order sent to a market center that is not quoting the industry's best price or that cannot fill that order in its entirety. The order is then flashed to recipients of the venue's proprietary data feed to see if any of those firms wants to take the other side of the order.

This practice enables the market center to try to keep the trade since the firm that is seeking to buy or sell shares or stock posts the information only on a specific stock exchange before sending the trade information out on the broader public markets, and making it available to all potential investors. If a deal can be struck between recipients of the flash trade, the result is a locked market with guaranteed pricing on the order. On some trades, it also results in better profits for the firms making the trades, as the firms often get rebates or lower fees for flash trades when the deal completes on the home exchange and doesn't get posted on rival stock exchanges. In 2009 in the United States under an exception to Rule 602 of Regulation NMS flash orders were allowed.