The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Nasdaq’s proposal to allow Nasdaq firms that are not registered market-makers to enter limit orders from a variety of investors in the new SuperMontage trading platform.

The change will allow broker-dealers, including active traders, and other order-entry firms that currently do not have direct access to SuperMontage to enter customer and proprietary limit orders into the system for the first time. Additionally, market-makers will be able for the first time to display orders in SuperMontage in those stocks in which they do not make a market.

“The value that market makers bring to the market and to their customers is fundamental to the success of Nasdaq,” says Richard Ketchum, president and
deputy chairman, Nasdaq. “Yet over the past few months, more and more orders, generated by non market-making broker-dealers, are displayed in unlinked markets because of those firms’ inability to directly enter orders into SuperMontage. We believe that it is critical to bring this liquidity back to SuperMontage and w’’re expanding access to the system in order to allow this to happen.”

The SEC has approved this change as a 90-day pilot program. The expanded access will go into effect on Monday, February 10.