Joe Saluzzi is partner and co-founder of Themis Trading.
What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?
The push to eliminate or change Reg NMS Rule 611, the Trade-Through Rule, has been gaining traction and will continue to be discussed. Certain industry members and regulators are pushing hard for changes to this rule which they blame for excessive fragmentation, dispersed liquidity and diminished transparency.
There is no question that Rule 611 is flawed. For example, the rule only protects top of book visible quotes at each exchange. This leaves all other quotes at exchanges, including visible non-top of book quotes and hidden quotes, unprotected. All orders on non-exchange venues are also unprotected and can be traded through.
However, removing Rule 611 will not increase investor confidence and it will not fix the major structural issues that exist today in the US equity market. Fragmentation of execution venues will continue. Off-exchange volume will not decrease. Segmentation of liquidity within ATSs will not change. Stock exchanges will continue to pay rebates which distort the order routing process. And exchange proprietary data feeds will continue to leak valuable order information.
What surprised you in 2025?
The way that the SEC and the CFTC embraced the crypto industry was remarkable. The SEC rolled out their “Project Crypto” initiative which seeks to modernize securities laws for digital assets. Additionally, SEC Chairman Atkins talked about proposing an “innovation exemption”, which would fast-track some crypto initiatives such as tokenization. Not to be outdone, the CFTC under Acting-Chairman Pham, announced their own “crypto sprint” initiative.
We expected that the crypto industry and their well-funded DC lobby would be active but we didn’t expect them to have this much influence with SEC and CFTC.
What are your expectations for 2026?
The line between investing and gambling will continue to blur especially for the retail community. The CFTC approval of the prediction markets, Polymarket and Kalshi, has opened the door for retail brokers to increase their prediction market offerings. Additionally, it’s becoming likely that there will be 24/7 (or 23/5) trading of equities in the US market in 2026.
While there has been little to no demand for 24/7 trading from the institutional community,
exchanges and some brokers seem to think this is their “Field of Dreams” moment hoping that if you build it, they will come.
Even though firms like Robinhood have previously settled legal claims about their gamification techniques, prediction markets and 24/7 trading will likely fuel even more gamification of the market. Get ready for the confetti drops.
