SEC Responses to Questions (Sources Sought 50310220Q0024).pdf

Sources Sought: 50310220Q0024

SEC Responses to Questions

1. Question: Are you able to clarify whether inactive securities would ever be in scope as part of the request (history pulls for inactive or matured securities)?

SEC Response: Yes, the vendor’s API is needed to support queries for inactive securities and for matured securities.

2. Question: We are wondering- with respect to the required fields, when you say "Security description", you're asking for an informative description of the security, but what exactly do you mean? Do you want the name, the type of instrument, etc?

SEC Response: The security description should be a short description of the security, for example, the issuer’s name as it would be used in everyday speech (e.g. “GOOGLE” as opposed to “GOOG”), and possibly some additional info to distinguish a derivative stock from its underlying (e.g. “AAPL PUT OPTION” or “AAPL PREFERRED STOCK” or “AAPL CORPORATE BOND” etc.)

3. Question: In attachment 1, page 2, Data Field #14, you have options multiplier with a definition of “Number of shares controlled.” Given that it is under securities reference file, we are assuming that the focus is the actual equities, not the options. Can we assume that you want, said another way, “Option Multiplier = Shares outstanding – free float”? If not, please clarify.

SEC Response: By “Option Multiplier”, we mean the number which one must multiply price and quantity by to determine the actual cash value of a transaction in which an investor buys or sells a given quantity of the option at a given price. For physically-settled options, the multiplier also equals the number of shares of the underlying security that are bought or sold if an investor exercises the option. For most, but not all, options, this number is usually 100.

For example, if an investor exercises an option with a multiplier of 100, that means the investor buys 100 shares at the option’s strike price. Thus, for any particular option purchase or holding, the total cash value is given by price*quantity*multiplier. For example, if an investor buys two (2) contracts in a call option, at price 8.5, the total cash value of that buy is price*quantity*multiplier=8.5*2*100=1700.

4. Question: In beta.sam.gov announcement, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph C, C. a sample file which contains Exchange Rates (London mid-rate) for each of the following currencies, over the date range 05/07/2018—05/14/2018 inclusive (non-trading days may be omitted): EUR, JPY, CAD, GBP. Can you clarify exactly what time (London local) you consider “mid-rate”?

SEC Response: In our data requirements, where we say “Exchange rate to USD (mid-rate). NY, London, or Tokyo, per query parameters”, we mean “Exchange rate to USD (mid-rate). NY, London, or Tokyo close, per query parameters”. In the Sample Data Request, where we say “Exchange Rates (London mid-rate)”, we mean “Exchange Rates (mid-rate as of the London close)”.