Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)

What this video covers

• Why CAT captures the full order lifecycle (receipt, route, modification, cancel, execution) rather than just the trade, and how this differs from TRF/ADF/ORF/TRACE
• The exact initial submission deadline of 8:00 a.m. ET on T+1 and why CAT is a next-day batch process, not real-time reporting
• The independent error correction deadline of 8:00 a.m. ET on T+3 and why failing to fix errors violates compliance even when the initial submission was timely
• How CAT scope covers both national market system securities and listed options, including cross-product activity that equity-only or options-only firms cannot escape
• Clock synchronization requirements: 50 milliseconds for computer systems and 1 second for manual clocks, both measured against the National Institute of Standards and Technology atomic clock, with daily pre-market checks
• Why clock drift itself is a standalone violation requiring notification to the Plan Processor and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, separate from any trade reporting error
• The 5-year CAT record retention rule with 2 years easily accessible, and why this differs from the 6-year Securities and Exchange Commission blotter requirement