Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• SMALL ORDER EXECUTION SYSTEM (SOES)
  
  The small order execution system automatically executes and clears trades in Nasdaq securities at market makers' best displayed prices in response to buy and sell orders placed through order-entry firms. The negotiation-free transactions include small market orders and limit orders in set quantities between 100 and 1,000 shares. The SOES, which is designed to give individual investors open access to trading in a volatile market, was mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the stock market crash of 1987, when many small investors found themselves unable to sell their stocks as prices plummeted because they could not reach their brokers by telephone.
  
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