The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to ban flash trades which can give advance knowledge of stock orders to certain traders. The ban is a part of a larger look into dark pools and high-frequency trading.

Aite Group managing partner Sang Lee said in a release, "Given the level of publicity it has generated over the last couple of weeks, it appears that the SEC was under intense pressure to do something about flash orders. The ELP program at Direct Edge has been a success story and as a result, the potential ban on flash orders would have negative short-term impact on Direct Edge. The real winner to this story appears to be the NYSE as it was the only execution venue that did not have this feature already developed.

"However, to put everything into perspective, I don't believe the end of flash orders would signal a major change in overall market share trend in the marketplace as flash orders only represented a tiny percentage of average daily trade volume. Even if the ban takes place, upstarts like Direct Edge and BATS will continue to grow and NYSE will continue to struggle to hold onto its diminishing market share."