SECURITIES

NASD Proposes New Trading Rule: The National Assn. of Securities Dealers, regulator of the Nasdaq stock market, has proposed a rule that would prevent securities firms from trading ahead of public customers on retail transactions. The move is designed to help ensure that retail investors’ orders to buy or sell stock are executed when the shares hit the investors’ targeted price. The proposed rule applies to customer orders sent by one securities firm to another firm for execution. It builds on an action that the NASD took last June to prohibit member firms from trading ahead of their own customers’ limit orders. A limit order is an order to buy a security for a stated maximum price or to sell one for a stated minimum price.