Circuit Breakers – a legal analysis of volatility safeguards in the rules of stock exchanges on the occasion of the COVID-19 crisis

2020

Abstract This paper examines circuit breakers (CBs), i. e. emergency systems of trading venues that interrupt or restrain trading when significant price movements of financial instruments occur. After a description of the ratio legis and the economic fundamentals, the genesis and the different forms of CBs are presented. The European legal framework is then outlined. The relevant rules of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB) serve as an example.