What is a late or out-of-sequence dark pool print?
By Faizan Ahmad. Updated .
A late dark pool print is an off-exchange trade reported to FINRA more than 10 seconds after it executed. Trades go out on the tape in the order they're reported, so a late one lands after trades that happened later, which is why traders call it out of sequence. The big ones are usually negotiated blocks, average-price or portfolio trades priced off an earlier moment, so the price can sit far from the market when the print appears. They carry late or reference-price flags, don't update the stock's last sale price, and tell you about a deal already done, not a bet being placed now.
What makes a print late?
FINRA requires off-exchange trades to be reported as soon as practicable and no later than 10 seconds after execution. Anything slower must be designated late, and if the reporting firm leaves the flag off, FINRA's trade reporting facility adds it. Most trades are reported in a second or two; the late ones are a small minority, but they include some of the biggest prints of the day.
Why does order matter? FINRA's own example from 2014 shows it with trades reported inside the deadline. Firm 1 trades a stock at $20.00 at 10:00:00 and reports at 10:00:10. Firm 2 trades it at $21.00 at 10:00:05 and reports at 10:00:06. Firm 2's trade reaches the tape first, so someone watching at 10:00:10 sees $20.00 as the latest price when the market is really $21.00. That is a trade out of sequence. A block reported hours after it was agreed is the same problem, much bigger.
Late report, reference price or average price?
Several different kinds of trade end up looking late. FINRA gives each its own flag, and none of them is treated as the stock's current price.
| Kind of print | What happened | FINRA flag | Updates the last sale price? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late report | Traded at the market, reported more than 10 seconds later | Executed during normal hours, reported late | No, unless it's the only qualifying trade |
| Reference-price trade | Priced off an earlier moment, such as a prior close; the report carries both the execution time and the reference time | Prior reference price | No, unless it's the only qualifying trade |
| Average-price trade | Priced by a formula, such as an average over a period | Average weighting or other special pricing formula | No |
| Extended-hours trade | Done before 9:30 AM or after 4:00 PM ET | Executed outside normal hours (a late version exists too) | No |
Data feeds show these as short condition codes that vary by vendor, but the meaning is the same. The "doesn't update the last sale" column is the key: the market's own plumbing treats these prints as history, not as where the stock trades now.
The SPY $2.84B print, read properly
On October 30, 2026, a 3,684,100-share SPY dark pool print worth $2.84B was reported at 4:28 PM ET at $769.559, about $12 above where SPY closed ($757.12) and right at the prior day's close: a late, previously agreed trade, not a fresh bet at that price. It was SPY's largest print of the day.
Read naively, it says a buyer paid $12 over the market for $2.84B of SPY, 28 minutes after a 1.59% drop. Nobody does that. Read correctly, it says a deal of that size was agreed earlier at a price tied to the previous close and booked after the bell.
It still matters for one thing: size at a price. One print this big equals about 14% of SPY's biggest 10-session dark pool level, $769.48 with $20.78B in 155 prints. Late prints can carry real weight in a level, so it pays to check what built a level before trusting it. What dark pool levels are covers how to judge one.
When reference-price prints shape a level: AMD
AMD fell 10.28% to $508.22 on October 30, 2026, as Intel's weak outlook hit chip stocks. Its biggest dark pool print that day came at 8:11 AM ET: 111,006 shares at $566.42, a $62.88M trade, roughly $58 above where AMD ended. That price sits within a few cents of Thursday's close (the 10.28% fall works back to about $566.45), the signature of a trade priced off the prior close.
AMD's biggest 10-session dark pool level that day was $566.44, with $470M in just 11 prints: right at Thursday's close, where that 8:11 AM print landed. A level that sits on a recent closing price can be built largely from trades priced at that close rather than from buyers choosing it, and 11 prints is thin. Weigh levels by their print count: SPY's $769.48 rests on 155 prints, AMD's $566.44 on 11.
Same-size twins are the other common pattern: one print before the open at the prior close and an identical one after 4:00 PM at the new close. How to read dark pool prints walks through Nvidia's pair from the same day.
How do you read a late print without getting fooled?
- Compare the price with the market at that moment. A print far from where the stock was trading is almost always a reference-price or late trade.
- Check the sale condition. Late, outside-hours, prior reference price and average-price flags all mean "not the current price."
- Check what it does to levels. A level built from a few prints at an old close is weaker than one built from many prints during the session.
- Don't read a side into it. A print shows that a trade happened, not who started it, which is why a print is neither bullish nor bearish on its own.
How to see it on Tradytics
The dark pool page shows each print's time, price, shares, value, venue and sale condition, so you can spot late and reference-price prints. A stock's dark pool page, like AMD's, plots every print as a bubble on the day's price line, so prints far off the line stand out, and marks its biggest 10-session levels. On Live and Pro, prints appear within about 15 minutes of their report; Free shows yesterday's session.
Common questions
Is a late print a sign that something shady happened?
Not by itself. Reference-price and average-price trades are normal trade types with their own flags. A truly late report means the reporting firm missed the 10-second deadline, which is a compliance matter for FINRA, not a trading signal.
Do late prints move the stock's price on the tape?
No. Trades flagged late, prior reference price or average price generally don't update the last sale price, so they don't set the price you see quoted.
What's the difference between a late print and an after-hours print?
An after-hours print is a trade done after 4:00 PM, reported within 10 seconds with an outside-hours flag. A late print was reported more than 10 seconds after it happened, whatever the hour. A trade priced at the close and booked after 4:00 PM can look like either.
Is a late print the same as a block trade?
No. Late is about timing, block is about size. Many late prints are blocks, but plenty of blocks are reported on time. See block trades vs dark pool prints.
Sources
- FINRA Rule 6380A, Transaction Reporting: the 10-second deadline, the late designation, the facility adding missing flags, and prior reference price reports carrying both times.
- FINRA, Trade Report Modifiers: the late, outside-hours, prior reference price and average-price flags and whether each updates the last sale.
- FINRA Regulatory Notice 14-46: trades disseminated in the order reported, and the Firm 1 and Firm 2 sequencing example.
- Dark pool and block prints on 2026-10-30: 13,984 prints worth $277.16B, $107.38B of it in dark pools.
- Most traded in dark pools and blocks: QQQ ($16.44B), SPY ($14.91B), NVDA ($9.47B), AAPL ($9.03B), MSFT ($6.76B).
Updated 2026-11-02 16:05 UTC