Academic Waiver

The Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA) offers waivers of its fees to qualifying academic institutions for use of its data for research and educational instruction purposes at the university (college and postgraduate) level. An OPRA academic waiver is only for OPRA's own data fees, and only for devices or User IDs used by students and faculty for research purposes and in classroom environments.To request an academic waiver, the university's program sponsor must submit a written request to OPRA. The request must be printed on university letterhead and include the following information:

• Name and description of the academic program
• Company and contact name of the OPRA Vendor that will provide OPRA data
• The anticipated number of the university's devices or User IDs that will have access to real-time OPRA data
• Whether the university or the OPRA Vendor will control entitlement
• Approximate number of students and faculty in program
• Brief description of how OPRA data will be used in program

The request should be sent to the following email address: [email protected]. OPRA will consider waiver requests on a case-by-case basis.

OPRA does not provide academic waivers for use of OPRA data for purposes of vocational education or management of university funds or other actual securities trading or portfolio monitoring. ("Vocational" education refers to training in the practical aspects of trading and preparation for examinations such as the FINRA series 7 exams.)

As noted above, an OPRA academic waiver applies only to OPRA's own data fees. A waiver will not cover, for example, any fees that may be charged by an OPRA Vendor or any telecommunication charges.

Even if a university receives an academic waiver, the university must execute an OPRA Professional Subscriber Agreement. If the university will control entitlement of its devices or User IDs, the university must also execute an Indirect Circuit Connection Rider, must describe its use of OPRA data and its entitlement control process on "Exhibit A" to the Rider, and must make reports to OPRA in accordance with the Rider of its devices or User IDs that are entitled to receive OPRA data. The form of Professional Subscriber Agreement and form of Indirect Circuit Connection Rider are available on OPRA's website. A university must comply with the requirements of the applicable agreement(s), and OPRA's related policies, just as any other recipient of OPRA data does. This means, among other things, that a university's Subscriber Agreement is subject to termination if OPRA data is used within the university community for purposes other than as described in this Policy or if OPRA data is disseminated (by either the university itself or any member of the university community) to persons who are either outside the community or within the community but not properly authorized to receive the data. OPRA reserves the right to terminate its fee waiver program generally or to terminate the waiver extended to any particular university.

Questions about the Academic Waiver Program should be directed to OPRA at (312) 786-7067 or [email protected].