Article 9(1)

1. When considering the nature of its business, an investment firm shall consider the following, where applicable:

(a) the regulatory status of the firm and, where applicable, of its DEA clients, including the regulatory requirements to which it is subject as an investment firm as a result of UK law corresponding to Directive 2014/65/EU, and other relevant regulatory requirements;

(b) the firm's roles in the market, including whether it is a market maker and whether it executes orders for clients or rather only trades on its own account;

(c) the level of automation of trading and of other processes or activities of the firm;

(d) the types and regulatory status of the instruments, products and asset classes that the firm trades in;

(e) the types of strategies the firm employs and the risks contained in these strategies for the firm's own risk management and for the fair and orderly functioning of the markets; the firm shall consider in particular the nature of these strategies, such as market making or arbitrage, and whether those strategies are long-term, short-term, directional, or non-directional;

(f) the latency sensitivity of the firm's strategies and trading activities;