What is the main purpose of continuous net settlement?

Continuous net settlement primarily serves to provide an efficient and accurate system for settling trades, which ultimately includes producing a complete audit trail of security transactions. This process allows all transactions to be netted continuously throughout the trading day, enabling settlements to be calculated in real-time rather than waiting until the end of the trading session.

Having a complete audit trail is crucial for regulatory compliance and risk management. It allows participants to track each transaction, ensuring accountability and transparency in trading activities. This audit trail is essential for identifying discrepancies, facilitating reconciliations, and providing information for regulatory reporting, thus enhancing overall market integrity.

The other options, while related to improving trading processes, do not directly capture the fundamental purpose of continuous net settlement, which is centered around tracking and settlement accuracy.