This article reports that officials of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are discussing timing of pending rules. Robert G. Bagnall, a partner in the Washington law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr and a former SEC official, offered a shorthand definition between sessions at a recent conference. When SEC officials say a rule is going to be proposed "in the very new future," expect it to be issued in the next month or so. When they predict a rule will be proposed "in the near future," that translates to the next two to four months.