January 13, 2011

CFTC Sanctions Commodity Trading Advisor Alan F. Dasher

Dasher prohibited from acting in any registered capacity for three years.

Washington, DC -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing and simultaneous settlement of fraud charges against Alan F. Dasher, a Philadelphia-based Commodity Trading Advisor. The CFTC order finds that reckless trading conducted by Dasher operated as a fraud upon his customers.

The CFTC order prohibits Dasher for a three-year period from trading commodity futures, applying for registration with the CFTC or seeking exemption from registration, or engaging in any activity requiring such registration or exemption from registration.

Specifically, the CFTC order, entered on January 13, 2011, finds that on January 28, 2010, at around 11:35 p.m., Dasher began recklessly trading e-mini S&P 500 futures contracts—establishing and exiting the same position over and over again, thousands of times—in two customer accounts over which he held powers of attorney. Dasher had solicited these customers with representations that he would trade e-mini S&P 500 futures contracts in their accounts based only on recommendations from his proprietary algorithmic trading system, the order finds. None of the trades during Dasher’s approximately one hour of reckless trading, however, was recommended by his proprietary system, and both customer accounts experienced substantial losses, according to the order.

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Margaret Aisenbrey, Charles Marvine, Rick Glaser and Richard Wagner.

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Last Updated: January 13, 2011