CFTC Staff Letters Archive

CFTC Staff Letters Archive provides Letters from 2007 and earlier. For Letters published 2008 or later visit the All Letters page.

There are no Advisory Letters or Other Written Communications for 2007 or earlier.

Date PDF and Description
95-56; PDF Image; Rules 3.1(a) and 3.10(a)(2);; No-Action
A corporation serving as a general partner of a CPO that is formed as a general partnership is a principal of the CPO under Rule 3.1(a). Therefore, Rule 3.10(a)(2) requires that the CPO list the corporation as a principal on the CPO's Form 7-R and the CPO must file a Form 8-R and fingerprints on behalf of the corporation's sole owner, who is a natural person
95-55; PDF Image; Rule 4.10(d);; No-Action
A limited partnership and a limited liability company are not commodity pools under Rule 4.10, and the general partner and managers thereof, respectively, are not CPOs, where the partnership's partners and the company's members consist of 15 irrevocable and four revocable trusts beneficially owned by four siblings. The siblings are also the directors of the general partner and the managers of the company
95-49; PDF Image; CEAct 4o;; No-Action
A CTA who bunches client orders into a single order for execution must use a predetermined and fair system to allocate the variously priced fills among customers, such that no customer or group of customers receives consistently favorable or unfavorable treatment, if the CTA is to avoid liability under the antifraud provisions of the CEAct
95-54; PDF Image; CEAct ?4p(b), Rule 3.34;; No-Action
CEAct section 4p(b) and Rule 3.34 do not contain a "grandfather" clause and do not otherwise excuse a registrant from ethics training because of other licenses held or other training taken. Therefore, an AP, who undertook legal ethics and commodity futures regulation courses and testing in connection with his or her training and licensing as an attorney, is not exempt from the ethics training requirements
95-48; PDF Image; Rules 1.14 and 1.15;; No-Action
(Denied) - A request for an exemption from the Commission's risk assessment rules was denied where no grounds for an exemption were found to be presented
95-47 PDF Image; Rule 1.3(y);; No-Action
An FCM may treat the accounts of its Directors, and the Directors of its parent, as customer rather than proprietary accounts where, among other things, the Directors do not participate in or supervise trading for the FCM or its parent, and each Director agrees to subordinate his claims to the claims of other customers in the event of the FCM's receivership or bankruptcy. The relief was granted in light of: (1) the apparent low volume of trading in the Directors' accounts; (2) the small number of Director accounts in comparison with total customer accounts; (3) the often short-term nature of a Director's tenure; and (4) the fact that Directors are generally long-standing customers of the parent and the FCM, who continue their customer relationship following the expiration of their terms as Directors
95-44 PDF Image; Rules 4.8, 4.12(b), 4.21(g)(1);; No-Action
(Advisory) - The "Instant Filing Advisory" will have the effect of substantially shortening the length of time it takes to process certain CTA and CPO disclosure documents. Disclosure documents that qualify for "instant filing" relief will be accepted upon filing
95-46; PDF Image; Rule 4.32(a)(6);; No-Action
A registered CTA does not have to maintain hard copies of client confirmation and purchase-and-sale statements when such statements are received from FCMs electronically and the CTA maintains the electronically-received statements on disk in accordance with Commission Rule 1.31(d)
95-57; PDF Image; CEAct 4m(1);; No-Action
The developers of commodity interest trading systems are required to register as CTAs, where such systems are marketed by a registered IB to investors who open accounts with a registered FCM (the IB's guarantor) in which trades are made in response to signals generated by such systems. The IB and/or the FCM also may be engaged in activities requiring CTA registration
95-43; PDF Image; Rule 4.20;; No-Action
A corporate CPO, which will operate itself as a CPO, is exempted from the Rule 4.20(a) requirement that a CPO "must operate its pool ... as a legal entity separate from that of the pool operator," where: (1) each participant in the pool will be issued stock or other evidence of ownership; (2) the CPO does not operate any pools other than itself; (3) all funds the CPO receives from participants are received in the CPO's name; and (4) the CPO's bank accounts and custody account are not authorized to received funds or assets other than in the name of the CPO