The SEC’s recent order instituting administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings (OIP) against registered investment advisers Two Sigma Investments LP and Two Sigma Advisers LP illustrates significant risks for investment...more
In March 2024, the SEC announced that it settled two cases against investment advisers Delphia (USA) Inc. and Global Predictions Inc. for making false and misleading statements about their purported use of artificial...more
The first 10 years of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 15c3-5, known as the market access rule, have been a textbook example of the principle of regulation by enforcement, resulting in an informal patchwork...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission obtained orders from a federal court in New York concluding its first-filed enforcement action against persons for bitcoin fraud. However, the outcome of an unrelated action having...more
Two trading firms within a group structure were fined US $2 million in aggregate by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for alleged violations of various provisions of law and CFTC rules related to their cotton futures...more
Proposed Regulation AT Amended by CFTC; Attempts to Reduce Universe of Most Affected to No More Than 120 Persons - On Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking...more
The last several years have seen law enforcement and regulatory bodies sharpen their focus on trading activity in the securities and derivatives markets. This focus has coincided with the advent of new and expanded reporting,...more
Broker-Dealer Sanctioned US $415 Million by SEC for Violating Customer Protection Requirements: Two Merrill Lynch entities agreed to pay sanctions of US $415 million to resolve charges brought by the Securities and...more
CFTC Hosts Regulation AT Roundtable; Chairman Implies Risk Rules Sufficient for 2016: Staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sponsored a roundtable on proposed Regulation Automated Trading last Friday. The...more
Alleged Spoofer, Blamed for Partly Causing Flash Crash, Loses UK Extradition Hearing - Navinder Sarao, the London-based futures trader who in April 2015 was sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and criminally...more
Industry Comments to Regulation AT Argue CFTC Proposed Rules Too Prescriptive; Registration and Source Code Requirements Particularly Objectionable - After declining multiple requests to extend the comment period that...more
CFTC Brings First Insider Trading-Type Enforcement Action Based on New Anti-Manipulation Authority: Last week the Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought and settled its first enforcement action sounding in the...more
Asset managers and other traders should expect aggressive anti-spoofing enforcement and consider reviewing their trading practices in light of this most recent development. On November 3, 2015, a federal jury in...more
On Monday, November 2, 2015, Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, gave a speech at the SIFMA Compliance & Legal Society New York Regional Seminar in which he sought to address what he views as the...more
Potentially abusive trading algorithms, such as algorithms that purportedly engage in “spoofing” or “layering” are the subject of considerable regulatory interest. However, in an interesting complaint filed on October 19,...more
Mistakes in computer coding by a high frequency trading firm that went undetected for approximately four years were responsible for approximately 12.6 million orders that violated Reg NMS, according to an Order settling an...more
CFTC Says Virtual Currencies Are a “Commodity” Under Federal Law, Files Charges Against Coinflip for Operating an Unregistered Bitcoin Options Trading Platform - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed and...more
The Yates Memo, refocusing DOJ criminal and civil corporate investigations, continues to be the critical topic of discussion this week. The Memo, discussed here, directs that individuals be the focus of the inquiry from the...more
Dark pools are one of the issues which have been debated at least since Michael Lewis published Flash Boys and Scott Patterson put out Dark Pools. To date the SEC has brought two actions involving the trading venues. One was...more
CME Group Summarily Suspends Trading Privileges of Two Traders Without Hearing for Alleged Spoofing and Non-Cooperation - Less than two weeks after civil and criminal charges were filed by the Commodity Futures Trading...more
ICE Futures Fined US $3 Million by CFTC for Reporting Errors and Untimely Response to Inquiries - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined ICE Futures U.S., Inc. US $3 million last week for filing allegedly...more