Notice to Members I-11-01 As many CFTC registered entities understand, having disclosure documents approved by the NFA can be a lengthy and frustrating process.  While the NFA has done a decent job explaining to firms that disclosure documents must meet all of the requirements under the CFTC’s Part 4 Regulations, [...]

Bart Mallon Speaking at Chicago CTA Expo This year’s Chicago CTA Expo will again be held the same week as the FIA Expo and it will be a day after the NIBA Sales and Marketing Conference.  Bart Mallon of Mallon P.C. will be a speaker at the event.  The full [...]

The results of the CFTC’s audit of the NFA were released a few weeks ago and we have already begun to see a few changes to the way the NFA operates. Access to BASIC Security Manager Previously newly formed entities which were registering with the CFTC could start the registration [...]

Report Indicates Many Areas Needing Improvement The CFTC registration process is handled almost exclusively by the NFA and last year the CFTC audited the NFA to see how successful the organization was at conducting the registration process.  The audit report, issued this week, indicates that the NFA needs to improve [...]

First CPO Quarterly Report Due May 17, 2010 As we recently discussed in an earlier article on NFA Compliance Rule 2-46, the NFA has adopted a new compliance rule which will require commodity pool operators to provide certain information to the NFA on a quarterly basis.  In general CPOs will [...]

CFTC Regulation 4.8 (“Rule 4.8”) is a little known regulation which allows CPOs to distribute disclosure documents and accept investor money prior to the NFA’s approval of the CPO’s disclosure document.  In order to take advantage of Rule 4.8, the CPO must make sure that pool interests are only offered [...]

Leverage, Inaccessibility for Smaller Traders, and Offshore Threat are Focus of Public Comments As we’ve discussed in related posts, the CFTC has proposed rules regulating the off-exchange spot forex industry (see Retail FOREX Registration Regulations Proposed).  The CFTC has requested comments from the public and there are currently about 100 public comments [...]

Information on Filing Annual Report with NFA Commodity Pool Operators (“CPOs”) are required to distribute an Annual Report, certified by an independent public accountant, to each participant in each pool it operates (i.e. the investors in the commodity/futures hedge fund) within 90 days after the pool’s fiscal year-end (normally December 31). [...]

Annual Report Guidance for Commodity Pool Operators In a recent release, which we have reprinted in full below, the CFTC reminds CPOs of their annual reporting requirements under Regulation 4.22.  The release includes a link to the 2010 CPO Annual Guidance Letter.  In general the letter provides another reminder to [...]

Translating a Disclosure Document to Another Language is Fine NFA Member Firms are required to have their disclosure documents reviewed by the NFA generally before such firms can distribute the documents to potential investors.  One issue which sometimes arises is when the firm (generally either a CTA or CPO) has [...]