I awoke this morning to a big "blip" on my GBP/USD chart:
During two chaotic minutes of Asian trading, the pound plunged the most since the Brexit referendum in June, with traders saying computer-initiated sell orders exacerbated the slump.
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In a press release dated April 21st 2015 the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced:
The unsealing of a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC (Sarao Futures) and Navinder Singh Sarao (Sarao) (collectively, Defendants). The CFTC Complaint charges the Defendants with unlawfully manipulating, attempting to manipulate, and spoofing — all with regard to the E-mini S&P 500 near month futures contract (E-mini S&P). The Complaint had been filed under seal on April 17, 2015 and kept sealed until today’s arrest of Sarao by British authorities acting at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). After the arrest, the DOJ unsealed its own criminal Complaint charging Sarao with substantively the same misconduct.
It seems that the CFTC has a less than secure grasp of UK corporate law, since over on this side of the pond companies are either "Limited" or "Public Limited" but not both. A quick search of Companies House reveals that the former applies in this case, and that Nav Sarao Futures Limited is in fact registered as limited company number 05497320. The CFTC announcement goes on to say that:
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I attended the 2015 FIX Trading Community EMEA Trading Conference yesterday at Old Billingsgate in London yesterday. You'll hear more from me about all that in due course, because I'm under strict instructions to "quote check" with assorted speakers before pressing the "Publish" button! However I am able to reveal that I bumped into Kevin Houstoun, Chairman of Rapid Addition, at the post conference "cocktail party". Kevin pointed me at his work on the UK Government's Foresight Review on the Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets. Here's an overview of that project:
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In a press release today FXCM have announced that:
Its U.K. subsidiaries, Forex Capital Markets Limited and FXCM Securities Limited, [have] entered into a settlement with the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). The settlement addresses trade execution practices concerning the handling of price improvements on FXCM UK’s offsetting orders from August 2006 – December 2010.
More on FXCM UK Fined £4 million by the Financial Conduct Authority
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In a press release this morning the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it has:
Today issued an Order against ICAP Europe Limited (ICAP), an interdealer broker, bringing and settling charges of manipulation, attempted manipulation, false reporting, and aiding and abetting derivatives traders’ manipulation and attempted manipulation, relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for Yen. LIBOR is a critical benchmark interest rate used throughout the world as the basis for trillions of dollars of transactions. ICAP is a subsidiary of U.K.-based ICAP plc.
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Somewhat unusually for the Trading Gurus, here we reproduce in full today's statement by CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton, without further comment:
On September 30th, at the stroke of midnight, our country will face a government shutdown unless a continuing resolution to fund it is adopted. That would be grave news for consumers.
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It's all go today. I've only just finished blogging about connecting a new trading platform to one of my own brokers, and now I find said broker is in the news for a very different reason. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have just issued a press release announcing that they have:
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WorldSpreads went down the tubes in the middle of March, taking some supposedly segregated customer funds with it. Now however those long suffering customers are finally starting to get at least some of their money back, albeit from The Financial Services Compensation Scheme rather than from the administrators of WorldSpreads. According to WorldSpreads customer Rav Shah:
More on Some WorldSpreads Clients Finally Get Some Of Their Money Back
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The National Futures Association issued a press release yesterday which stated that it:
Has taken an emergency enforcement action against Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. (PFG), an NFA Member futures commission merchant (FCM) and Peregrine Asset Management, Inc. (PAM), an NFA Member commodity trading advisor (CTA) and commodity pool operator (CPO) located in Chicago, Illinois.
Full details of the Member Responsibility Action (MRA) against PFG have also been made available, in which the NFA says:
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According to the Financial Services Authority website they have:
Today fined Barclays Bank Plc (Barclays) £59.5 million for misconduct relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR). This is the largest fine ever imposed by the FSA.
Not only that, but also according to a United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission press release (and using that ever more familar form of words that implies nobody is actually responsible) they have:
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