Regulations last checked for updates: Jun 01, 2024

Title 17 - Commodity and Securities Exchanges last revised: May 23, 2024
§ 38.250 - Core Principle 4.

The board of trade shall have the capacity and responsibility to prevent manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions of the delivery or cash-settlement process through market surveillance, compliance, and enforcement practices and procedures, including:

(a) Methods for conducting real-time monitoring of trading; and

(b) Comprehensive and accurate trade reconstructions.

§ 38.251 - General requirements.

A designated contract market must:

(a) Collect and evaluate data on individual traders' market activity on an ongoing basis in order to detect and prevent manipulation, price distortions and, where possible, disruptions of the physical-delivery or cash-settlement process;

(b) Monitor and evaluate general market data in order to detect and prevent manipulative activity that would result in the failure of the market price to reflect the normal forces of supply and demand;

(c) Demonstrate an effective program for conducting real-time monitoring of market conditions, price movements and volumes, in order to detect abnormalities and, when necessary, make a good-faith effort to resolve conditions that are, or threaten to be, disruptive to the market; and

(d) Demonstrate the ability to comprehensively and accurately reconstruct daily trading activity for the purposes of detecting trading abuses and violations of exchange-set position limits, including those that may have occurred intraday.

(e) Adopt and implement rules governing market participants subject to its jurisdiction to prevent, detect, and mitigate market disruptions or system anomalies associated with electronic trading;

(f) Subject all electronic orders to exchange-based pre-trade risk controls to prevent, detect, and mitigate market disruptions or system anomalies associated with electronic trading; and

(g) Promptly notify Commission staff of any significant market disruptions on its electronic trading platform(s) and provide timely information on the causes and remediation.

[77 FR 36700, June 19, 2012, as amended at 86 FR 2071, Jan. 11, 2021]
§ 38.252 - Additional requirements for physical-delivery contracts.

For physical-delivery contracts, the designated contract market must demonstrate that it:

(a) Monitors a contract's terms and conditions as they relate to the underlying commodity market and to the convergence between the contract price and the price of the underlying commodity and show a good-faith effort to resolve conditions that are interfering with convergence; and

(b) Monitors the supply of the commodity and its adequacy to satisfy the delivery requirements and make a good-faith effort to resolve conditions that threaten the adequacy of supplies or the delivery process.

§ 38.253 - Additional requirements for cash-settled contracts.

(a) For cash-settled contracts, the designated contract market must demonstrate that it:

(1) Monitors the pricing of the index to which the contract will be settled; and

(2) Monitors the continued appropriateness of the methodology for deriving the index and makes a good-faith effort to resolve conditions, including amending contract terms where necessary, where there is a threat of market manipulation, disruptions, or distortions.

(b) If a contract listed on a designated contract market is settled by reference to the price of a contract or commodity traded in another venue, including a price or index derived from prices on another designated contract market, the designated contract market must have rules or agreements that allow the designated contract market access to information on the activities of its traders in the reference market.

§ 38.254 - Ability to obtain information.

(a) The designated contract market must have rules that require traders in its contracts to keep records of their trading, including records of their activity in the underlying commodity and related derivatives markets, and make such records available, upon request, to the designated contract market.

(b) A designated contract market with participants trading through intermediaries must either use a comprehensive large-trader reporting system (LTRS) or be able to demonstrate that it can obtain position data from other sources in order to conduct an effective surveillance program.

§ 38.255 - Risk controls for trading.

The designated contract market must establish and maintain risk control mechanisms to prevent and reduce the potential risk of price distortions and market disruptions, including, but not limited to, market restrictions that pause or halt trading in market conditions prescribed by the designated contract market.

§ 38.256 - Trade reconstruction.

The designated contract market must have the ability to comprehensively and accurately reconstruct all trading on its trading facility. All audit-trail data and reconstructions must be made available to the Commission in a form, manner, and time that is acceptable to the Commission.

§ 38.257 - Regulatory service provider.

A designated contract market must comply with the regulations in this subpart through a dedicated regulatory department, or by delegation of that function to a registered futures association or a registered entity (collectively, “regulatory service provider”), as such terms are defined in the Act and over which the designated contract market has supervisory authority.

§ 38.258 - Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.250 of this part.

authority: 7 U.S.C. 1a,2,6,6a,6c,6d,6e,6f,6g,6i,6j,6k,6l,6m,6n,7,7a-2,7b,7b-1,7b-3,8,9,15, and21,as,Pub. L. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376
source: 66 FR 42277, Aug. 10, 2001, unless otherwise noted.
cite as: 17 CFR 38.250