On an annual basis, NFA Member futures commission merchants (FCM), retail foreign exchange dealers (RFED), introducing brokers (IB), commodity pool operators (CPO) and commodity trading advisors (CTA) must review their operations using NFA's Self-Examination Questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed to aid Members in recognizing potential problem areas and to alert them to procedures that need to be revised or strengthened.
To provide Members with information on NFA's current operations, regulatory approach and relief issued, as well as answer questions, NFA held a webinar on May 27, 2020.
This brochure discusses the requirements CPOs must meet under Part 4, presents a sample break-even analysis and sample performance tables, and describes the disclosure document filing and review process.
This brochure discusses the requirements CTAs must meet under Part 4, presents a sample performance table, and describes the disclosure document filing and review process.
NFA Member regulatory workshops were held in New York, N.Y. on February 25, 2020, Chicago, Ill. on February 27, 2019 and London, U.K. on March 4, 2020.
This guide discusses how to prepare for an NFA examination, highlights a number of other general regulatory requirements and addresses accounting procedures for FCMs, IBs and Commodity Pools.
NFA's Swaps Proficiency Requirements are now available online. To help Members understand their obligations related to the Swaps Proficiency Requirements, NFA held two webinars with identical content on January 15 and 28, 2020.
NFA's Swaps Proficiency Requirements will launch and become accessible online on January 31, 2020. To prepare SPR Admins, NFA held three webinars with identical content in October, November and December 2019.
NFA held a webinar on Monday, November 25, 2019 to help firms and individuals understand the latest updates from a multi-year rebuild to ORS including the Firm Application, Annual Registration Update, firm and individual update processes and minor revisions to the Individual Application.
Before participating in the derivatives markets, investors should learn as much as they can about the firms and individuals with which they're considering doing business. This handout discusses briefly NFA's BASIC system—a powerful resource for conducting due diligence.
On Thursday, August 29, 2019 NFA launched its redesigned BASIC system, a free tool that NFA Members and investors can use to research the background of derivatives firms and industry professionals. To walk users through the new system, NFA conducted a brief webinar on the day of launch.
To provide Members with an opportunity to ask questions of NFA's leadership, NFA conducted its fifth annual Town Hall webinar on Wednesday, April 10, 2019.
On Thursday, April 11, 2019, NFA held a webinar to help CPO Members understand their obligations with regard to NFA's Interpretive Notice entitled Compliance Rule 2-9: CPO Internal Controls System which became effective Monday, April 1, 2019.
NFA adopted an Interpretive Notice which establishes disclosure requirements for futures commission merchants (FCM), introducing brokers (IB), commodity pool operators (CPO) and commodity trading advisors (CTA) that engage in activities related to virtual currencies or virtual currency derivatives. In order to ensure Members understand their obligations with regard to this Interpretive Notice, NFA held a webinar on Thursday, October 11, 2018.
NFA held a swap dealer (SD) regulatory workshop at the New York Marriott Downtown in New York, N.Y. on May 9, 2018. During the half-day workshop, Ron Filler, NFA Public Director and Professor of Law at The New York Law School, and NFA staff discussed NFA's risk-based approach to examinations and themes from recent SD examinations, among other topics.
FCMs use this form to report their month ending assessment fees. Note, this form can be filled and printed. To view the fillable fields, you must download or save (right-click and "Save") the form to your desktop, and open in an appropriate PDF viewer.
To provide Members with an opportunity to ask questions of NFA's leadership, NFA conducted its fourth annual Town Hall webinar on Monday, April 9, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. ET.
As part of NFA's continued SD education, NFA held a webinar on January 18 to further help SDs understand the examination process, best practices and common deficiencies. View the archived webinar.
The purpose of this investor advisory is to remind investors that, just like any other speculative investment, trading futures on virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, have certain benefits and various risks.
After the sponsor files an application for an individual to become registered as an associated person, or listed as a principal and/or branch office manager, the individual will need to electronically file a verification of the information contained in the application. This guide describes how to complete the verification process.
NFA held Member Regulatory Workshops in Chicago, Ill. and New York, N.Y. in May 2017.
During the workshops in Chicago and New York, NFA offered a session on NFA Members' regulatory obligations regarding cybersecurity and a session on reporting commodity pool operator (CPO) and commodity trading advisor (CTA) financial information on Forms PQR and PR. In addition to the two sessions above, NFA offered a session for swap dealers (SD) on SD examinations during its Member Regulatory Workshop in New York.
To provide Members with an opportunity to ask questions of NFA's leadership, NFA conducts an annual Town Hall webinar. Access the transcript and recording of the most recent Town Hall webinar, held on Monday, April 3, 2017.
As part of NFA's continued SD education, NFA held a webinar on Thursday, January 18 to further help SDs understand the examination process, best practices and common deficiencies. View the archived webinar.
NFA developed and executed a margin model review and approval process for CFTC Covered SDs. To ensure that Members fully understand the process and their regulatory obligations, NFA offered a webinar on November 21, 2016. During the 30-minute webinar, NFA senior staff provided an overview of its margin model review process, discussed lessons learned from the initial compliance date, and answered questions.
This guide may be used by firms when they are calculating rates of return and drawdown figures in their Performance Capsule. NFA does not promote one method for determining rates of return. This guide should only be used as one tool when completing your Performance Capsule.
NFA held cybersecurity workshops for all Members in Chicago, Ill. on February 2, 2016, New York, N.Y. on February 4, 2016 and Los Angeles, Calif. on February 9, 2016.
The half-day workshops featured panels of NFA staff and other cybersecurity experts. They discussed the Cybersecurity Interpretive Notice and related Notice to Members, ISSP development and refinement, relevant NFA Self-Examination Questionnaire updates, and what to expect on exams, among other topics.
To help non-U.S. swap dealer Members understand the 4s review process and forthcoming NFA feedback, NFA senior staff held an audio conference on December 9, 2015. There was a Q&A session after the presentation.
This video tutorial (26 min. 22 sec.), intended for Commodity Trading Advisors, explains the filing process for Form PR, which includes the annual CFTC Form CTA-PR and the quarterly NFA Form PR.
To help its swap dealer and major swap participant Members prepare for upcoming examinations, NFA senior staff held an audio conference, which included topics such as NFA's examination approach and an update on NFA's continuous monitoring program. There was a Q&A session after the presentation.
As a follow-up to NFA's audio conference in June, NFA senior staff updated its Swap Dealer (SD) and Major Swap Participant (MSP) Members on its OTC derivatives regulatory programs. The conference topics included NFA's current examination program; NFA's continuous monitoring program; the status of 4s policies and procedures documentation; self-reporting of issues; and recent notices. There also was a Q&A session after the presentation.
NFA held regulatory conferences in Chicago on Sept. 15, 2014, Greenwich on Oct. 22, 2014, New York on Oct. 23, 2014, London on Nov. 6, 2014, Houston on March 5, 2015, Los Angeles on March 18 and San Francisco on March 19 for its Members.
The half-day conferences, presented by NFA staff and other futures professionals, discussed the current state of the industry; NFA's examination process, including common deficiencies identified on exams of FCMs, IBs, CPOs and CTAs; performance reporting; and financial reporting requirements, among other topics.
In anticipation to launching its first examinations of swap dealer (SD) Member firms based on NFA rules that incorporate CFTC regulations pursuant to Section 4s of the Commodity Exchange Act, NFA hosted an audio conference on June 5, 2014.
This video tutorial (18 min. 15 sec.), intended for commodity pool operators, summarizes the new PQR filing requirements for CPOs and highlights areas of the filing process where NFA has found deficiencies within NFA's EasyFile System and discusses common deficiencies seen in filings.
This is an addendum to the Margins Handbook, the guide providing the policies for monitoring margin risk exposure established by the exchanges and regulatory organizations that participate in the Joint Audit Committee.
Security futures, which have been authorized by Congress, can be bought and sold for either price risk management or for speculative purposes. For many reasons, security futures may or may not be an appropriate trading vehicle for any given individual. Or they may be appropriate in some circumstances but not others.
This publication discusses issues associated with order transmission and entry procedures for exchange-traded futures and options and the diligent supervision of the order transmission and order entry process by commodity professionals.
This publication provides the policies for monitoring margin risk exposure established by the exchanges and regulatory organizations that participate in the Joint Audit Committee.
