Compliance Rules

Part 2 - Rules Governing the Business Conduct of Members Registered with the Commission

RULE 2-43. FOREX ORDERS

[Adopted effective May 15, 2009. Effective dates of amendments: June 12, 2009; September 11, 2009; April 5, 2018 and September 15, 2022.]

(a) Price Adjustments

(1) A Forex Dealer Member may not cancel an executed customer order or adjust a customer account in a manner that would have the direct or indirect effect of changing the price of an executed order except when:

(i) the cancellation or adjustment is favorable to the customer and is done as part of a settlement of a customer complaint, provided, however, that individual customer complaints are not required in order for a Forex Dealer Member to favorably adjust all customer orders that were adversely affected by circumstances beyond the customer’s control and that are unrelated to market price movements (except that the Forex Dealer Member must adjust all customer orders adversely affected and may not, except as provided in section (a)(1)(ii), adjust any order that received a favorable price due to the problem); or

(ii) the Forex Dealer Member exclusively uses straight-through processing (as defined in NFA Compliance Rule 2-36(s)(5)) with a counterparty that is not an affiliate of the Forex Dealer Member, and that counterparty cancels or adjusts the price at which the offsetting position with the Forex Dealser Member was executed.

(2) With regard to cancellations or adjustments made pursuant to section (a)(1)(ii), a Forex Dealer Member must:

(i) provide written notification to the customer within fifteen (15) minutes of the customer order having been executed that it is seeking to cancel the executed order or adjust the customer's account to reflect the adjusted price provided by the Forex Dealer Member's counterparty, as applicable, and the written notification must include documentation of the cancellation or adjustment from the Forex Dealer Member's counterparty; and

(ii) either cancel or adjust all executed customer orders executed during the same time period and in the same currency pair or option regardless of whether they were buy or sell orders.

(3) Notwithstanding section (a)(2)(ii), a Forex Dealer Member may choose to honor transactions in which customer orders resulted in profits for the customers but must do so with regard to all similarly situated customers.

(4) Cancellations and adjustments to executed customer orders must be reviewed and approved by a listed principal that is also an NFA Associate. Such review and approval must be documented by a written record, must include any supporting documentation, and must be provided to NFA in the manner requested by NFA.

(5) A customer order is considered executed upon the earlier of the customer receiving notification of the execution price from the Forex Dealer Member or when the position established by such order is identified in the customer's account, whether electronically or otherwise.

(6) If a Forex Dealer Member may cancel or adjust an executed order under the circumstances provided for in section (a)(1)(ii), the FDM must provide customers with written notice that the Forex Dealer Member may cancel or adjust executed customer orders based upon liquidity provider price changes prior to the time they first engage in forex transactions with the Forex Dealer Member. The notice may be included in a customer agreement.

(7) Any provision in a customer agreement or any contract between a Forex Dealer Member and a customer that reserves to the Forex Dealer Member the right to make price or equity adjustments to a customer account except as allowed by this Rule is prohibited.

(b) Offsetting Transactions

Forex Dealer Members may not carry offsetting positions in a customer account but must offset them on a first-in, first-out basis. At the customer's request, an FDM may offset same-size transactions even if there are older transactions of a different size but must offset the transaction against the oldest transaction of that size.