CFTC Staff Letter 12-01: Performance Disclosure Period for Forex CTAs

U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20581
Telephone: (202) 418-6700
Facsimile: (202) 418-5528 gbarnett@cftc.gov
Division of Swap Dealer and
Intermediary Oversight
Gary Barnett
Director
CFTC Letter No. 12-01
Interpretation
February 27, 2012
Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Senior Vice-President, Compliance National Futures Association 300 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 1800 Chicago, Illinois 60606 Re: Request for Interpretive Guidance – CFTC Regulations 4.34 and 4.35 Performance Disclosure for Forex CTAs Dear Ms. Thoele:
This is in response to your letter dated September 13, 2011. By your letter you sought guidance regarding the obligation to disclose past performance where a commodity trading advisor (“CTA”) has discretionary trading authority over the account of a person other than an eligible contract participant (as defined in the Commodity Exchange Act 1 ) in connection with off-exchange retail foreign currency transactions (“retail forex”). Specifically, you sought the Division’s view regarding the point in time from which a person who is required to be registered as a CTA because the person directs accounts that engage in retail forex transactions ( a “Forex CTA”) must disclose the performance of those accounts (whether performance disclosure must be made, e.g., for the five most recent calendar years and year-to-date preceding the date of the Forex CTA’s Disclosure Document (or the life of the trading program if shorter) as required under Regulation 4.35(a)(5); 2 for the period from the June 18, 2008 enactment of the statutory provision requiring registration of Forex CTAs; 3 or for the period from the October 18, 2010 effective date of the Commission’s regulations (the “Forex Regulations”) that it adopted to implement the statutory registration requirement.