The SEC approved the FINRA-proposed rule change to amend FINRA Rule 11892 to add new provisions that address multi-day clearly erroneous events and transactions occurring during trading halts, as well as make non-substantive clarifications to the rule. See: SEC Order of Approval. Related news: FINRA-Proposed Rule Change Relating to Clearly Erroneous Transactions in Exchange-Listed Securities (Fed. Reg.)(May 6, 2014); Proposed Rule Change to Amend FINRA Rule 11892 (April 17, 2014); FINRA-Proposed Rule Change to Extend the Clearly Erroneous Pilot Program for Exchange-Listed Securities (Fed. Reg

The CFTC held a public roundtable to discuss issues concerning hedges of a physical commodity by a commercial enterprise, including gross hedging, cross-commodity hedging, anticipatory hedging, and the process for obtaining a non-enumerated exemption from position limits. Discussion also included the settling of spot month limits in physical-delivery and cash-settled contracts, a conditional spot-month limit exemption, and certain aggregations of positions. Click here to view a summary of the meeting by Delta Strategy Group. See: CFTC Press Release.

The CFTC released to the public an authorized research paper titled, "Electronic Market Makers, Trader Anonymity and Market Fragility." The paper, which was written by third-party professors, analyzes the impact of electronic market-makers on the reliability and the consistency with which financial markets provide transactional liquidity services, based on monitoring intraday position-level data from the WTI Crude Oil futures markets collected from NYMEX between 2006 and 2011. Researchers found "strong evidence that electronic market makers reduce their participation and their liquidity

The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an investor bulletin to educate investors about affinity fraud, a type of investment scam that targets members of identifiable groups. The alert explains that affinity fraud often takes the form of a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, in which money given to the promoter by new investors is paid to earlier investors to create the illusion that the so-called investment is successful. In cases of affinity fraud, fraudsters frequently pretend to be members of the group they are attempting to defraud. The bulletin offers tips to help investors avoid

By direction of the Calendar Committee, the case brought by SIFMA, ISDA and the Institution of International Bankers against the CFTC's Cross-Border Guidance was reassigned from Judge Ellen S. Huvelle to Judge Paul L. Friedman. See: Reassignment of Civil Case. Related news: Judge Grants Amici Motion for Leave to File Brief in Support of CFTC; CFTC Submits Notice of Supplemental Authority in SIFMA v. CFTC Cross-Border Guidance Case (with Lofchie Comment) (June 18, 2014); Congressional Democrats' Amicus Brief Sides with CFTC in SIFMA v. CFTC (with Lofchie Comment and Energy Metro Desk Article