Archive for February, 2010

NFA to Talk Directly to Futures & Commodities Community

On Tuesday March 2 the National Futures Association (”NFA”) is hosting a regulatory seminar for members of the commodity and futures markets.  The seminar will focus on a number of important issues including the following:

• Overview and Discussion of Regulatory Changes
• Disclosure Document and Performance Reporting
• Financial Reporting for Commodity Pools
• Sale Practices
• NFA Audit Process

There are a number of items which I am particularly interested in hearing about from the NFA staff.  Specifically, I am interested to hear their thoughts on the disclosure document review process which is no where near uniform or expedient.  I am also eager to hear how the NFA views their audit process as I have seen a few of these lately and have many questions as to why the NFA pursued the matter in certain ways.  One of the biggest issues I believe is uniformity and I think this should be a focus for the NFA in the coming year.  It is always frustrating to have a so-called “moving target” and to not be able to provide clients with better guidance in terms of NFA timing.

Below is a more detailed outline of the seminar which can also be found here.

****

Registration for National Futures Association’s

Commodity Pool Operator/Commodity Trading Advisor Regulatory Seminar

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

UBS Conference Center

Chicago, Illinois

In light of the economic upheaval that has dramatically affected the financial markets, the regulatory landscape for Commodity Pool Operators and Commodity Trading Advisors is changing. To help our CPO and CTA Members stay current with their regulatory requirements, NFA will host a CPO/CTA Regulatory Seminar on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 in Chicago. The seminar will be held at the UBS Conference Center, One North Wacker Drive.

The seminar will focus on several CPO/CTA issues, including new and pending legislation, recent additions to financial reporting requirements and common errors made in promotional material and disclosure documents. The seminar will also outline the NFA audit process and discuss common audit deficiencies.

Seminar Agenda (subject to change)

7:30 – 8:30 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Session One: The Current State of CPO/CTA Regulation

A panel of NFA staff and other industry professionals will discuss the results of recent CFTC/SEC harmonization, hedge fund regulation, and the status of pending legislation.

• Moderator: Tom Sexton, Senior Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary, NFA
• Panelists: Dan Driscoll, Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer, NFA
• David Kavanagh, President, Dearborn Capital Management
• Lance A. Zinman, Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

9:30 – 9:45 a.m. Refreshment Break

9:45 – 10:45 a.m. Session Two: Disclosure Document and Performance Reporting

NFA staff will discuss common errors CPOs and CTAs make when filing their Disclosure Documents with NFA, the deficiencies cited in most Disclosure Document comment letters and common performance reporting deficiencies.

• Panelists: David Matteson, Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
• Amanda Olear, Attorney-Advisor, CFTC
• Lisa Tamburini, General Counsel, AlphaMetrix LLC
• Patricia Cushing, Associate Director, Compliance, NFA
• Kaitlan Chi, Manager, Compliance, NFA

10:45 – 12:00 p.m. Session Three: Pool Financial Reporting

NFA staff will outline the new expanded reporting requirements and demonstrate how to file the additional information electronically with NFA. This session will also cover the prohibition on general partner loans, CFTC financial reporting rule changes and pool reporting requirements for forex CPOs and CTAs.

• Panelists: Eileen Chotiner, Senior Compliance Analyst, CFTC
• James W. Laures, Director, Deloitte & Touche LLP
• David Young, President, Spectrum Global Fund Administration, LLC
• Tracey Hunt, Senior Manager, Compliance, NFA

12:00 – 1:45 p.m. Lunch

• Keynote Speaker: Michael Dunn, Commissioner, CFTC
• Introduced by: Dan Roth, President and CEO, NFA

1:45 – 2:45 p.m. Session Four: Sales Practices

NFA staff along with other experts will discuss common promotional material deficiencies and the new Social Networking interpretive notice.

• Moderator/Panelist: John Lothian, President & CEO, John J. Lothian & Company, Inc.
• Panelist: Natalie Peters, Director of Investor Relations, DigiLog Capital LLC
• Alexandra Shipovskikh, Manager, Compliance, NFA
• Dorothy Bobak, Senior Analyst, Compliance, NFA

2:45 – 3:00 p.m. Refreshment Break

3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Session Five: The NFA Audit Process

This session will provide an overview of the NFA audit process, highlighting new areas of focus such as FAS 157 hierarchy, valuation policies, side pocket investments, side letters/preferred redemptions and strategy promotion. The panel will also discuss common audit deficiencies.

• Panelist: Roxanne Bennett, Director, Price Asset Management
• Jennifer Sunu, Director, Audits, NFA
• Matt Pendell, Manager, Compliance, NFA

Registration

The fee for attending this seminar is $100 per person for NFA Members and $150 for non-Members. The fee includes all seminar sessions, continental breakfast, refreshment breaks and lunch.

****

February 16, 2010

CFTC Commissioner Michael Dunn to be keynote speaker at NFA’s CPO/CTA Regulatory Seminar

CFTC Commissioner Michael Dunn will be the keynote speaker at NFA’s CPO/CTA Regulatory Seminar on Tuesday, March 2 in Chicago. The day-long seminar will focus on several CPO/CTA issues, including new and pending legislation, recent additions to financial reporting requirements and common errors made in promotional material and disclosure documents. The seminar will also outline the NFA audit process and discuss common audit deficiencies.

There’s still time to register to attend the seminar. The cost is $100 for NFA Members and $150 for non-Members. The fee includes all workshop materials, continental breakfast, refreshment breaks and lunch.

****

Other related hedge fund law blog posts include:

• CPO Annual Report Filing Overview
• CTA and CPO Registration and Compliance Guide
• How to Register as a CTA or CPO

Bart Mallon, Esq. runs the Hedge Fund Law Blog and provides hedge fund information and manager registration services through Mallon P.C. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.

Go to Source

Bloomberg reports that former Treasury Secretary and Citigroup board member Robert Rubin will be summoned before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in April, with Alan Greenspan and Chuck Prince likely to be tapped as well.

Go to Source

” Here are a couple of stories similar to thousands playing out across the country, and tens of thousands more to come. The second article gets to the heart of the upcoming commercial real estate bust.”
Go to Source

“Inquiring minds are investigating Fannie Mae’s stunning $72 billion loss for 2009 as well as new short selling curbs. The two are actually related. Let’s take a look.”
Go to Source

” Fannie Mae will seek $15.3 billion in U.S. aid, bringing the total owed under a government lifeline to $76.2 billion, after its 10th consecutive quarterly loss.”
Go to Source

“Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said fourth-quarter profit jumped on the recovery of derivative bets tied to the world’s stock markets.”
Go to Source

“According to the Wall Street Journal, NIR Group, run by Corey Ribotsky, is now cooperating with federal authorities over allegations that it paid kickbacks to stock promoters as part of a scam to inflate the value of its holdings.”
Go to Source

You have George Soros, the man who makes whole governments shiver at age 821, betting against the Euro in deals where he stands to make 20+ times as much as he can lose. And they call that news. The rhyme was intended.

Go to Source

Hedge Funds Euro Bets

Several Hedge Funds Betting Big Against the Euro

Several large hedge funds are placing major bearish bets against the euro.  The funds have been meeting at exclusive meetings where the future of the euro has been discussed.  Hans Hufschmid, a hedge fund administrator, says “This is an opportunity…to make a lot of money.”

…a small group of all-star hedge-fund managers argued that the euro is likely to fall to “parity”—or equal on an exchange basis—with the dollar, people close to the situation say.

George Soros, head of the $27-billion asset fund manager, warned publicly last weekend that if the European Union doesn’t fix its finances, “the euro may fall apart.”
EuroTrade

The currency wagers signal that big financial players spot a rare trading opening driven by broader market gyrations. The euro, which traded at $1.51 in December, now trades around $1.35. With traders using leverage—often borrowing 20 times the size of their bet, accentuating gains and losses—a euro move to $1 could represent a career trade. If investors put up $5 million to make a $100 million trade, a 5% price move in the right direction doubles their initial investment.

It is impossible to calculate the precise effect of the elite traders’ bearish bets, but they have added to the selling pressure on the currency—and thus to the pressure on the European Union to stem the Greek debt crisis.  Source

Related to: Hedge Funds Euro Bets

• Hedge Fund Tracker Tool
• Fund Marketing and Sales Advice
• Top Hedge Fund Managers
• Free Online Hedge Fund Videos
• Careers & Employment Guide
• Hedge Fund Holdings & Securities Analysis
• Hedge Fund Terminology
• Geographical Guides
• Hedge Fund Startup Tools

Tags: Hedge Funds Euro Bets, hedge funds european currency, hedge funds Euro, bets on Euro, hedge funds currency trading, hedge funds currency euro

Go to Source

NIR Group Probe

NIR Group Investigated For Allegedly Giving Kickbacks

Another investigation into a hedge fund is taking place over suspicions that the fund paid kickbacks.  U.S. regulators are looking into whether NIR Group’s Corey Ribotsky (pictured left) paid others kickbacks to boost the value of their investments.  This is a serious charge that authorities have been looking since 2009; NIR posted 8 years of positive returns on its biggest fund since 2001 raising questions.

U.S. authorities have been investigating the company since last year on whether managing member Corey Ribotsky defrauded investors about their returns and the holdings of his various funds, according to the paper.

Ribotsky managed more than $780 million in hedge fund assets last year. The company reported eight years of positive returns in its biggest fund starting 2001, the paper said.
NIR invests its hedge-fund assets mainly in small public companies through privately negotiated deals and mostly receives notes that could be converted into stock at a discounted rate, the article said.

The people told the paper that the authorities are investigating whether NIR valued certain notes at a higher level than the underlying value of the companies’.

Investigators are trying to ascertain whether people with financial ties to outside companies got kickbacks in exchange for helping NIR inflate values of its investments, the paper added.  Source

Related to: NIR Group Probe

• Hedge Fund Tracker Tool
• Fund Marketing and Sales Advice
• Top Hedge Fund Managers
• Free Online Hedge Fund Videos
• Careers & Employment Guide
• Hedge Fund Holdings & Securities Analysis
• Hedge Fund Terminology
• Geographical Guides
• Hedge Fund Startup Tools

Tags: NIR Group Probe, NIR Group, hedge funds investigations, hedge fund investigation NIR Group, Hedge fund probe

Go to Source