Merrill Lynch Commodities receives $25m fine for spoofing and market manipulation (15 July 2019)
Jennie Clarke
Behavox, 15 July 2019
Merrill Lynch Commodities Inc has received a $25m charge from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for spoofing, manipulation and attempted manipulation, with respect to certain precious metals futures.
The CFTC found that Merrill Lynch Commodities traders placed orders to buy and sell precious metals futures contracts with the intent to cancel their orders before execution. The traders employed a specific spoofing strategy in which they would place a small bid or offer with the intent to execute that order. Prior to the execution of that order, they would place a larger order on the opposite side of the same market with the intent to cancel that order before execution. This manipulated market prices and created artificial and fluctuating prices.
