The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has detailed an order simultaneously filing and settling charges against UK-based trader allegedly engaging in instances of oil futures market spoofing.
The action stems from UK-based trader Adam Cobb-Webb allegedly spoofing in West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude oil futures contracts traded on New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX) from approximately Dec. 16, 2021 through at least Jan. 14, 2022.
“This order is the latest in a long series of actions by the Commission to punish spoofing in the markets the Commission oversees,” CFTC Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley said. “Spoofing is easier than ever for the Commission to identify and pursue. Our message to would-be spoofers is this: Don’t.”
The CFTC alleged during an approximately one-month period, Cobb-Webb placed bids and offers for WTI futures with the intent to cancel his bids or offers before execution—i.e., spoofing.
The CFTC’s allegation asserts Cobb-Webb’s spoofing was characterized by a pattern of trading in which he placed an iceberg order on one side of the order book that he intended to execute and a series of fully-displayed orders on the opposite side of the order book at the first few price levels that he intended to cancel before execution.
The order requires Cobb-Webb to pay a $150,000 civil monetary penalty and imposes a one-year ban from trading on or subject to the rules of any CFTC-designated exchange and all other CFTC-registered entities and in all commodity interests.
Cobb-Webb is also ordered to cease and desist from violating the spoofing prohibition in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).