Of Licensing and Alphabet Soup: The FCM, AP, CTA, CPO and Floor Broker

When faced with an issue concerning registration under the Commodity Exchange Act a good place to start is the CCH Commodity Futures Law Report which contains the Act, the regulations, and the forms for registration and reports. In addition, it contains the Federal Register announcements of regulations promulgated for comment, a valuable tool to help understand the reasoning behind and the interplay of the various regulations.The various contents of the CCH Commodity Futures Law Report must be studied carefully to determine which entities must register under the Act. Another source of helpful information is the substantial body of opinions of the Commission and opinions of the Administrative Law Judges interpreting denials of registration for lack of fitness to be registered under the Act. By statute, a futures commission merchant (FCM) and a floor broker are not reguired to register as associated persons (AP). Schedules B and C of Form 7-R apply respectively to commodity trading advisors (CTA) and commodity pool operators (CPO).