NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

FILE NO.:

CME-16-0492-BC

MEMBER:

Robert Samuel Parks

CME RULE VIOLATION:

Rule 432: General Offenses

It shall be an offense:

B.2. To engage in conduct or proceedings inconsistent with just and equitable principles of trade.

Rule 522. Acceptance of Bids and Offers

In open outcry and electronic trading, while outstanding, all or any part of any bid or offer is subject to immediate acceptance by any trader. Members are required to honor all bids or offers which have not been withdrawn from the market. The price at which a trade is executed shall be binding, unless such trade is cancelled by Exchange officials in accordance with Exchange rules.

FINDINGS:

Pursuant to an offer of settlement in which Robert Samuel Parks (“Parks”) neither admitted nor denied the rule violation upon which the penalty is based, on September 26, 2017, a Panel of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Business Conduct Committee (“Panel”) found that on June 17, 2016, Parks, acting as a desk clerk, received a not-held order to buy 385 contracts in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Price Index (“S&P”) futures market. Parks relayed the order to a floor broker who bought 435 contracts at various prices. Realizing the floor broker overbought the order by 50 contracts and the S&P futures price had declined, Parks authorized the floor broker to assign 50 contracts to the floor broker’s error account at the lowest purchase price, therefore depriving the customer of the best purchase price. The Panel concluded that Parks violated CME Rules 432.B.2. and 522.

PENALTY:

In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered Parks to pay a fine of $20,000 and serve a 15 day suspension from access to any CME Group Inc. trading floor and direct and indirect access to any electronic trading and clearing platform owned or operated by CME Group Inc., including CME Globex. The suspension shall run from September 28, 2017 through October 12, 2017, inclusive. In assessing the sanction, the Panel considered that the customer had been reimbursed for the loss.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

September 28, 2017