NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

NON-MEMBER:

Harouna Traore

CME RULE VIOLATIONS: Rule 432 General Offenses (in part)

It shall be an offense:

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

Q. To commit an act which is detrimental to the interest or welfare of the Exchange or to engage in any conduct which tends to impair the dignity or good name of the Exchange.

FINDINGS:

Pursuant to an offer of settlement in which Harouna Traore (“Traore”) neither admitted nor denied the rule violations upon which the penalty is based, on June 23, 2020, a Panel of the CME Business Conduct Committee (“Panel”) found that on June 29, 2017, Traore manually executed numerous trades in the September 2017 E-Mini S&P (“SEP17 E-Mini”) futures contract and established a maximum long position of 40,976 contracts. The Panel found that Traore, typically a one-lot trader, altered his strategy by increasing his order size without consideration of the risk of significant loss to his clearing firm. Traore intentionally executed these trades with the knowledge that he was trading in a live market and that trading limits mistakenly were not imposed on the account. Moreover, the Panel found that Traore purposefully built his already excessive long position to cover his unrealized losses through profitable trades and exceeded credit limits well in excess of the funds available in the account.

The Panel concluded that Traore thereby violated CME Rules 432.B.2 and 432.Q.

PENALTY:

In accordance with the settlement offer and after taking Traore’s financial condition into consideration when it levied the sanction, the Panel ordered Traore to pay a $10,000 fine and serve a two year suspension from access to any trading floor owned or controlled by CME Group and from direct and indirect access to any designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization or swap execution facility owned or operated by CME Group. The suspension shall begin on June 25, 2020 and continue for a period of two years through, and including June 25, 2022.