NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

FILE NO.:

CME 08-05031-BC

NON-MEMBER:

JOSE ANTONIO HIDALGO LOPEZ

CME RULE VIOLATIONS:

Legacy Rule 432.G. General Offenses

It shall be an offense to act as both buyer and seller in the same transaction.

Rule 432.Q. General Offenses

It shall be an offense 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.

Rule 533. Simultaneous Buy and Sell Orders for Different Beneficial Owners

On the Globex platform, opposite orders for different beneficial owners that are simultaneously placed by a party with discretion over both accounts may be entered into the Globex platform provided that one order is exposed for a minimum of 5 seconds in the case of futures orders.

Rule 539.A. General Prohibition

No person shall prearrange or pre-negotiate any purchase or sale or noncompetitively execute any transaction.

FINDINGS:

On February 24, 2011, a panel of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”) Probable Cause Committee (“PCC”) charged non-member Jose Antonio Hidalgo Lopez, a resident of Malaga, Spain, with four counts of violating CME Rule 432.G. (Act as Buyer and Seller in Same Transaction), Rule 533. (Simultaneous Buy and Sell orders for Different Beneficial Owners), Rule 539.A. (Pre-negotiated or Noncompetitive Transactions), and Rule 432.Q. (Acts Detrimental) based on allegations that on September 30, 2008, Lopez executed 88 transactions opposite himself in the November 2008 and March 2009 Feeder Cattle contracts. Those transactions constituted 44 transaction sets, each with an initiating and an offsetting transaction that were executed at or near the same time. With the exception of two sets of trades, one account Lopez managed was on the profitable side of each of these transaction sets, while a second account Lopez managed was correspondingly on the losing side. Through these 88 transactions, Lopez was able to effect a money pass of $15,037.50 from one account to the other.

On August 10, 2011, a Hearing Panel Chair of the CME Business Conduct Committee (“BCC”) entered an order finding that Lopez failed to answer charges issued against him. In failing to answer the charges, the Hearing Panel Chair further ordered that Lopez was deemed to have admitted the charges issued and waived his right to a hearing on the merits of the charges.

Pursuant to CME Rule 407.C., a penalty hearing was held before a panel of the CME BCC (“BCC Panel”) on October 12, 2011.The BCC Panel found Lopez guilty of committing the admitted charges.

PENALTY:

Based on the BCC Panel’s findings and conclusions, and in accordance with CME Rule 402.D. (“Actions Against Non-Members”), the BCC Panel barred Lopez for a period of 15 years from: (a) directly or indirectly accessing, executing trades, placing orders and /or submitting transactions on any trading venue or clearing platform that is owned, controlled, or operated by CME Group Inc., including but not limited to CME Globex; and (b) affiliating with any Member (as that term is defined in CME Rule 400) of any CME Group Exchange in connection with business conducted on or subject to Exchange Rules. Lopez’s bar shall begin on the effective date below and shall continue through and including November 29, 2026.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

November 29, 2011