The International Derivatives Market The CME Group has published a notice of disciplinary action against Adam Cobb-Webb.
According to a settlement offer in which Adam Cobb-Webb neither admitted nor denied the rule violations or the factual allegations underlying the penalty, a panel of the NYMEX Business Conduct Committee found that from December 2021 to January 2022 , Cobb-Webb entered orders into the February 2022 crude oil futures markets with the intent, at the time the order was entered, to cancel those orders prior to execution and mislead other market participants.
Specifically, the panel found that on several occasions during the same period, Cobb-Webb placed multiple orders on one side of the market against its existing orders on the other side of the market. After trading the existing passive orders, Cobb-Webb canceled the tiered orders. By splitting and canceling orders without the intent to trade, Cobb-Webb sent false supply and demand signals to the market.
The panel further found that as a result of this disruptive trading activity during the relevant time frame, Cobb-Webb realized a financial benefit of $191,670.
The panel also found that from May 2021 to January 2022, Cobb-Webb knowingly placed or accepted buy and sell orders in the same product and in the same expiration month, where he knew or reasonably should have known that the purpose of the orders was to avoid taking a bona fide market position exposed to market risk in various crude oil futures markets.
The panel found that, as a result, Cobb-Webb violated NYMEX Rule 575.A. 575.B. and 534.
According to the settlement offer, the commission ordered Cobb-Webb to pay a fine of $75,000, forfeit the monetary benefit of $191,670 and impose a nine-month suspension from access to any trading floor owned or controlled by The CME Group and from immediate and indirect access to any designated contract market, derivatives clearing house or exchange execution facility owned or controlled by CME Group.
The suspension will be effective from the trading date of February 16, 2024 until November 16, 2024.