NFA sanctions Capital Market Services $75,000 mainly for multiple platform outages

The first charge stems from the fact that CMS operated from November 2009 until December 2010 with no back-up facility for its trading servers. The second charge arose because CMS failed to notify the NFA about platform failures within 24 hours, as mandated by the NFA. In the following five instances, it failed to give notice to its customers or NFA:

• June 20, 2010: The VT platform was unavailable for seven hours and all customers who utilized the VT platform were either unable to log on or were kicked out of the VT system. (CMS never ran a query to determine the exact number of affected customers.)
• November 26, 2009: The VT platform was unavailable for just over two hours and approximately 200 customers were either unable to log on or were kicked out of the VT system.
• January 24, 2010: The VT platform was unavailable for just under two hours and 700 customers were either unable to log on or were kicked out of the VT system.
• April 18, 2010: The VT platform was unavailable for 34 minutes and 550 customers were either unable to log on or were kicked out of the VT system.
• April 23, 2010: The VT platform was unavailable for eighteen minutes and 280 customers were either unable to log on or were kicked out of the VT system.

CMS Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term who feel responsible for this had this to say to Forex Magnates: "We regret the service disruptions that our clients experienced last summer as a result of certain server stability issues at our Hosting Hosting Hosting refers to the location of a broker’s technology stack. This is one of the most crucial elements of a brokerage that helps prevent the company from losing money due to being unable to mitigate latency risks.Brokers or exchanges are traditionally very vulnerable to latency arbitrage due to the speed with which financial markets move. The traditional datacenter locations for forex brokers are all centered at Equinix facilities around the globe. What Are the World’s Foremost Data Centers?Sin Hosting refers to the location of a broker’s technology stack. This is one of the most crucial elements of a brokerage that helps prevent the company from losing money due to being unable to mitigate latency risks.Brokers or exchanges are traditionally very vulnerable to latency arbitrage due to the speed with which financial markets move. The traditional datacenter locations for forex brokers are all centered at Equinix facilities around the globe. What Are the World’s Foremost Data Centers?Sin Read this Term facility. At the same time, this highlights how excited we are about our new partnership with Forex.com and what it means for VT Trader users. CMS Forex is now able to offer VT with the added advantages of pricing, execution, and stability coming from Forex.com, one of the world’s largest RFEDs."

July 14, Chicago - National Futures Association (NFA) has imposed a monetary sanction of $75,000 against Capital Market Services LLC (CMS), a Futures Commission Merchant located in New York, New York. The Decision, issued by NFA's Business Conduct Committee, is based on an NFA Complaint filed in May 2011 and a settlement offer submitted by CMS.

The Complaint alleged that CMS failed to implement adequate business continuity and disaster recovery plans and that CMS failed to report all system outages experienced by the firm to its customers and NFA. These outages left customers unable to enter new orders or manage their existing orders. In addition, the Complaint charged CMS with failing to adequately supervise the use of its electronic trading platforms.

The complete text of the Complaint and Decision can be found on NFA's website (www.nfa.futures.org).

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