Owner of S&P 500 Futures Trading System Website Gets $210,000 Penalty

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ) has issued an announcement detailing that previously charged with failure to register as a commodity trading advisor (CTA) and failure to include required cautionary statements on his trading system’s website, www.showmemyfuture.com, has received a court ruling mandating him to pay a fine.

After the regulator filed a civil complaint alleging that the violation occurred between June 2010 and June 2011, the court today imposed permanent trading and registration bans and a $210,000 civil monetary penalty against Neal E. Hall.

Mr. Hall used the personal data of persons signing up for his S&P 500 futures trading system service while claiming to be a registered Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) and collected fees in the form of either flat charges or a percentage of profits from his customers.

The perpetrator solicited clients to subscribe to his e-mini S&P 500 futures trading program and to entrust him with managing trading accounts. Mr. Hall has never been registered with the CFTC as a CTA and has never posted any cautionary statements on his website to accompany the use of client testimonials and the presentation of the performance of a simulated or hypothetical commodities account.

A further violation was also found in that no customer names were provided for the testimonials used on the website, and no disclaimer with the specific language required by the Regulation that is prominently displayed in immediate proximity to the hypothetical trading results were visible.