The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an order while filing charges and reaching a settlement against British trader Adam Cobb-Webb for involvement in multiple fraud incidents in West Texas Intermediate.。The WTI light sweet crude oil futures contract is traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) from December 16, 2021 to January 14, 2022.。

The order requires Cobb-Webb to pay a $150,000 civil penalty and prohibits trading on or subject to its rules on any CFTC designated exchange and all other CFTC registered entities and all commodity interests.。Cobb-Webb was also ordered to stop violating a deception ban in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).。

Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley said: "The order is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Commission to punish deception in its regulated markets.。The Commission is making it easier than ever to identify and track down deception。"

The order found that over a period of about a month, Cobb-Webb had bought and sold WTI futures with the intent to cancel before execution, i.e., deception.。It is characterized by the fact that he places an iceberg order intended to be executed on one side of the order book (the number of orders is only partially visible in the order book) and cancels orders at the opposite price level of the order book before execution (cheat orders)。After the iceberg order is executed, Cobb-Webb will cancel the fully displayed spoofed order, and Cobb-Webb will conduct this trading pattern on a daily basis during this period.。

Cobb-Webb's full display of spoofed orders usually accounts for a large portion of orders at the highest price level at the time of placement, and the number of spoofed orders is often several times the visible number of iceberg orders。The purpose of entering a fraudulent order is to cancel the order and create the false impression of interest in buying and selling, thereby inducing other market participants to cross the bid-ask spread and fill out his iceberg order。He ignores that cheating orders creates a false representation of market depth and leads to misinformation about supply and demand, which can affect market activity.。

The CFTC would like to thank the CME Group for its assistance in this matter.。