§ 150.1 - Definitions.

§ 150.1 Definitions.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 86 FR 3463, Jan. 14, 2021.

As used in this part -

Bona fide hedging transaction or position means a transaction or position in commodity derivative contracts in a physical commodity, where:

(1) Such transaction or position:

(i) Represents a

) Spot month means the futures contract next to expire during that period of time beginning at the close of trading on the trading day preceding the first day on which delivery notices can be issued to the clearing organization of a contract market.

(b) Single month means each separate futures trading month, other than the spot month future.

(c) All-months means the sum of all futures trading months including the spot month future.

(d)

substitute for transactions made or to be made, or positions taken or to be taken, at a later time in a physical marketing channel;

(ii) Is economically appropriate to the reduction of price risks in the conduct and management of a commercial enterprise; and

(iii) Arises from the potential change in the value of -

(A) Assets which a person owns, produces, manufactures, processes, or merchandises or anticipates owning, producing, manufacturing, processing, or merchandising;

(B) Liabilities which a person owes or anticipates incurring; or

(C) Services that a person provides or purchases, or anticipates providing or purchasing; or

(2) Such transaction or position qualifies as a:

(i) Pass-through swap and pass-through swap offset pair. Paired positions of a pass-through swap and a pass-through swap offset, where:

(A) The pass-through swap is a swap position entered into by one person for which the swap would qualify as a bona fide hedging transaction or position pursuant to paragraph (1) of this definition (the bona fide hedging swap counterparty) that is opposite another person (the pass-through swap counterparty);

(B) The pass-through swap offset:

(1) Is a futures contract position, option on a futures contract position, or swap position entered into by the pass-through swap counterparty; and

(2) Reduces the pass-through swap counterparty's price risks attendant to the pass-through swap; and

(C) With respect to the pass-through swap offset, the pass-through swap counterparty receives from the bona fide hedging swap counterparty a written representation that the pass-through swap qualifies as a bona fide hedging transaction or position pursuant to paragraph (1) of this definition, and the pass-through swap counterparty may rely in good faith on such written representation, unless the pass-through swap counterparty has information that would cause a reasonable person to question the accuracy of the representation; or

(ii) Offset of a bona fide hedger's qualifying swap position. A futures contract position, option on a futures contract position, or swap position entered into by a bona fide hedging swap counterparty that reduces price risks attendant to a previously-entered-into swap position that qualified as a bona fide hedging transaction or position at the time it was entered into for that counterparty pursuant to paragraph (1) of this definition.

Commodity derivative contract means any futures contract, option on a futures contract, or swap in a commodity (other than a security futures product as defined in section 1a(45) of the Act).

Core referenced futures contract means a futures contract that is listed in § 150.2(d).

Economically equivalent swap means, with respect to a particular referenced contract, any swap that has identical material contractual specifications, terms, and conditions to such referenced contract.

(1) Other than as provided in paragraph (2) of this definition, for the purpose of determining whether a swap is an economically equivalent swap with respect to a particular referenced contract, the swap shall not be deemed to lack identical material contractual specifications, terms, and conditions due to different lot size specifications or notional amounts, delivery dates diverging by less than one calendar day, or different post-trade risk management arrangements.

(2) With respect to any natural gas referenced contract, for the purpose of determining whether a swap is an economically equivalent swap to such referenced contract, the swap shall not be deemed to lack identical material contractual specifications, terms, and conditions due to different lot size specifications or notional amounts, delivery dates diverging by less than two calendar days, or different post-trade risk management arrangements.

(3) With respect to any referenced contract or class of referenced contracts, the Commission may make a determination that any swap or class of swaps satisfies, or does not satisfy, this economically equivalent swap definition.

Eligible affiliate means an entity with respect to which another person:

(1) Directly or indirectly holds either:

(i) A majority of the equity securities of such entity, or

(ii) The right to receive upon dissolution of, or the contribution of, a majority of the capital of such entity;

(2) Reports its financial statements on a consolidated basis under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or International Financial Reporting Standards, and such consolidated financial statements include the financial results of such entity; and

(3) Is required to aggregate the positions of such entity under § 150.4 and does not claim an exemption from aggregation for such entity.

Eligible entity means a commodity pool operator; the operator of a trading vehicle which is excluded, or which itself has qualified for exclusion from the definition of the term “pool” or “commodity pool operator,” respectively, under § 4.5 of this chapter; the limited partner, limited member or shareholder in a commodity pool the operator of which is exempt from registration under § 4.13 of this chapter; a commodity trading advisor; a bank or trust company; a savings association; an insurance company; or the separately organized affiliates of any of the above entities:

(1) Which authorizes an independent account controller independently to control all trading decisions with respect to the eligible entity's client positions and accounts that the independent account controller holds directly or indirectly, or on the eligible entity's behalf, but without the eligible entity's day-to-day direction; and

(2) Which maintains:

(i) Only such minimum control over the independent account controller as is consistent with its fiduciary responsibilities to the managed positions and accounts, and necessary to fulfill its duty to supervise diligently the trading done on its behalf; or

(ii) If a limited partner, limited member or shareholder of a commodity pool the operator of which is exempt from registration under § 4.13 of this chapter, only such limited control as is consistent with its status.

(e)

Entity means a “person” as defined in section 1a of the Act.

Excluded commodity means an “excluded commodity” as defined in section 1a of the Act.

Futures-equivalent means:

(1)

(i) An option contract, whether an option on a futures contract or an option that is a swap, which has been:

(A) Adjusted by an economically reasonable and analytically supported exposure to price changes of the underlying referenced contract that has been computed for that option contract as of the previous day's close or the current day's close or computed contemporaneously during the trading day, and

(B) Converted to an economically equivalent amount of an open position in the underlying referenced contract.

(ii) An entity is allowed one business day to liquidate an amount of the position that is in excess of speculative position limits without being considered in violation of the speculative position limits if such excess position results from:

(A) A position that exceeds speculative position limits as a result of an option contract assignment; or

(B) A position that includes an option contract that exceeds speculative position limits when the applicable option contract is adjusted by an economically reasonable and analytically supported exposure to price changes of the underlying referenced contract as of that business day's close of trading, as long as the applicable option contract does not exceed such speculative position limits when evaluated using the previous business day's exposure to the underlying referenced contract. This paragraph (B) shall not apply if such day would be the last trading day of the spot month for the corresponding core referenced futures contract.

(2) A futures contract which has been converted to an economically equivalent amount of an open position in a core referenced futures contract; and

(3) A swap which has been converted to an economically equivalent amount of an open position in a core referenced futures contract.

Independent account controller means a person

-

:

(1) Who specifically is authorized by an eligible entity, as defined in

paragraph (d) of

this section, independently to control trading decisions on behalf of, but without the day-to-day direction of, the eligible entity;

(2) Over whose trading the eligible entity maintains only such minimum control as is consistent with its fiduciary responsibilities for managed positions and accounts to fulfill its duty to supervise diligently the trading done on its behalf or as is consistent with such other legal rights or obligations which may be incumbent upon the eligible entity to fulfill;

(3) Who trades independently of the eligible entity and of any other independent account controller trading for the eligible entity;

(4) Who has no knowledge of trading decisions by any other independent account controller; and

(5) Who is:

(i) Registered as a futures commission merchant, an introducing broker, a commodity trading advisor, or an associated person of any such registrant, or

(ii) A general partner, managing member or manager of a commodity pool the operator of which is excluded from registration under § 4.5(a)(4) of this chapter or § 4.13 of this chapter, provided that such general partner, managing member or manager complies with the requirements of § 150.4(c).

(f) Futures-equivalent means an option contract which has been adjusted by the previous day's risk factor, or delta coefficient, for that option which has been calculated at the close of trading and published by the applicable exchange under § 16.01 of this chapter.

(g) Long position means a long call option, a short put option or a long underlying futures contract.

(h) Short position means a

Long position means, on a futures-equivalent basis, a long call option, a short put option, a long underlying futures contract, or a swap position that is equivalent to a long futures contract.

Physical commodity means any agricultural commodity as that term is defined in § 1.3 of this chapter or any exempt commodity as that term is defined in section 1a of the Act.

Position accountability means any bylaw, rule, regulation, or resolution that:

(1) Is submitted to the Commission pursuant to part 40 of this chapter in lieu of, or along with, a speculative position limit, and

(2) Requires an entity whose position exceeds the accountability level to consent to:

(i) Provide information about its position to the designated contract market or swap execution facility; and

(ii) Halt increasing further its position or reduce its position in an orderly manner, in each case as requested by the designated contract market or swap execution facility.

Pre-enactment swap means any swap entered into prior to enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 (July 21, 2010), the terms of which have not expired as of the date of enactment of that Act.

Pre-existing position means any position in a commodity derivative contract acquired in good faith prior to the effective date of any bylaw, rule, regulation, or resolution that specifies a speculative position limit level or a subsequent change to that level.

Referenced contract means:

(1) A core referenced futures contract listed in § 150.2(d) or, on a futures-equivalent basis with respect to a particular core referenced futures contract, a futures contract or an option on a futures contract, including a spread, that is either:

(i) Directly or indirectly linked, including being partially or fully settled on, or priced at a fixed differential to, the price of that particular core referenced futures contract; or

(ii) Directly or indirectly linked, including being partially or fully settled on, or priced at a fixed differential to, the price of the same commodity underlying that particular core referenced futures contract for delivery at the same location or locations as specified in that particular core referenced futures contract; or

(2) On a futures-equivalent basis, an economically equivalent swap.

(3) The definition of referenced contract does not include a location basis contract, a commodity index contract, any guarantee of a swap, a trade option that meets the requirements of § 32.3 of this chapter, any outright price reporting agency index contract, or any monthly average pricing contract.

Short position means, on a futures-equivalent basis, a short call option, a long put option

or

, a short underlying futures contract, or a swap position that is equivalent to a short futures contract.

(i) For the following commodities, the first delivery month of the “crop year” is as follows:

Commodity	Beginning delivery month
corn	December.
cotton	October.
oats	July.
soybeans	September.
soybean meal	October.
soybean oil	October.
wheat (spring)	September.
wheat (winter)	July.

[52 FR 38923, Oct. 20, 1987, as amended at 53 FR 41571, Oct. 24, 1988; 56 FR 14315, Apr. 9, 1991; 57 FR 44492, Sept. 28, 1992; 58 FR 17981, Apr. 7, 1993; 64 FR 24046, May 5, 1999; 81 FR 91489, Dec. 16, 2016

Speculative position limit means the maximum position, either net long or net short, in a commodity derivative contract that may be held or controlled by one person absent an exemption, whether such limits are adopted for:

(1) Combined positions in all commodity derivative contracts in a particular commodity, including the spot month futures contract and all single month futures contracts (the spot month and all single month futures contracts, cumulatively, “all-months-combined”);

(2) Positions in a single month of commodity derivative contracts in a particular commodity other than the spot month futures contract (“single month”); or

(3) Positions in the spot month of commodity derivative contacts in a particular commodity. Such a limit may be established under Federal regulations or rules of a designated contract market or swap execution facility. For referenced contracts other than core referenced futures contracts, single month means the same period as that of the relevant core referenced futures contract.

Spot month means:

(1) For physical-delivery core referenced futures contracts, the period of time beginning at the earlier of:

(i) The close of business on the trading day preceding the first day on which delivery notices can be issued by the clearing organization of a contract market or

(ii) The close of business on the trading day preceding the third-to-last trading day and ending when the contract expires, except as follows:

(A) For the ICE Futures U.S. Sugar No. 11 (SB) core referenced futures contract, the spot month means the period of time beginning at the opening of trading on the second business day following the expiration of the regular option contract traded on the expiring futures contract and ending when the contract expires;

(B) For the ICE Futures U.S. Sugar No. 16 (SF) core referenced futures contract, the spot month means the period of time beginning on the third-to-last trading day of the contract month and ending when the contract expires; and

(C) For the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Live Cattle (LC) core referenced futures contract, the spot month means the period of time beginning at the close of trading on the first business day following the first Friday of the contract month and ending when the contract expires; and

(2) For referenced contracts other than core referenced futures contracts, the spot month means the same period as that of the relevant core referenced futures contract.

Spread transaction means an intra-market spread, inter-market spread, intra-commodity spread, or inter-commodity spread, including a calendar spread, quality differential spread, processing spread, product or by-product differential spread, or futures-option spread.

Swap means “swap” as that term is defined in section 1a of the Act and as further defined in § 1.3 of this chapter.

Swap dealer means “swap dealer” as that term is defined in section 1a of the Act and as further defined in § 1.3 of this chapter.

Transition period swap means a swap entered into during the period commencing on the day of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 (July 21, 2010), and ending 60 days after the publication in the Federal Register of final amendments to this part implementing section 737 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the terms of which have not expired as of 60 days after the publication date.

[86 FR 3463, Jan. 14, 2021]