Commodity Futures Trading Commission June 29, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On April 15, 2010, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or the ``Commission'') published for public comment in the Federal Register \1\ a proposal to exempt the trading and clearing of certain contracts called ``options'' and other contracts called ``security futures'' on each of ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (``Gold Products'') and ETFS Physical Silver Shares (``Silver Products'') (collectively, ``Gold and Silver Products''), which would be traded on national securities exchanges (as to options) and designated contract markets registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'') as limited purpose national securities exchanges (as to security futures), and in either case cleared through the Options Clearing Corporation (``OCC'') in its capacity as a registered securities clearing agency, from the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'') \2\ and the regulations thereunder, to the extent necessary to permit them to be so traded and cleared. Authority for this exemption is found in Section 4(c) of the CEA.\3\ The Commission also requested comment on whether it should amend all orders issued exempting the trading and clearing of options on gold and silver share-based products from CEA provisions and Commission regulations thereunder, to impose market and large trader reporting requirements under Commission regulations to the trading and clearing of the options