On July 21, 2015, the CFTC issued No-action Letter 15-47, which exempts certain commodity trading advisors (CTAs) that are registered with the CFTC but that do not "direct" trading in commodity interest accounts from filing a report consistent with Appendix C to Part 4 of the CFTC Regulations (Form CTA-PR) (available at 17 C.F.R. § App. C, Pt. 4).

Under CFTC Regulation 4.27(c) (17 CFR 4.27(c)), CTAs that are registered with the CFTC are required to file Form CTA-PR to give the CFTC additional information on their assets under management and the trading activity that the CTA directs in its commodity interest accounts (see Practice Note, The Dodd-Frank Act: Expanded "Commodity Pool" Definition and CPO/CTA Rules: Section 4.27 Reporting for CPOs and CTAs).

However, the CFTC has determined that the information provided in these reports is of limited utility where a CTA does not "direct" trading in commodity interest accounts. Under CFTC Regulation 4.10(f) (17 CFR 4.10), the ability to "direct" trading refers to the CTA's ability to, under an agreement with its client, effect transactions for a client's commodity interest account without the client's specific authorization.

This no-action relief extends relief previously granted to commodity pool operators (CPOs) in No-action Letter No. 14-115 to CTAs (see Legal Update, CFTC Addresses Key CPO Issues). No-action Letter No. 15-115 exempted CPOs from having to file the equivalent form for CPOs (Form CPO-PQR) provided that the CPO only operates pools:

In both cases, the CFTC determined that the information provided by the additional forms would be of limited use given the information already provided to the CFTC via the registration process and the ongoing reporting obligations as registrants.