How To Start A Forex Hedge Fund – Forex Disclosure Documents

How To Start A Forex Hedge Fund

Overview of Forex Disclosure Documents

Although there are currently very few details concerning the upcoming Forex registration rules, many Forex managers are preparing for registration, including the preparation of the Forex disclosure documents. Whether the Forex manager is a “Forex CTA” and only provides advice to individual accounts, or if the manager is a “Forex cpo” and provides advice to a fund, the manager will need to have some sort of disclosure document to provide to the investor. This document will need to be prepared in accordance with the NFA regulations and will also need to be approved by the NFA prior to giving them to potential investors. The disclosure documents will generally need to be prepared by the Forex attorney.

Selecting the Forex Attorney

A good Forex attorney is well versed in all aspects of the Securities laws and has experience with Forex managers. It is also helpful when the attorney understands the business aspects of the Forex manager’s trading program. For example, it is often helpful if the attorney has taken and passed the Series 3 exam (and, soon, the Series 34 exam). You will also want to talk to the attorney about the process and timeline of both the Forex registration process as well as the disclosure document creation process. After you have decided on a Forex attorney, you will likely sign an engagement letter and submit a retainer payment – they the attorney will begin drafting the offering documents. How To Start A Forex Hedge Fund

Disclosure Documents

There are three main parts of a Forex fund’s offering documents – the private placement memorandum (PPM, sometimes also called the offering memorandum), the limited partnership agreement and the subscription documents. Below, we have detailed the important parts of these items:

Forex PPM – like a regular hedge fund (especially a commodity hedge fund), the Forex fund PPM will include the following sections:

Legal Disclosures
Discussion of the Forex Investment Program
Background of the Forex Manager
Risks Factors of the Forex Trading Program
Discussion of the Potential Conflicts of Interests
Descriptions of the service providers – a discussion of the service providers will included in the offering documents. This includes the attorney, the administrator, the auditor and the Forex dealer member (FDM). Current pending litigation of the FDM will also need to be disclosed – your attorney will gather these details.
Performance Results – the NFA is expected to require in depth information about the fund’s past performance. These requirements are likely to be substantially similar to the current requirements for non-Forex CPOs.
Any Other Relevant Information How To Start A Forex Hedge Fund

Forex LPA – these are the official governing legal documents of the fund. Typical provisions will include:

Preamble
Discussion of Rights and Duties of Investors (contributions, redemptions, etc.)
Discussion of Rights and Duties of Manager (compensation, duties to fund/investors, conflicts of interest)
Winding Down Provisions
Etc.

Forex Subscription Documents – the subscription documents are important because they help the manager to make sure the offering complies with all appropriate laws with regard to an investor’s suitability. Common subscription document elements are:

Investor Information Request (name, contact information, investment experience, etc.)
Discussion of Investor’s Suitability (primarily net worth confirmations)
Subscription agreement – agreement investor signs before he can become an investor in the fund
Limited Partnership Agreement – agreement in which the investor agrees to abide by the legal provisions contained in the LPA How To Start A Forex Hedge Fund

China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Fund – Forex Options Market Overview

China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Fund

The forex options market started as an over-the-counter (OTC) financial vehicle for large banks, financial institutions and large international corporations to hedge against foreign currency exposure. Like the forex spot market, the forex options market is considered an “interbank” market. However, with the plethora of real-time financial data and forex option trading software available to most investors through the internet, today’s forex option market now includes an increasingly large number of individuals and corporations who are speculating and/or hedging foreign currency exposure via telephone or online forex trading platforms. China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Fund

Forex option trading has emerged as an alternative investment vehicle for many traders and investors. As an investment tool, forex option trading provides both large and small investors with greater flexibility when determining the appropriate forex trading and hedging strategies to implement.

Most forex options trading is conducted via telephone as there are only a few forex brokers offering online forex option trading platforms.

Forex Option Defined – A forex option is a financial currency contract giving the forex option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a specific forex spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the forex option buyer pays to the forex option seller for the forex option contract rights is called the forex option “premium.”

The Forex Option Buyer – The buyer, or holder, of a foreign currency option has the choice to either sell the foreign currency option contract prior to expiration, or he or she can choose to hold the foreign currency options contract until expiration and exercise his or her right to take a position in the underlying spot foreign currency. The act of exercising the foreign currency option and taking the subsequent underlying position in the foreign currency spot market is known as “assignment” or being “assigned” a spot position. China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Fund

The only initial financial obligation of the foreign currency option buyer is to pay the premium to the seller up front when the foreign currency option is initially purchased. Once the premium is paid, the foreign currency option holder has no other financial obligation (no margin is required) until the foreign currency option is either offset or expires.

On the expiration date, the call buyer can exercise his or her right to buy the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option’s strike price, and a put holder can exercise his or her right to sell the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option’s strike price. Most foreign currency options are not exercised by the buyer, but instead are offset in the market before expiration.

Foreign currency options expires worthless if, at the time the foreign currency option expires, the strike price is “out-of-the-money.” In simplest terms, a foreign currency option is “out-of-the-money” if the underlying foreign currency spot price is lower than a foreign currency call option’s strike price, or the underlying foreign currency spot price is higher than a put option’s strike price. Once a foreign currency option has expired worthless, the foreign currency option contract itself expires and neither the buyer nor the seller have any further obligation to the other party.

The Forex Option Seller – The foreign currency option seller may also be called the “writer” or “grantor” of a foreign currency option contract. The seller of a foreign currency option is contractually obligated to take the opposite underlying foreign currency spot position if the buyer exercises his right. In return for the premium paid by the buyer, the seller assumes the risk of taking a possible adverse position at a later point in time in the foreign currency spot market. China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Fund

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Starting A Forex Hedge Fund – Forex Registration

Starting A Forex Hedge Fund

Primer on the Upcoming Registration Rules

Many investment managers who have been trading in the off-exchange spot forex markets have enjoyed considerable success. These managers also have not generally been subject to any registration or regulatory regimes because the spot forex markets are relatively unregulated. However, with the passage of the Farm Bill by Congress in 2008, off-exchange forex registration will become regulated in 2009 forcing forex managers to register with the CFTC.

CFTC and the NFA

The CFTC will be releasing proposed rules regarding the registration requirements within the next couple of months. After that time there will be a comment period where the rules can be reconsidered. After the rules are approved registration will probably be required by the end of 2009. The NFA will be in charge of many aspects of the registration process and they have already released much information on the registration process.

For example, the NFA has announced new registration categories which apply only to forex managers. These new registration categories are as follows: forex CPOs (firms or individuals who manage forex commodity pools or forex hedge funds), forex CTAs (firms or individuals who manage individual forex accounts), forex introducing brokers (firms or individuals who introduce forex managers to forex dealer members), and forex APs (associated persons – basically any employee of a forex firm except for administrative persons). Starting A Forex Hedge Fund

Series 34 Exam

The NFA is making forex managers (and forex introducing brokers) take the Series 34 exam which is a regulatory exam dealing with the off-exchange foreign currency markets. The Series 34 exam will consist of 5 sections and will deal with a number of topics. The NFA has stated that the exam will be one hour long. Like the other regulatory exams, the Series 34 will be administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA). The actual exam can be taken at testing locations throughout the United States through Pearson and Prometric testing centers.

Registration Process

Firms which are applying for any of the above designation categories will likely need to go through the standard NFA registration procedures. This will include submitting both a 7-R and an 8-R. Like regular CPO, CTA and IB applications, these forex applications should take around one month to be approved (assuming there are no issues with the application such as disciplinary history). The forex managers will then need to submit their disclosure documents to the NFA for review. This review process can take as little as two weeks, but it is likely to take much longer as the NFA staff becomes more comfortable with the intricacies of the forex disclosure documents as compared to normal disclosure documents. Starting A Forex Hedge Fund

Will registration be the end of the world?

First, forex registration is not the end of the world. In our experience (with regard to CPOs and CTAs), the registration process is relatively straightforward and can be completed relatively quickly. Submitting the forex disclosure documents to the NFA and getting those approved should also be a relatively painless experience. That is not to say, however, that you should attempt registration by yourself. Law firms and forex compliance firms will be able to help you through the registration process and will be able to get your business up and running fast. Ongoing compliance is relatively minimal – for most managers an NFA audit will be unlikely and, in the event of an audit there should not be a large impact on the business.

Conclusion

Forex registration will be here shortly. Many managers will actually benefit from registration as it will give potential investors some peace of mind that there is some oversight. We recommend that managers begin the registration process right now so that they will be a step ahead of other managers when the registration rules take effect. In any event, we will continue to keep you updated on any developments. Starting A Forex Hedge Fund

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