International derivatives marketplace CME Group has posted a notice of disciplinary action against WH Trading, LLC.
Pursuant to an offer of settlement in which WH Trading neither admitted nor denied the rule violations upon which the penalty is based, a Panel of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Business Conduct Committee found that between November 10, 2022, on July 26, 2024, and then again on May 20, 2025, and July 2, 2025, an automated trading system (ATS) WH Trading operated entered multiple unique quotes with incrementally widening bid and offer prices in Euro Short-Term Rate futures and Three-Month SOFR futures inter-commodity and intra-commodity spreads, which caused aberrant prices to be disseminated to the market.
Specifically, the activity consisted of 191 instances in which WH Trading messaged instrument quotes that exceeded 200 distinct prices in less than one second.
After being notified of the issue by Market Regulation, WH Trading reduced their algorithm’s messaging threshold, but aberrant pricing continued.
The Panel found WH Trading’s rapid dissemination of quotes did not truly reflect the market setting and was detrimental to the interest or welfare of the Exchange in violation of Rule 432.Q.
Further, the Panel found that, while WH Trading’s ATS would respond to and provide liquidity for other participants, it responded to its own implied quotes in illiquid markets, which resulted in repeatedly decreasing bid quotes and increasing offer quotes.
Therefore, the Panel found that WH Trading failed to diligently supervise its ATS in violation of Rule 432.W.
In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered WH Trading to pay a fine in the amount of $30,000.
The effective date of the disciplinary notice is October 31, 2025.
