STAFF WHITE PAPER ON 

EFFECTIVE ENERGY TRADING COMPLIANCE PRACTICES

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

November 2016

This White Paper is a product of the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

Any views expressed herein are those of staff and do not necessarily reflect the views of 

the Commission, its Chairman, or any individual Commissioner.
i

Staff White Paper on Effective Energy Trading Compliance Practices

Table of Contents

I. Introduction................................................................................................................... 1

II. Background................................................................................................................... 1

III. Development of Effective Trading Compliance Practices........................................... 4

IV. Effective Trading Compliance Practices...................................................................... 5

A. Designing an Effective Trading Compliance Program ............................................. 6

1. Organizational Structure and Composition............................................................ 6

2. Human Resources .................................................................................................. 8

3. Training.................................................................................................................. 9

4. Information Technology Resources..................................................................... 11

B. Establishing, Implementing, and Enforcing Effective Practices to Deter and Detect 

Market Manipulation and Other Misconduct.......................................................... 11

1. Establishing Appropriate Trading Rules and Restrictions................................... 12

2. Monitoring Trading Activities............................................................................. 14

3. Enforcing Rules and Restrictions ........................................................................ 18

C. Assessing the Performance of the Compliance Program on a Regular Basis......... 19

V. Ineffective Trading Compliance Practices.................................................................. 20

VI. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 22
1

I. Introduction

The primary goal of the Commission’s enforcement program is compliance. Over 

the years, the Commission has provided guidance on developing and maintaining strong 

compliance programs that are focused on ensuring observance of the Commission’s 

various rules and requirements through a variety of orders, policy statements, and 

technical conferences. As part of that guidance, the Commission has consistently 

emphasized that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to compliance. For that reason, the 

Commission has not mandated or recommended the adoption of any particular 

compliance program or compliance practices. Nonetheless, market participants continue 

to seek more detailed guidance, especially with respect to compliance with the 

Commission’s Prohibition of Energy Market Manipulation. 

The purpose of this White Paper on Effective Energy Trading Compliance 

Practices (White Paper) is to respond to those requests for additional guidance by

providing examples of compliance practices that have been effective in detecting and 

deterring market manipulation and of compliance practices that have been ineffective.1

While the practices described in this White Paper are consistent with the principles set 

forth by the Commission in its previous statements on compliance, its objective is to go a 

step further by providing concrete examples of compliance practices, procedures, 

training, and review that will assist electric energy and natural gas market participants in

designing, implementing, and maintaining strong compliance programs.2

II. Background

The Energy Policy Act of 20053 authorized, among other things, the Commission 

 1 While this White Paper focuses on providing examples of practices that, if 

implemented properly, may be effective in preventing and detecting market manipulation, 

many of the compliance practices described herein may also be generally effective in 

ensuring compliance with the Commission’s other statutes, regulations, and orders. 

2 It is important to note that adopting the effective practices described herein will 

not shield an organization from, or provide a defense to, an enforcement action if the 

Commission concludes, after an evaluation of the facts and circumstances involved, that 

it committed a violation. However, if an organization has an effective compliance 

program in place at the time of a violation, the penalty for such violation could be 

reduced. See Enforcement of Statutes, Orders, Rules, and Regulations, 132 FERC ¶ 

61,216 (2010) (Revised Policy Statement on Penalty Guidelines).

3 Energy Policy Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-58, 119 Stat. 594 (2005) (EPAct 

2005).
2

to issue rules prohibiting market manipulation under the Federal Power Act (FPA) and 

the Natural Gas Act (NGA) and granted the Commission new civil penalty authority 

under the NGA4 and enhanced civil penalty authority under Part II of the FPA5 and the 

Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 (NGPA).

6

 Since receiving this additional enforcement 

authority, the Commission has reiterated its commitment to promoting compliance with 

the statutes that it administers and the rules and orders issued thereunder. Consistent with 

this view, the Commission has issued a number of Policy Statements that provide 

guidance as to how organizations should design and implement their compliance 

programs and has emphasized that “[a]chieving compliance, not assessing penalties, is 

the central goal of our enforcement program.”7

 

Soon after Congress enacted EPAct 2005, the Commission issued its first Policy 

Statement on Enforcement in October 2005, which emphasized the importance of 

developing strong compliance programs as a way to prevent violations and to reduce civil 

penalties if a violation were to occur. It listed a number of factors that would be 

considered in determining whether to provide mitigation credit for compliance efforts in 

any penalty decisions.8

 These factors include the nature and structure of a company’s 

compliance program, the active support of senior management, the scope and depth of 

employee training, a process for auditing compliance, and the response of a company to 

misconduct by its employees.9

 

In May 2008, the Commission issued a Revised Policy Statement on Enforcement, 

which reiterated the compliance factors described in the first Policy Statement and 

elevated the importance of compliance programs by making clear that, among all the 

factors considered, “the most important in determining the amount of the penalty are the 

seriousness of the offense and the strength of the entity’s commitment to compliance.”10 

 4 15 U.S.C. § 717t-1 (added by EPAct 2005, § 314(a)(1)).

5 16 U.S.C. § 825o-1 (2000) (as amended by EPAct 2005, § 1284(e)); 16 U.S.C. 

§ 823b (2000). 

6 15 U.S.C. § 3414(b)(6) (2000) (as amended by EPAct 2005, § 314). 

7 Compliance with Statutes, Regulations, and Orders, 125 FERC ¶ 61,058, at P 1 

(2008) (Policy Statement on Compliance).

8 Enforcement of Statutes, Orders, Rules, and Regulations, 113 FERC ¶ 61,068, at 

P 21-23 (2005) (Policy Statement on Enforcement).

9 Id. P 22.

10 Enforcement of Statutes, Regulations, and Orders, 123 FERC ¶ 61,156, at P 54 

(2008) (Revised Policy Statement on Enforcement). 
3

In the Revised Policy Statement on Enforcement, the Commission emphasized the 

importance of organizations having “(i) systems and protocols for monitoring, identifying 

and correcting possible violations, (ii) a management culture that encourages compliance 

among company personnel, and (iii) tools and training sufficient to enable employees to 

comply with Commission requirements.”11

After holding a Technical Conference on Compliance on July 8, 2008 and 

receiving comments from market participants, the Commission issued a Policy Statement 

on Compliance on October 16, 2008. The purpose of that Policy Statement was to 

provide additional guidance on compliance with the Commission’s statutes, regulations, 

and orders. The Policy Statement focused on four factors related to effective compliance 

that the Commission takes into account in considering whether to reduce or eliminate 

civil penalties. These factors are: (1) the role of senior management in fostering 

compliance; (2) effective preventative measures to ensure compliance; (3) prompt 

detection, cessation, and reporting of violations; and (4) remediation efforts.

Most recently, in March 2010, the Commission issued a Policy Statement on 

Penalty Guidelines that sets forth a guidelines-based structure for assessing civil penalties 

that is based on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.12 After receiving industry comments 

on these Penalty Guidelines, the Commission issued a Revised Policy Statement on 

Penalty Guidelines in September 2010 that maintained the guidelines-based structure of 

the previous Policy Statement, but made changes to the guidelines to address some of the 

comments it received.13 These Penalty Guidelines provide for substantial and transparent 

mitigation credit to those organizations that demonstrate that they have an effective 

compliance program.

14 

For an organization’s compliance program to be deemed effective under the 

Penalty Guidelines, an organization must: (1) exercise due diligence to prevent and 

detect violations; and (2) otherwise promote an organizational culture that encourages a 

commitment to compliance with the law.15 The Penalty Guidelines then set forth seven 

factors that must be accounted for by a compliance program in order to receive full credit 

 11 Id. P 57. 

12 Enforcement of Statutes, Orders, Rules, and Regulations, 130 FERC ¶ 61,220 

(2010) (Policy Statement on Penalty Guidelines).

13 Revised Policy Statement on Penalty Guidelines.

14 FERC Penalty Guidelines § 1B2.1.

15 Id. § 1B2.1(a).
4

as an effective compliance program. These factors include requirements related to 

establishing standards and procedures to prevent and detect violations, overseeing the 

compliance program, excluding those employees who have engaged in violations from 

positions of substantial authority, training employees and disseminating compliancerelated information, having mechanisms in place to ensure that the compliance program 

is followed, promoting compliance through incentives and disciplinary measures, and 

responding appropriately to violations that are detected.16 

Each of these Policy Statements focuses on developing and maintaining programs 

that promote compliance with the Commission’s statutes, regulations, and orders 

generally and how the existence of such programs can mitigate a civil penalty assessment 

if an organization commits a violation. Each subsequent Policy Statement built upon its 

predecessors and provided greater detail and guidance, while maintaining the view that 

each organization is in the best position to evaluate the compliance risks that it faces and 

to design a compliance program that best addresses those risks. 

This White Paper supplements the Commission’s Policy Statements. Its purpose 

is to enumerate compliance practices that, in staff’s view, are effective in preventing and 

detecting one specific type of violation, market manipulation. The specific practices 

discussed herein are not required to be established and followed for an organization to 

receive compliance credit under the Penalty Guidelines if a violation occurs. Therefore, 

while the existence of these practices in an organization’s compliance program may

factor positively into the Commission’s consideration of whether the organization’s 

compliance program was effective, the presence or absence of any one of these practices 

would not be determinative of the program’s effectiveness. This White Paper is being 

issued simultaneously with a White Paper on Anti-Market Manipulation Enforcement 

Efforts Ten Years After EPAct 2005.

17

III. Development of Effective Trading Compliance Practices

Since EPAct 2005 was passed ten years ago, the Office of Enforcement (OE) has 

reviewed the trading activities of a number of market participants in the natural gas and 

electric markets. Staff conducts surveillance to identify possible misconduct and has 

reviewed individual market participant behavior to uncover potentially manipulative 

 16 Id. § 1B2.1(b).

17 See Office of Enforcement White Paper on Anti-Market Manipulation 

Enforcement Efforts Ten Years After EPAct 2005, Nov. 17, 2016 (The Anti-Market

Manipulation White Paper). The Anti-Market Manipulation White Paper is available on 

the Commission’s website.
5

conduct. Through this experience, staff has developed an enhanced understanding of 

how to detect potential market manipulation.

Staff has also reviewed and evaluated a variety of compliance practices that are 

geared towards preventing traders from engaging in market manipulation, some that are 

successful and others that are not. Staff regularly requests compliance-related documents 

and information during investigations to evaluate whether the subject of the investigation 

had an effective compliance plan in place at the time of the alleged manipulation. Often, 

the subjects of investigations will make improvements to their compliance programs after 

the investigation highlights deficiencies. Sometimes these compliance program changes 

are agreed to as part of a settlement agreement, but other times the subject will institute 

them on its own initiative. If compliance improvements are included in the terms of a 

settlement, the Commission will usually also require the organization to report on its 

compliance program for a designated period of time after the settlement. Staff reviews 

these reports to monitor the organization’s overall compliance program and to ensure that 

the organization is making improvements consistent with the terms of the settlement. 

This review provides staff with insights into how organizations implement new 

compliance practices and a better sense of the resources and time required to do so.

In addition, staff has conducted outreach to gain additional insight on compliance 

practices from a variety of compliance professionals. Staff met with representatives from 

both large and small companies engaged in various aspects of the electric and natural gas 

markets as well as experts in trading compliance and energy market manipulation. Staff 

also met with consulting firms that work with companies on improving their compliance 

programs. The corporate compliance representatives shared their experiences developing 

and maintaining compliance programs, including which practices they view as effective 

for their respective organizations, which practices appear ineffective, the resources 

required to develop and maintain their compliance programs, and the challenges they 

have overcome. Staff has used its experience and the input it received from those 

industry representatives to develop this list of effective trading compliance practices. 

IV. Effective Trading Compliance Practices 

For any compliance program to be effective, the organization must have a culture 

of compliance. Promoting a culture of compliance starts at the top, with a Chief 

Executive Officer and other executive officers who are committed to compliance and 

who demonstrate that commitment through action. The organization and the executive 

officers must be committed to promoting compliance at all levels by devoting the 

necessary resources to the organization’s compliance activities, implementing and 

enforcing rules and restrictions that are appropriate for the organization’s activities, 

ensuring that employees understand their compliance obligations, and continually 

assessing the effectiveness of the compliance practices. 
6

The effective compliance practices described below are divided into three 

categories: (A) designing an effective trading compliance program; (B) establishing, 

implementing, and enforcing effective practices to deter and detect market manipulation 

and other misconduct; and (C) assessing the performance of the compliance program on a 

regular basis. Staff recognizes that not all of these practices will be appropriate for every 

organization and that there are likely other compliance practices, not included in this list, 

that are also effective or that may be more appropriate or effective for a particular 

organization. However, these compliance practices have proven to be effective for a 

number of organizations and should provide useful guidance to organizations that are 

designing new compliance programs or those that are evaluating and improving their 

existing compliance programs. 

A. Designing an Effective Trading Compliance Program

A compliance program must have a strong foundation to be effective. This

involves making the appropriate decisions relating to: (1) the organizational structure 

and composition of the compliance function; (2) human resources issues, such as hiring 

standards, compensation, and discipline; (3) the types of training used to disseminate 

compliance information; and (4) the technological resources dedicated to the compliance 

function. 

1. Organizational Structure and Composition

Staff has observed that organizations with effective trading compliance programs 

often have compliance personnel with a variety of expertise, including legal, operations, 

risk management, and trading. It is important that compliance personnel not only have an 

in-depth knowledge of the legal and regulatory requirements within which the 

organization operates, but also how the organization’s business units operate on a day-today basis. The following practices could assist an organization to meet this goal:

– Hire compliance personnel with a variety of professional and educational 

experience, including legal, operations, risk management, and trading. While it is 

important for compliance personnel to know and understand the legal 

requirements that apply to its organization’s trading activities, it is equally 

important for compliance personnel to have an in-depth understanding of the 

organization’s trading activities. This knowledge should include, for example: (1) 

which products the organization trades in which markets; (2) the products each 

trader is permitted to trade; and (3) an understanding of the characteristics of the 

products traded and how those products function, such as how they settle and 

relate to each other and the potential market impacts of the trading. This diverse 

knowledge and experience helps to ensure that compliance personnel are able to 

provide the appropriate advice to the organization’s trading personnel. Moreover, 
7

it also assists compliance personnel in explaining the organization’s trading 

activities to senior management and Commission staff. 

– Integrate compliance personnel into the organization’s business units. This

integration can be accomplished by, for example, physically locating compliance 

personnel among the traders (i.e., on the trading floor) and regularly rotating 

business unit employees into compliance. By including an organization’s 

compliance function and its personnel in the day-to-day activities of the 

organization’s trading operations, compliance personnel are more accessible to 

trading personnel and traders may be more willing to ask questions, seek advice, 

and follow the advice given by compliance. This integration also assists 

compliance personnel in staying apprised of the business units’ activities and 

individual employees’ roles within the organization. Rotating business unit 

employees into compliance could also foster a mutual understanding of and 

respect for the two functions. 

– Empower compliance personnel to succeed. Compliance personnel should have 

the authority to implement compliance procedures, report compliance failures, and 

remedy those failures or deficiencies without interference from the business units. 

This may be accomplished by structuring the organization in a manner that gives 

the compliance function a direct reporting line to the Chief Executive Officer or to 

the Board.

18 Moreover, compliance personnel should have the authority to require 

trading personnel to heed their advice. If compliance personnel provide advice on 

a particular matter or issue, traders and business unit managers should not be 

permitted to ignore that advice unilaterally. Instead, the organization should 

establish documented procedures to resolve any disagreements between 

compliance and the trading operation. 

– Provide compliance personnel with adequate resources to establish, maintain, and 

evaluate the organization’s trading compliance program. It is essential that 

compliance personnel have access to the necessary resources to ensure 

compliance. An organization can provide the necessary resources by ensuring that 

its compliance function has sufficient funding to: (1) hire the requisite number of 

employees with the appropriate skills and experience; (2) provide adequate 

compensation and incentives to recruit and retain skilled compliance personnel; 

(3) invest in technology resources to monitor trading, trader communications, and 

compliance with internal controls; (4) evaluate, on a regular basis, the ongoing 

effectiveness of the organization’s compliance program; and (5) maintain, update, 

and improve the organization’s compliance-related technology resources. 

 18 See FERC Penalty Guidelines § 1B2.1(b)(2)(C).
8

– Encourage compliance personnel to network with other compliance professionals.

There are a number of industry and compliance-related associations that provide a 

forum for their members to discuss compliance-related issues and to share their 

experiences. Organizations should encourage their compliance personnel to 

participate in these associations. This interaction will strengthen the 

organization’s compliance program because it allows compliance personnel to 

share ideas with and to get advice from other compliance personnel in the same 

industry. 

2. Human Resources

An organization’s recruitment and hiring standards for energy traders and its 

compensation structure play important roles in ensuring that a compliance program is 

effective. Even if an organization has employed experienced compliance personnel and 

has a comprehensive trader monitoring structure in place, noncompliance may still occur 

if the organization’s traders do not have the inclination or incentives to make compliance 

a priority. Therefore, it is important for an organization to hire traders that are able and 

willing to learn and adhere to the rules that apply to their trading activities. The

organization should also implement a trader compensation structure that incentivizes 

compliance, not just profitability. The following human resource-related practices could 

assist an organization in meeting these goals:

– Perform background investigations on energy traders. Performing background 

investigations as part of the recruitment process for new traders allows the 

organization to determine whether any of the candidate’s prior professional or 

personal conduct might indicate a willingness or incentive to violate rules (e.g., 

criminal activity, civil lawsuits, federal investigations, drug abuse, excessive 

gambling, or financial difficulties). Updating current employees’ background 

investigations on a regular basis is also a useful method of informing the 

organization of any new, potential issues in an employee’s personal life that could 

impact his or her professional performance. Used properly, background 

investigations can play an important role in reducing the risk of trader 

noncompliance. 

– Check on a candidate’s compliance track record as part of the recruitment 

process. When checking professional references from previous trading positions,

requesting a reference from the previous employer’s compliance department and 

asking a candidate’s former supervisors about the candidate’s compliance track 

record can assist the organization in choosing traders who will make compliance a 

priority. Such questions might include: (1) Did the trader ever violate internal 

compliance restrictions? (2) Was the trader ever disciplined for noncompliance? 

(3) Did another employee ever allege that the trader violated a rule? and (4) Did 
9

the trader complete all required compliance training on a timely basis? During the 

recruitment process, an organization could also inquire into the candidate’s 

knowledge of the Commission’s regulations that would apply to his or her 

activities. This inquiry would not only assist the organization in assessing whether 

the candidate should be hired but also in tailoring new employee training to fill in 

any identified knowledge gaps. 

– Implement a compensation structure that incentivizes compliance. Including a 

compliance component in an organization’s compensation structure helps to 

prevent traders from focusing on profitability to the detriment of their compliance 

obligations. Examples include a structure that: (1) requires adherence to 

compliance-related rules and restrictions in order for a trader to be eligible for a 

performance-based bonus; (2) includes a separate bonus for those traders who 

have a strong record of compliance; and (3) reduces a trader’s performance-based 

bonus for any compliance-related violations that occurred throughout the year.19

3. Training 

Regular training is an essential element of an effective trading compliance 

program as it is intended to provide traders with up-to-date knowledge of all of the rules 

and requirements that apply to their trading activities.20 There are a variety of different 

training methods and styles that organizations can choose from, so it is important that the 

training program used by an organization is appropriate for: (1) the organization’s size; 

(2) its trading activities; and (3) the experience level of its traders. It is also important 

that training is offered frequently enough that traders are aware of any changes in rules or 

requirements that apply to them on a timely basis and that they do not become lax in their 

compliance obligations. Here are training practices that might assist an organization in 

meeting these goals:

– Tailor the training program to the organization’s specific trading activities.

While using training that is specifically tailored to an organization’s trading 

activities might have more up-front costs than standardized training, it also offers 

a number of benefits. For example, traders are likely to be more actively engaged 

in training that directly applies to their activities than training that only partially 

relates to their work. Tailored training may also involve business unit managers 

and include specific examples of compliance-related issues that might arise in the 

course of their trading. In addition, tailored training might actually be less time-

 19 See id. § 1B2.1(b)(4)(A).

20 See id. § 1B2.1(b)(2)(C).
10

consuming than off-the-shelf training as it would minimize superfluous 

information. 

– Combine a variety of training styles. When developing a training program, it is 

important to recognize that different employees will learn in different ways. 

Therefore, by offering compliance training in a variety of different methods and 

styles, the organization is more likely to meet the learning needs of its employees. 

An appropriate combination of different training styles might include, among 

others: (1) small group trainings that facilitate more discussion than larger group 

sessions; (2) one-on-one meetings between a trader and a member of compliance 

staff; (3) annual large group training that emphasizes general compliance 

guidelines; (4) newsletters with compliance updates or required reading; (5) 

question and answer sessions; (6) regularly updated compliance reference 

manuals; and (7) computer-based training with embedded quizzes. 

– Utilize frequent, topic-specific training. An organization could offer short, weekly 

or monthly training sessions that focus on a specific topic. These sessions could 

focus on rule changes or recent issues that the organization has faced. Providing 

these frequent training sessions might assist an organization in keeping its traders 

focused on compliance, while maintaining their attention during the training 

sessions. They may also provide an easy forum for discussions between 

compliance staff and traders. 

– Disseminate new information in a timely manner. The Commission frequently 

issues new rules, orders, policy statements, and settlements that provide important 

information for compliance personnel and traders. An organization’s compliance 

program should include a mechanism for tracking and disseminating this new 

information in a timely manner to ensure that both compliance personnel and 

traders have the most current information available to them. Such mechanisms 

might include, among others: (1) compliance alert emails that summarize the new 

information and explain why it is important to the traders; (2) periodic newsletters 

that provide updates from the prior newsletter; and/or (3) periodic staff meetings 

that highlight important compliance information.

– Track participation in training. Regardless of whether a training exercise is 

mandatory or voluntary, organizations should track their traders’ participation in 

the different training exercises that are available. Tracking participation will assist 

compliance personnel in evaluating whether their training sessions are working 

and whether voluntary sessions should be mandatory. It will also assist the 

organization in determining whether its traders are committed to staying informed 

of their compliance obligations. 
11

– Enforce training requirements. Just like all other compliance-related activities, it 

is essential that an organization be committed to enforcing any training 

requirements that it sets for its traders. If a trader does not meet his or her training 

requirements, then the organization might subject that trader to discipline, such as:

(1) suspending the trader until all mandatory training is complete; (2) deeming the 

trader ineligible for a performance-based bonus; and/or (3) increasing supervision 

of the trader’s trading activities.

4. Information Technology Resources

Information technology (IT) resources are a valuable compliance tool. They can 

be used to track participation in compliance training, monitor trader activities, and detect 

potential compliance violations and market manipulation. For that reason, it is important 

that organizations commit sufficient resources to their compliance programs to purchase, 

maintain, and operate IT resources that will make their compliance programs more 

efficient and effective. Practices that might assist an organization in providing its 

compliance program with the necessary IT resources include:

– Budget for compliance-specific technology resources. Compliance personnel 

should not have to compete with the business units for one IT budget or for the use 

of existing IT resources. Therefore, organizations might find it useful to allocate 

funds specifically for compliance-related IT resources to ensure the business units 

are not given priority access to all IT resources. 

– Regularly evaluate and update IT resources. It is important for organizations to 

evaluate the IT resources available to their compliance personnel, including how 

well those resources meet their objectives, whether any of them require updating, 

how often they are used, and whether compliance personnel use the resources 

properly. And, when appropriate, the organization should update those IT 

resources to take advantage of any new technological advancement or to reflect 

new regulatory or tariff requirements. 

B. Establishing, Implementing, and Enforcing Effective Practices to Deter 

and Detect Market Manipulation and Other Misconduct

One of the compliance areas in which staff observes organizations struggle the 

most is in monitoring their traders’ activities to identify potential misconduct. This 

difficulty partially comes from the fact that organizations must allocate limited resources 

across a wide variety of trading activities. The complexity of energy products and 

trading activities, especially in the electric markets, also makes it difficult for compliance 

personnel to understand trading activities well enough to monitor for misconduct. 

However, there are a number of different compliance practices that organizations can 
12

utilize to make it much more difficult for a trader to engage in misconduct and to detect 

such behavior when it occurs. 

As a starting point, implementing some or all of the practices described above in 

designing the organization’s compliance program will reduce the risk that the 

organization’s traders will engage in misconduct and put the organization in a better 

position to monitor the traders’ activities. From there, the organization should: (1) 

establish appropriate rules and restrictions for its traders that will further reduce the risk 

of misconduct; (2) consistently monitor trading activities for violations of those rules and 

for any other suspicious activity; and (3) strictly enforce all compliance rules and follow 

up on all potential issues. 

1. Establishing Appropriate Trading Rules and Restrictions

An organization can reduce the risk of trader noncompliance with the 

Commission’s rules and orders by placing appropriate restrictions on their trading 

activities that are designed to limit the traders’ ability and incentives to manipulate or 

engage in other misconduct. Organizations can protect themselves against instances of 

noncompliance by requiring compliance personnel to stay informed of the regulatory 

requirements that apply to the organization’s trading activities, assess those activities to 

identify areas that present the greatest risk of noncompliance, and then design trader 

restrictions to help to minimize or eliminate those risks. The following list provides 

examples of rules and restrictions that an organization might use, depending on its 

particular trading activities, to reduce the risk of trader noncompliance with Commission

rules and orders:

– Maintain a list of prohibited trading strategies. Compliance personnel can draw 

from their own experience, the experience of the organization’s business unit 

managers, and the Commission’s settlements, orders, and other statements to 

develop a list of prohibited trading strategies. This list would include trading 

strategies that the Commission has deemed to be improper and trading strategies 

that compliance views as improper based on similarities to known manipulative 

schemes. Compliance should update the list regularly to reflect new information 

from Commission orders and settlements, changes to their trading operations, and 

market changes. And, as discussed in more detail below, compliance should 

monitor the traders’ activity to ensure that they are not engaging in any of the 

prohibited strategies.
13

– Document trading strategies. Documenting trading strategies helps compliance 

understand the traders’ activities and provides an easy reference for conducting a 

review of the organization’s trading activities.21 

– Require approval for new products and locations. Requiring traders to obtain 

approval from compliance, their managers, or both, before trading new products or 

at new locations provides compliance and the business unit managers with an 

opportunity to vet the traders’ new trading strategies and determine whether they 

would provide an opportunity to engage in misconduct. As part of this approval 

process, it may also be helpful to require the traders to describe their purpose for 

trading the new products to assist in determining whether approval is appropriate. 

This approval process also notifies compliance of potential new areas in which 

trader monitoring might be necessary prior to the commencement of the activity.

– Implement restrictions that discourage or prevent traders from using price-setting 

instruments to benefit open financial positions. Many of the Commission’s market 

manipulation enforcement actions, investigations, and settlements have involved 

market participants using a price-setting instrument (e.g., physical natural gas 

products, physical electric products, and virtual transactions) to move a price (e.g., 

natural gas index price or a day-ahead market locational marginal price) in order 

to benefit a leveraged financial position (e.g., financial natural gas or electric 

swaps). There are a number of policies that an organization can use to prevent its 

traders from engaging in this type of manipulative scheme. A list of examples of 

such policies includes: 

o Require documentation of any trading strategies involving related physical 

and financial positions. One way to discourage traders from using physical 

energy products to benefit financial positions is to require documentation of 

all trading strategies that involve trading related physical and financial 

products. This documentation should explain the rationale for the strategy 

(e.g., a hedge) and describe the circumstances under which the strategy 

might be used. Organizations can also consider using book structures that 

align with the business rationale for particular trades, such as reporting 

trades in an asset hedge book. 

o Establish limits on persistent losses in price-setting instruments. In some 

cases, these types of manipulative schemes involve the trader enduring 

 21 Compliance personnel should be diligent in checking the accuracy of such 

documentation to ensure that traders cannot hide misbehavior behind misleading 

explanations of their trading strategies.
14

persistent losses in the price-setting instrument in an effort to move the 

relevant price in the direction that benefits his or her related financial 

position. To limit a trader’s ability to sustain persistent losses, an 

organization should consider setting limits on the number of days that it 

permits its traders to sustain losses on certain price-setting instruments.

Such a limit, if appropriately chosen, may make it difficult for the trader to 

push the relevant price in the desired direction. 

o Establish position limits for financial products. Limiting the size of a 

trader’s open financial positions can minimize the trader’s incentive to try 

to move a price to benefit his or her financial positions. Compliance 

personnel should also monitor for and be aware of traders shifting positions 

to other traders or books in an attempt to evade such limits. 

o Establish thresholds for concentration levels in physical and virtual trading 

products that trigger compliance review. An organization can limit a 

trader’s ability to move a price to benefit his or her financial position by

setting thresholds on his or her trading of a particular product at a particular 

location. The thresholds should be set to a percentage of the overall market 

activity in that product and at that location. Exceeding such a threshold 

would trigger compliance review of the trading to determine whether the 

trader had a legitimate explanation for exceeding the threshold. An 

organization could also establish thresholds for its virtual traders’ net nodal 

virtual volumes that are tied to the average load at the relevant node. Such 

thresholds could help prevent the traders from trading in a volume that 

would have an impact on the targeted price and it could also limit the losses 

that the trader might take on the price-setting instrument.

2. Monitoring Trading Activities

Once an organization has identified areas of potential noncompliance and set rules 

and restrictions for its traders, it is essential that it monitor trading activities to ensure 

compliance with those rules and restrictions.22 There are a variety of different 

monitoring methods that could prove effective for an organization, including automated 

surveillance tools or algorithms that analyze trade data and communications to identify 

potential compliance issues. Recognizing that each organization has unique 

characteristics and resources, it is best for an organization to develop its own 

individualized monitoring plan. However, no matter which monitoring tools an

organization decides to implement, it is important that those tools are used routinely and 

 22 See FERC Penalty Guidelines § 1B2.1(b)(5)(A).
15

that all potential issues are taken seriously. Moreover, the organization should 

continually assess the monitoring tools that it utilizes to determine whether they continue 

to be effective at detecting potential issues. The following list provides examples of 

monitoring techniques and practices that have proven effective for some organizations:

– Perform statistical reviews of position concentrations. Monitoring an 

organization’s trades and position concentrations in particular markets and 

products can assist compliance personnel in identifying areas in which a trader 

might have the ability to push a price in a direction that could benefit a related 

financial position. This review should be in the context of specific markets, as 

well as the behavior of other participants and locations to account for differing 

liquidity and the market participant’s ability to influence prices. Organizations 

can also track financial exposure to determine which trades may need additional 

review by compliance. If the position in the financial instrument is larger than for 

the price-setting instrument, compliance may want to review this trading.

– Perform reviews of trader activities at locations where traders engage in both 

physical and financial trading. As discussed above, trading both physical and 

financial products at the same or related locations presents a risk of traders 

engaging in a manipulative scheme that involves both products. For that reason, 

organizations should document the locations at which traders trade both physical 

and financial products and regularly review their trading at those locations to 

ensure that they are not using the physical trading to benefit a financial position. 

Compliance personnel could conduct these regular reviews on a sampling basis,

using criteria set by compliance to choose the sample, or using automated 

surveillance tools with alerts and a follow-up process for reviewing those alerts. 

For example, an automated surveillance alert could be generated when a trader is 

below or above prevailing prices with a high market concentration. 

– Perform reviews of trader activities in the organized electric markets at locations 

where traders engage in both virtual and other financial trading. Similar to the 

discussion of physical and financial products above, trading both virtuals and 

financial products (e.g., financial transmission rights or electric swaps that settle

off real-time or day-ahead market locational marginal prices) at the same or 

related locations presents a risk of traders engaging in a manipulative scheme that 

involves both products. Therefore, organizations should also document the 

locations at which traders trade both virtual and other financial products and 

periodically review their trading at those locations to ensure that they are not using 

the virtual trading to benefit a financial position. 

– Track and review profit and loss calculations for each product and location 

combination. As the Commission has stated, uneconomic or persistent, lossgenerating trading can be an indicium of manipulation. While there are a variety 
16

of different ways to look at profits and losses (PnL) that may be appropriate for 

monitoring a trading operation’s overall profitability (e.g., aggregated across a 

portfolio, a time period, locations, or products, etc.), it is important that 

compliance personnel track and review profitability at a sufficiently granular level 

to identify misconduct. For example, if a trader is engaging in a scheme that 

involves losing money in a price-setting product, such as virtual transactions in an 

organized electric market, to benefit a financial position that is settled off of the 

price being targeted, an effective way to identify this behavior might be to monitor 

the trader’s virtual PnL, at each location, for persistent losses or a pattern of 

losses. If, for example, compliance personnel were to track only the aggregate 

PnL for the portfolio or location, the gains on the financial product might hide the 

virtual losses, making it more difficult for compliance to identify misconduct. 

– Monitor for changes in the amount and types of make-whole or out-of-market 

payments the organization receives from activities in the RTO and ISO markets. A 

number of Commission settlements, enforcement actions, and investigations have 

involved market participants providing misinformation or engaging in conduct that 

provides misinformation to the RTOs and ISOs about their physical 

characteristics, circumstances, or intentions in order to increase or receive makewhole or out-of-market payments. In order to monitor for such behavior, 

compliance personnel may track the out-of-market payments that the organization 

is eligible for as a result of its activities in the RTO/ISO markets and monitor for: 

(1) significant changes in the amount of payments received; and (2) the 

commencement of regular or sustained trading which benefits from out-of-market 

payments. If compliance identifies such changes, it should then evaluate the 

activity resulting in the payments to determine whether the increased payments 

resulted from legitimate market conditions, the trading was based on legitimate 

arbitrage purposes, or if the organization’s traders engaged in conduct that was 

intended to artificially access or increase the out-of-market payments. Indications 

of improper behavior may include, but not be limited to, unwarranted changes in 

offer parameters for a generating unit, such as start-up costs or minimum run time, 

and trading activities that have as their sole or primary purpose access to or 

collection of an out-of-market payment.

– Perform periodic reviews of cost-based offers submitted to an RTO or ISO for a 

generating unit to ensure that the offers are consistent with the applicable market 

rules. Depending on the applicable RTO or ISO tariffs, it may be possible for a 

market participant to adjust its cost-based offers as part of a manipulative scheme 

in order to limit how often the unit is called to run or to receive or increase out-ofmarket payments for the unit. To monitor for this behavior, compliance personnel 

should periodically review the organization’s cost-based offers to ensure that they 

are consistent with the applicable market rules. 
17

– Perform post hoc analyses of natural gas pipeline nominations and flows during 

periods of pipeline constraint. During periods in which natural gas pipelines are 

constrained, compliance personnel should seek to identify whether nominations 

made on behalf of the organization were not intended to flow, but, instead, were 

intended to take advantage of the system, such as to increase pro-rata allocation of 

capacity during periods of excess nominations or perform uneconomic backhauls.

This identification may be accomplished by an after-the-fact comparison of 

pipeline nominations to flows during the constrained period that looks for 

opportunistic discrepancies between the two. If any discrepancies are identified, 

then compliance personnel should follow up with employee(s) responsible for the 

nominations to understand the purpose of those nominations. 

– Record and retain all trader communications for at least five years. Trader 

communications, including emails, instant messages, and phone calls often contain 

a wealth of information about the traders’ activities, particularly the intent of their 

trading. Compliance personnel can use these communications to identify traders 

or activity that present a compliance risk. In addition, trader communications 

might also be a means of documenting legitimate trading strategies, and therefore, 

may provide useful information to compliance personnel, if retained. When an 

organization records and retains trader communications for compliance purposes, 

staff recommends: (1) requiring traders to use only organization-controlled 

computers, phones, emails, and instant message services to conduct official 

business (i.e., prohibit traders from engaging in work-related discussion on 

personal devices); (2) recording all incoming and outgoing emails, instant 

messages, and calls; and (3) retaining those recordings for at least five years from

the date of their creation. 

– Regularly review employee communications for potential issues or indicators of 

misconduct. Organizations that record and retain trader communications should 

regularly review those communications to identify any potential issues or 

indicators of misconduct. Depending on the volume of communications that are 

recorded, reviewing them may be a time-consuming task. However, there are a 

variety of algorithmic-based software programs that are able to screen 

communications and flag those that require additional review. Organizations can 

utilize such programs to make their review of communications much more 

efficient and productive. When an organization uses such a program, the 

parameters of the program should be examined and updated frequently to reflect 

changes in, for example, trading terminology, products, Commission and/or 

market rules, acronyms and phrases, and the like.

– Create an environment that encourages employees to discuss compliance concerns 

and report potential compliance issues without the threat of retribution. Another 

valuable resource of information regarding potential trader misconduct is other 
18

employees who may witness, first hand, improper behavior. It is important that an 

organization encourages its employees to report any potential compliance issues 

without the threat of retribution. Organizations should also foster an environment 

in which employees believe that they can ask questions related to compliance and 

discuss their compliance-related concerns with compliance personnel without the 

fear of adverse reactions from others within the organization. Organizations 

should not only proactively protect those employees who ask questions and raise 

issues from retribution, but they should also make it clear to all employees that 

they will not face any negative reactions if they report their concerns. 

Organizations may also consider a system which permits the identity of reporting 

employees to be kept confidential from the individuals involved with the alleged 

misconduct and/or restricted to management-level personnel.

– Provide a forum for employees to report possible noncompliance. To encourage 

employees to report potential compliance issues, some organizations set up an 

email portal or hotline for employees to report their concerns anonymously. 

Compliance personnel should follow up on any issues that are raised through such 

a hotline and document their resolution.

3. Enforcing Rules and Restrictions

All compliance-related rules and restrictions must be enforced to be effective, 

because traders may not take their compliance obligations seriously if there are no 

consequences for violations. Enforcement of compliance rules and restrictions includes:

(1) following up on all alerts; (2) documenting their resolution; (3) establishing 

appropriate disciplinary actions for all instances of noncompliance; and (4) disciplining 

employees for all instances of noncompliance. The following list describes measures that 

an organization might employ when possible noncompliance is identified:

– Follow up on and document all alerts of potential noncompliance. Having a 

policy of following up on all alerts of potential noncompliance will not only assist 

compliance personnel in identifying areas of concern, but it also helps to ensure 

consistent and unbiased application of compliance-related rules. In addition, 

documenting the steps taken to follow up on alerts provides compliance personnel 

with a resource for evaluating their compliance procedures and potential risk 

areas, such as individual employees who frequently cause alerts or certain trading 

activity that requires closer monitoring. 

– Establish and enforce consequences for noncompliance. Establishing disciplinary 

actions for noncompliance helps to deter misconduct and prevent reoccurrence.

23 

 23 See id.§ 1B2.1(b)(6)(B).
19

The different disciplinary actions that an organization chooses to employ should 

be documented and range in severity based on the seriousness of the 

corresponding violation. Some examples of disciplinary action include: (1) 

termination; (2) suspension from trading for a set period of time; (3) additional 

mandatory compliance training; (4) imposition of stricter trading limitations; (5) 

negative performance evaluations; and (6) bonus ineligibility. Disciplinary actions 

must be applied consistently to be effective.

C. Assessing the Performance of the Compliance Program on a Regular 

Basis

As the Penalty Guidelines state, an organization with an effective compliance 

program shall take reasonable steps “to evaluate periodically the effectiveness of the 

organization’s compliance program.”24 Regular evaluations help to: (1) ensure that the 

program’s compliance tools continue to be effective; (2) uncover compliance gaps and 

failures; and (3) identify where updates are necessary. Any issues that are uncovered 

during these regular performance audits should be documented and addressed quickly. 

– Perform regular performance audits of the organization’s compliance program.

To periodically assess its compliance program, an organization should conduct 

performance audits. Depending upon the size and business of an organization, the 

way in which the organization chooses to audit its compliance program may differ. 

For example, an organization could choose to perform a full audit of its 

compliance program every two years. Or, an organization may audit one element 

of its compliance program every six months according to a schedule that ensures 

that each element of the compliance program is evaluated on a regular basis. 

Regardless of how an organization chooses to conduct its performance audits, 

those audits should address the following topics, among others, whether: (1) the 

training program continues to be effective in ensuring that employees understand 

their compliance obligations; (2) the organization’s monitoring tools continue to 

be able to detect potential compliance issues and misconduct; (3) compliancerelated IT resources require updating; (4) the process for updating an 

organization’s compliance materials has been effective at keeping them current; 

(5) all compliance issues and disciplinary actions have been documented and 

whether any changes should be made to the organization’s compliance program in 

light of those issues; and (6) compliance personnel are performing their 

responsibilities fully.

 24 Id. § 1B2.1(b)(5)(B).
20

– Take action on all issues identified in the compliance program’s performance

audits. An essential element of assessing the performance of the compliance 

program is that the organization uses what it learns during the assessments and 

makes improvements to its compliance program. As such, an organization should 

document all of the issues identified during its performance audits and take action 

to improve the compliance program. Then, in the subsequent performance audit, 

the organization can evaluate whether any weaknesses still exist in the areas 

previously identified.

V. Ineffective Trading Compliance Practices

In addition to the many effective practices described above, there are also many 

ineffective trading compliance practices that staff has observed as part of its investigative 

and surveillance efforts. These ineffective practices generally reflect an organization’s 

failure to: (1) tailor its compliance program to the specific needs of its trading operation; 

(2) keep the compliance program up-to-date; (3) make compliance policies accessible to 

its employees both literally and from the prospective of employee comprehension; (4) 

place the appropriate emphasis on ensuring compliance; and (5) follow through on 

monitoring for violations and enforcing compliance-related rules. These types of 

compliance failures greatly increase an organization’s risk of violating a Commission 

requirement. Therefore, staff recommends that organizations do not employ the 

following types of ineffective practices:

– Overreliance on standardized and long annual training. The most effective types 

of compliance training are those that are tailored to an organization’s trading 

activities, because they focus on the compliance issues that have a practical 

application for the traders in their day-to-day activities. When organizations use 

standardized trainings that cover various topics that may or may not be applicable 

to the traders’ responsibilities, the traders are less likely to absorb pertinent 

compliance information from the trainings. In addition, simply re-producing the

same training with minor changes each year may be ineffective as employees may 

become disengaged by the repetitive nature of the training. Moreover, different 

people learn in different ways. Therefore, relying too heavily on one long, annual 

training session without also requiring participation in other types of training, such 

as shorter, frequent, and issue-specific trainings, increases the risk that some 

traders are not really learning what they need to as part of the training. In 

addition, it is important that traders receive compliance reminders throughout the 

year so that they continue to focus on compliance and so that their compliance 

knowledge is up-to-date. For those reasons, relying too heavily on standardized 

and annual training, without other types of training throughout the year tends to be 

an ineffective way to train traders about their compliance responsibilities.
21

– Relying too heavily on attorneys for training without including operational staff. 

While attorneys who focus on compliance can play a valuable role in an 

organization’s compliance program and in developing compliance training, it is 

also important to seek input from operational staff and business unit managers 

who have hands-on experience with the organization’s trading practices. 

Operational staff can help tailor compliance trainings and make them more 

relatable to the traders receiving the training. Compliance training that is solely 

focused on the legal aspects of compliance without focusing on the practical 

application of the law is a less effective way to educate traders than integrated 

training.

– Providing insufficient funding for the organization’s compliance program. 

Organizations often give priority to their trading operations when it comes to 

resource allocation, because the trading organization is a profit center. While it is 

understandable that an organization would choose to invest in its trading 

operation, it is also important to ensure that the investment is not to the detriment 

of the compliance program. For that reason, an organization’s compliance 

program should have a separate resource budget that is sufficient to cover all of its 

needs. 

– Allowing commercial trading staff to overrule compliance advice. Permitting

trading staff or business unit managers to overrule or ignore advice or instruction 

provided by compliance personnel substantially diminishes the effectiveness of an 

organization’s compliance program. Therefore, compliance programs should 

include procedures for resolving disputes between compliance personnel and the 

trading organization or a process by which the trading organization can seek a

reevaluation of an issue when it disagrees with compliance advice. Traders should 

not be permitted to decide which advice to heed and which to ignore. 

– Overreliance on the use of off-the-shelf compliance tools without customizing them 

for specific needs. There are a number of tools available to assist compliance 

personnel in monitoring trader activity and communications and analyzing trade 

data. However, these tools need to be customized to the organization’s specific 

needs to be effective at monitoring for misconduct. Standard, off-the-shelf 

compliance tools might detect some issues, but they are unlikely to be highly 

effective without customization to suit the needs of the organization. 

– Failing to regularly reassess and update compliance practices as circumstances 

change. The energy markets are complex and ever-changing. Market rules and 

market conditions change over time and more and different information frequently 

becomes available. It is important that compliance programs also change and 

evolve to take into account these changes. Thus, when an organization fails to 
22

reassess and update its compliance program on a regular basis, the risk of noncompliance with the Commission’s requirements greatly increases. 

– Setting compliance-related rules, limits, and restrictions and then failing to 

monitor for violations or discipline those who violate rules in a meaningful way. 

An organization can have a compliance program that includes rules and 

restrictions that, if implemented, could result in a highly effective compliance 

program. However, implementation is the key to effective compliance. Setting 

appropriate rules and restrictions is only one step in a multi-step process. The 

compliance program also should include a robust monitoring plan that consistently 

monitors trading activity for compliance with the rules and restrictions and a 

disciplinary component that will deter misconduct and punish those who violate 

the rules.25 Rules that are not enforced will not be followed, so organizations 

should make sure that their compliance programs do not amount to simply “paper 

programs.”

– Implementing policies that inhibit or prohibit the retention of trader 

communications. Organizations may implement policies that inhibit or prohibit 

the retention of trader communications for a number of reasons. Such policies can 

drastically limit the universe of information that compliance personnel have to 

evaluate a trader’s behavior. As discussed above, trader communications might 

highlight misconduct that was not obvious from trade data, or it might also help 

explain a trader’s activity that appeared to be improper when looking at trade data 

alone. Another benefit to retaining trader communications is that if the 

Commission contacts an organization to discuss potential misconduct that it has 

identified, trader communications can assist the organization in responding to the 

Commission’s inquiry. 

VI. Conclusion

The Commission is committed to promoting energy industry compliance with its 

statutes, rules, orders, and regulations. While it is up to individual organizations to 

choose which, if any, of the effective compliance practices described herein are

appropriate for their compliance programs, this White Paper may assist organizations 

engaged in trading Commission-jurisdictional natural gas and electric products in 

developing robust and effective compliance programs that succeed in detecting and 

preventing market manipulation. 

 25 Id. § 1B2.1(a) (“Such compliance program shall be reasonably designed, 

implemented, and enforced so that the program is generally effective in preventing and 

detecting violations.”).