KalshiEX LLC

August 16, 2023

SUBMITTED VIA CFTC PORTAL

Secretary of the Commission

Office of the Secretariat

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Three Lafayette Centre

1155 21st Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20581

Re: KalshiEX LLC – CFTC Regulation 40.2(a) Notification Regarding the Initial Listing

of the “Will there be a FEMA Major Disaster Declaration across <state> by <date>?”

Contract

Dear Sir or Madam,

Pursuant to Section 5c(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act and Section 40.2(a) of the regulations of the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission, KalshiEX LLC (Kalshi) hereby notifies the Commission that

it is self-certifying the “Will there be a FEMA Major Disaster Declaration across <state> by <date>?”

contract (Contract). The Exchange intends to list the contract on an annual basis. The contract will be

initially listed after close-of-business on August 16; it is listed as August 17, 2023 because of limitations

of the Commission's online submission portal. The Contract’s terms and conditions (Appendix A)

includes the following strike conditions:

● <state> (the target state)

● <date> (the target date)

Along with this letter, Kalshi submits the following documents:

● A concise explanation and analysis of the Contract;

● Certification;

● Appendix A with the Contract’s Terms and Conditions;

● Confidential Appendices with further information; and

● A request for FOIA confidential treatment.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Xavier Sottile

Head of Markets

KalshiEX LLC

xsottile@kalshi.com

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

KalshiEX LLC

Official Product Name: Will there be a FEMA Major Disaster Declaration across <state> by <date>?

Rulebook: FEMA

Kalshi Contract Category: Political Decision

FEMA Major Disaster Declaration

August 16, 2023

CONCISE EXPLANATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCT AND ITS 

COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE PROVISIONS OF THE ACT, INCLUDING CORE 

PRINCIPLES AND THE COMMISSION'S REGULATIONS THEREUNDER 

Pursuant to Commission Rule 40.2(a)(3)(v), the following is a concise explanation and analysis 

of the product and its compliance with the Act, including the relevant Core Principles, and the 

Commission's regulations thereunder. 

I. Introduction 

The “Will there be a FEMA Major Disaster Declaration across <state> by <date>?” 

Contract is a contract relating to whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency 

will declare a Major Disaster Declaration in a certain number of counties in a state. After 

careful analysis, Kalshi (hereafter referred to as “Exchange”) has determined that the 

Contract complies with its vetting framework. 

A major disaster declaration “provides a wide range of federal assistance programs for 

individuals and public infrastructure, including funds for both emergency and permanent 

work.” 1 The Exchange will count a state as having a Major Disaster Declaration 

announced across it if at least 10% of counties in the state are the subject of such 

Declarations. 

Further information about the Contract, including an analysis of its risk mitigation and 

price basing utility, as well as additional considerations related to the Contract, is 

included in Confidential Appendices B, C, and D. 

Pursuant to Section 5c(c) of the Act and CFTC Regulations 40.2(a), the Exchange hereby 

certifies that the listing of the Contract complies with the Act and Commission 

regulations under the Act. 

General Contract Terms and Conditions: The Contract operates similar to other event 

contracts that the Exchange lists for trading. The minimum price fluctuation is $0.01 (one 

cent). Price bands will apply so that Contracts may only be listed at values of at least 

1 https://www.fema.gov/disaster/how-declared

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

$0.01 and at most $0.99. Further, the Contract is sized with a one-dollar notional value 

and has a minimum price fluctuation of $0.01 to enable Members to match the size of the 

contracts purchased to their economic risks. The Exchange has further imposed position 

limits (defined as maximum loss exposure) of $25,000 USD on the Contract. As outlined 

in Rule 5.12 of the Rulebook, trading shall be available at all times outside of any 

maintenance windows, which will be announced in advance by the Exchange. Members 

will be charged fees in accordance with Rule 3.6 of the Rulebook. Fees are charged in 

such amounts as may be revised from time to time to be reflected on the Exchange’s 

Website. A new Source Agency can be added via a Part 40 amendment. All instructions 

on how to access the Underlying are non-binding and are provided for convenience only 

and are not part of the binding Terms and Conditions of the Contract. They may be 

clarified at any time. Furthermore, the Contract’s payout structure is characterized by the 

payment of an absolute amount to the holder of one side of the option and no payment to 

the counterparty. During the time that trading on the Contract is open, Members are able 

to adjust their positions and trade freely. After trading on the Contract has closed, the 

Expiration Value and Market Outcome are determined. The market is then settled by the 

Exchange, and the long position holders and short position holders are paid according to 

the Market Outcome. In this case, “long position holders” refers to Members who 

purchased the “Yes” side of the Contract and “short position holders” refers to Members 

who purchased the “No” side of the Contract. If the Market Outcome is “Yes,” meaning 

that at least 10% of counties in <state> have a major disaster declaration between 

Issuance and <date>, then the long position holders are paid an absolute amount 

proportional to the size of their position and the short position holders receive no 

payment. If the Market Outcome is “No,” then the short position holders are paid an 

absolute amount proportional to the size of their position and the long position holders 

receive no payment. Specification of the circumstances that would trigger a Market 

Outcome of “Yes” are included below in the section titled “Payout Criterion” in 

Appendix A. 

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

CERTIFICATIONS PURSUANT TO SECTION 5c OF THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE 

ACT, 7 U.S.C. § 7A-2 AND COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION RULE 

40.2, 17 C.F.R. § 40.2 

Based on the above analysis, the Exchange certifies that: 

❏ The Contract complies with the Act and Commission regulations thereunder. 

❏ This submission (other than those appendices for which confidential treatment has been 

requested) has been concurrently posted on the Exchange’s website at 

https://kalshi.com/regulatory/filings . 

Should you have any questions concerning the above, please contact the exchange at 

ProductFilings@kalshi.com . 

______________________ 

By: Xavier Sottile 

Title: Head of Markets 

Date: August 16, 2023 

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

Attachments: 

Appendix A - Contract Terms and Conditions 

Appendix B (Confidential) - Further Considerations 

Appendix C (Confidential) - Source Agency 

Appendix D (Confidential) - Compliance with Core Principles 

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

APPENDIX A – CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS 

Official Product Name: Will there be a FEMA Major Disaster Declaration across <state> 

by <date>? 

Rulebook: FEMA 

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

FEMA

Scope: These rules shall apply to this contract. 

Underlying: The Underlying for this Contract is counties in the United States that are receiving 

individual and public assistance pursuant to Major Disaster Declarations made between Issuance 

and <date>. Revisions to the Underlying made after Expiration will not be accounted for in 

determining the Expiration Value. 

Instructions: Major disaster declarations can be found here . 

2 One can see the counties that are 

listed as designated by clicking on a listed declaration and then clicking on the sub-header 

“Designated Areas”. If a county is listed under either individual or public assistance under that 

page, it counts towards the Payout Criterion. These instructions on how to access the Underlying 

are provided for convenience only and are not part of the binding Terms and Conditions of the 

Contract. They may be clarified at any time. 

Source Agency: The Source Agency is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

Type: The type of Contract is an Event Contract. 

Issuance: Contract iterations will be listed on an as-needed basis at the discretion of the 

Exchange and corresponding to the risk management needs of Members. 

<state>: Kalshi may list iterations of the Contract with <state> values that correspond to the fifty 

U.S. states as well as territories. 

<date> : <date> refers to a calendar date specified by Kalshi. Kalshi may list iterations of the 

Contract corresponding to different statistical periods of <date>. 

Payout Criterion: The Payout Criterion for the Contract encompasses the Expiration Values that 

at least 10% of counties (rounded to a hundredth of a percent) in <state> have received 

individual or public assistance because of a single Major Disaster Declaration or disasters with 

overlapping incident periods. For this purpose, counties can only be counted once (so if a single 

county in a state is the subject of 10 disaster declarations, it only is counted once). Native 

American reservations do not count for this purpose. 

Minimum Tick: The Minimum Tick size for the referred Contract shall be $0.01. 

Position Limit: The Position Limit for the $1 referred Contract shall be $25,000 per Member. 

2 https://www.fema.gov/disaster/declarations

KalshiEX LLC 
KalshiEX LLC

Last Trading Date: The Last Trading Date of the Contract will be the sooner of the first 10:00 

AM ET following the occurrence of an event that is encompassed in the Payout Criterion 

(whereupon the Last Trading Time will be 10:00 AM ET) or <date> (whereupon the Last 

Trading Time will be 11:59 PM ET). 

Settlement Date: The Settlement Date of the Contract shall be no later than the day after the 

Expiration Date, unless the Market Outcome is under review pursuant to Rule 7.1. 

Expiration Date: The Expiration Date of the Contract shall be the sooner of the date of the first 

10:00 AM ET following the occurrence of an event that is encompassed in the Payout Criterion 

or one day after <date>. 

Expiration time: The Expiration time of the Contract shall be 10:00 AM ET. 

Settlement Value: The Settlement Value for this Contract is $1.00. 

Expiration Value: The Expiration Value is the value of the Underlying as documented by the 

Source Agency on the Expiration Date at the Expiration time. 

Contingencies: Before Settlement, Kalshi may, at its sole discretion, initiate the Market 

Outcome Review Process pursuant to Rule 6.3(c) of the Rulebook. 

KalshiEX LLC