'l, ARTHUR BELL 

Certified Public Accountants 

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20llntemational CiR:Ie, Suite 400 

Hunt VaHey, Maayland 21030 • USA 

Tel: 410-771-0001 • Fax: 410-785-9784 

www.arthurbelk:pas.com 

March 26, 2009 COMMENT 

Mr. David Stawick 

Secretary 

Commodity Futures Trading Commission 

1155 2181 Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20581 

Re: Commodity Pool Operator Periodic and Annual Reports 

Mr. Stawick: 

Received CFTC 

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Arthur F. Bell, Jr. & Associates, L.L.C. ("Arthur Bell CPAs") appreciates the opportunity to comment on the 

Commission's proposed amendments to its regulations governing the periodic account statements that commodity pool 

operators ("CPOs") are required to provide to commodity pool participants and the annual financial reports that CPOs 

are required to provide to commodity pool participants and file with the National Futures Association (the "Proposed 

Amendments"). 

Arthur Bell CPAs is a public accounting firm that has extensive knowledge and experience in the managed futures, 

hedge fund, and fund of funds industries. Our firm is a member of the Center for Audit Quality of the American 

Institute of Certified Public Accountants, is registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as a 

registered public accounting firm, and has been approved by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority as an Approved 

Local Auditor of Cayman Islands Mutual Funds. 

We support the Proposed Amendments as they provide clarity and codification to several of the Commission's 

regulations and interpretations. We would like to comment specifically on two aspects of the Proposed Amendments. 

Proposed Changes to Extension Provisions Under Regulation 4.22(f)(2) 

We support the provisions in the Proposed Amendments relating to the extension provtstons under Regulation 

4.22(f)(2) as they provide a degree of consistency with the Securities and Exchange Commission's "custody rule" with 

respect to audits of fund of funds. These provisions also acknowledge the practical limitations in being able to 

complete an audit of fund of funds within 150 days of the pool's fiscal year end because the audited financial 

statements of the underlying in vestee funds may not be available in a timely enough manner to allow the auditor of the 

fund of funds to complete their auditing procedures within the current 150 day reporting deadline. 

We also support the extension of these provisions to CPOs that operate fund of funds that are Regulation 4.7 exempt 

commodity pools. Fund of funds operating under the Regulation 4.7 provisions currently must file financial statements 

within 90 days of their fiscal year end. Under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America 

("GAAP"), the financial statements of commodity pools, including fund of funds, must include a condensed schedule 

of investments. The condensed schedule of investments also requires that the fund of funds "look-through" its 

investments in underlying pools or funds to determine whether additional disclosure regarding proportional or indirect 

significant holdings of financial instruments is required under GAAP. In the case of fund of funds, the information 

necessary to prepare such ''look-through" disclosures for the condensed schedule of investments is often not available 

until the financial statements of the underlying investee fund are available. As such, in order to comply with the 90 day 

reporting deadline, a fund of funds operating pursuant to a Regulation 4. 7 exemption may be required to file unaudited 

financial statements with certain information noted as being unavailable at the time of filing. Extending the reporting 

deadline for the filing of financial statements of fund of funds operating pursuant to a Regulation 4. 7 exemption will 

provide for more complete reporting by commodity pools. 
Mr. David Stawick 

Secretary 

Page2 

Disclosure of Fees and Expenses oflnvestee Funds 

While not required under GAAP, the Commission has encouraged CPOs to disclose the management and incentive fees 

and expenses indirectly incurred as a result of investing in an in vestee fund which exceeds five percent of the pool's net 

asset value. The Proposed Amendments would make such "encouraged disclosures" a requirement under both 

Regulation 4.22(c) and Regulation 4.7(b)(3). 

While we support the Commission's objective of full disclosure and transparency, it may not be practicable for the 

CPOs to obtain or determine the required information for all of its applicable investee funds either because the investee 

funds are under no obligation to report such information or because the investee funds may not maintain records of 

allocations of management and incentive fees or indirect expenses relative to the fund of fund's investment in the 

investee fund. In such situations, if the CPO was unable to disclose the information in its financial statements, it would 

not be in compliance with these specific requirements of the Proposed Amendments. As such, we encourage 

provisions be added to the Proposed Amendments that would provide for the ability of the CPO to disclose that certain 

information required under this section of the Proposed Amendments is not available if the CPO made a good faith 

effort to attain such required information but was unable to do so. 

Again, Arthur Bell CP As appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Proposed Amendments and support the 

Commission's efforts in these areas. Questions regarding this comment letter may be addressed to either Bob Zink or 

Ross Ellberg at (410) 771-0001. 

Respectfully yours, 

Arthur F. Bell, Jr. & Associates, L.L.C.