© CCH. All rights reserved. Originally published in the CCH Commodity Futures Law Reporter. Reposted by the CFTC with 

permission. Such reposting does not constitute or imply endorsement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission of the 

accuracy of the reposted material or of any summaries thereof. 

1

Commodity Futures Archive - Selected materials, CFTC Interpretative Letter 

No. 75-10 (Registration of Trade Association as Commodity Trading 

Advisor)., ¶20,097, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, (Sep. 17, 1975)

¶20,097. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Office of the General Counsel, Trading and Markets. September 17, 

1975. Correspondence in full text.

Commodity Trading Advisors: Definition: Trade Associations: Registration Not Required..– A trade association 

which regularly issues reports dealing primarily with supply and demand factors in the cash market of the raw material 

used in the manufacturing process by its members is not a "commodity trading advisor" required to register with the 

CFTC, because use of the published information in management decisions to trade on futures markets is incidental to 

the major purpose of the reports.

See ¶4375, "Definitions" division, and ¶7625, "Registration Division."

[ CFTC Staff Reply]

Reference is made to your letter of July 28, 1975, and to the other correspondence, materials and information which you 

furnished to this Office, concerning [the Trade Association] (“Association”) and the registration requirements of the 

Commodity Exchange Act, as amended (“Act”) regarding commodity trading advisors.

From our review of your letter dated July 28, 1975, and the other correspondence, materials and information referred to 

above, we understand the facts to be as follows. The Association is a trade association and is a nonprofit corporation 

which was incorporated in [X] [on a certain date in] 1971. A member's dues paid to the Association are based on a scale 

which reflects the amount of silver used in such member's business. The Association does not hold itself out generally 

to the public as a commodity trading advisor and does not advise its members or others as to the advisability of trading 

in the commodity futures markets.

One of the major purposes of the Association is to keep its members and the public informed on pertinent developments 

about silver as a raw material, such as production, consumption, availability, uses, prices and legislation. The 

Association regularly issues reports concerning silver to its members, and, from time to time, distributes these reports to 

the public free of charge. The furnishing of these reports by the Association are not intended to encourage transactions 

for the purchase or sale of commodities for future delivery on contract markets. These reports, which the association 

considers background information, deal primarily with supply and demand factors in the cash market and are issued as a 

service to its members in their business of using the raw material in the manufacturing process. The extent to which 

information contained in the reports furnished by the Association is used in management decisions to trade in the 

futures markets is incidental to the major purpose of the reports described above.

Based upon the facts set forth above, this Office will not recommend any enforcement action to the Commission, based 

solely on the Association's failure to register with the Commission as a commodity trading advisor at this time. Because 

this position is based upon the facts and representation which you furnished to this Office, it should be noted that any 

different, omitted or changed facts or conditions might require a different conclusion.

[ Letter of Inquiry]

Reference is made to your letter of July 9, 1975, and our conversation of July 24, 1975, concerning the CFTCA 

requirement for registering Commodity Trading Advisors.

We have reviewed the proposed rules for registering Commodity Trading Advisors and have adopted the position that 

as a trade association [the Trade Association] falls within the proposed exemption contained in the Federal Register 

Notice of July 3, 1975.

In our opinion there would be no substantial public interest served by the registration of the [Trade Association] or its 

Executive Vice President, since reports issued by [the Trade Association] are not considered the kind of services 

contemplated by the definitions of the CFTCA. Reports by the Association dealing with silver are in keeping with one 

of the [Association's] objectives which is to keep the members and the public informed on the facts about silver as a raw 

material. Such activities are not undertaken to encourage transactions for the purchase or sale of commodities for future 

delivery on contract markets.

Neither the Association nor Executive Vice President holds out to the public as a commodity trading advisor.

Reports on silver issued by the Association deal primarily with supply and demand factors in the cash market. This 
© CCH. All rights reserved. Originally published in the CCH Commodity Futures Law Reporter. Reposted by the CFTC with 

permission. Such reposting does not constitute or imply endorsement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission of the 

accuracy of the reposted material or of any summaries thereof. 

2

material, considered as background information, is intended as a service to the membership in their normal business of 

using an important raw material in a form of manufacture. Information dealing with supply and demand factors is an 

element to be considered by management in price considerations; however, the extent to which such information is used 

in management decisions to enter futures markets would be incidental to the major purpose of the reports.

In view of the foregoing, the Association requests a “no-action” letter on the question of registration as a Commodity 

Trading Advisor.