curious about the rules for advertising for a CTA. Could one advertise the existence of your CTA without including any performance metrics on the advertisement. Example: a small advertisement in a circular that higher net worth individuals would likely see
Presuming you are inquiring about the USA, I believe that falls under the jobs act, and yes, some advertising is now allowed. There is tremendous grey area in the marketing of hedge funds and CTA type products.
As a licensed CTA, anything you put out is considered as promotional material. You could send your promotional material to the NFA and tell them where you would like to put the advertising as well. They provide feedback within 2 weeks and will address any concerns if they have any. I highly suggest to do that instead of running into a surprises in the future. We can help you with CTA Clearing Services if you need help with clearing and allocation.
It depends whether you are a full NFA member or if you follow the 4.7 Exemption to only deal with QEP (rich guys). Most of the limitations to CTAs and CPOs disappear when you deal under a 4.7 Exemption.