Yeah, a lawsuit for $9,000 should really put a scare into them since they are a multi-million dollar fund. I'm sure you were kidding though. I listened to some of the audio files on this case and it is a real snooze fest to begin with. 1 million dollars worth of marking is not exactly a lot of manipulation in the oil market. I see more manipulation than that on a daily basis in CL. The only thing surprising that I heard on those audio files is that two of the traders at Optiver actually admired Jim Cramer. If you want to fine them for that, ok, it is much worse trading sin than what they are accused of doing.
I, too, noted the stated loss was $9,000 usd and thought "Not exactly a princely sum in the oil futures market." Of course, I would prefer to GAIN $9,000 as far as that goes.
Yeah, it's funny how the govt, cftc, public wants to go after someone no matter what for the high cost of gas.