I have a question about "WHO is the CTA?" Assuming I pass S-3 exam, and I also sent up a company called ABC, Inc. I register ABC, Inc. with CFTC as a CTA. I as a nature person (who passed serious 3 exam) is the sole principal of my company (ABC, Inc) which is a CTA. Now who is CTA? 1. Is only my company ABC, IC a CTA? 2. Or, I as a nature person and the sole principle of ABC, Inc. (which is a registered CTA already) is also a CTA? But, I only registered ABC, Inc. (but not me personally) as CTA with CFTC, how can I say I am a CTA? can I still legally say I am a CTA? 3. In this case, it is illegal to say I am a CTA? 4. If it is illegally, what I need to do in order to be able to legally say I (as a nature person, not ABC, Inc. ) am a CTA? I am confused. Please advise me. Thanks.
A CTA is an entity. it can be an LLC or a sole-proprietor. In your case you set up an LLC for your CTA, therefore ABC is the CTA.
When you register as a corporation, the corporation is the CTA, and you are an "associated person" (AP) as well as a principal of that CTA. You register both yourself and the corporation with the NFA, and you get two I.D. numbers. Once your registration and disclosure document are accepted, you can call yourself a CTA. During the review process, you will probably get a lot of computer-generated form letters complaining that the corporation has no registered principal, and that the AP's employer (i.e. the corporation) is not registered. You can safely disregard those letters (but verify with the NFA). The NFA should have all the information you need, and theirs is the official word, so don't believe anything you read here.
Once your registration and disclosure document are accepted, you can call yourself a CTA. After you passed S-3 and register your company ABC, Inc with CFTC (?) and register yourself with NFA (?) as a principle, even before you become a member of NFA and before Ddoc are accepted, can you say you are CTA? I know without the accepted Ddoc and become member of NFA, you can not solicitate clients. But at what point you can legally say you are a CTA (even you can not take in any client)?
It is my understanding that you can call yourself a CTA as soon as your registration is complete with the NFA. The CFTC gets its information from the NFA, so you don't deal with them directly. You can solicit QECs and QEPs without a ddoc, but you need to file a waiver with the NFA. Otherwise the NFA will bug you to get your ddoc in. I recommend getting this information directly from the NFA. Their Web site is: http://www.nfa.futures.org/. You can also call them and ask questions. They are pretty good about answering questions, and their information is more current than mine (>11 years).
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