Washington DC, 19 January 2010

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Friday, January 15, 2010, that it will include positions in the IntercontinentalExchange ( ICE) Henry Hub natural gas contract in its weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) reports. The announcement is in keeping with the Commission’s efforts to improve the transparency of the markets it oversees by providing additional data to the public. In July 2009, the Commission determined that the ICE contract was a significant price discovery contract or SPDC.1 It was the first ECM contract to be recognized as a SPDC and is the first SPDC to be included in the COT report. The first publication of this data was in the January 12, 2010, COT report, that was released on Friday, January 15, 2010.

Under new Commodity Exchange Act provisions added by the Farm Bill in 2008 and CFTC implementing rules adopted in April 2009, Exempt Commercial Markets (ECMs) with SPDCs are subject to self-regulatory and reporting requirements, as well as certain Commission oversight authorities, with respect to those contracts.

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