CubeLogic’s Lorne Chambers recently brought me up to speed with the world of trade surveillance in commodities. He explained that ACER’s PPET (persons professionally executing transactions) obligations began in November 2024 and that they required firms trading both financial instruments and physical energy markets to extend surveillance systems to physical markets. This required these firms to monitor and detect market abuse and insider trading, and these obligations only applied to firms already having responsibilities under Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) for financial instruments who also trade physical energy. Lorne estimates that approximately 450 firms could be classified as PPETs based on his analysis of exchange member lists. “The regulation requires systems proportionate to business activity using available data, but doesn’t define what compliant solutions look like,” he said. Of course, some effected firms implemented surveillance systems before these direct obligations existed “as part of exhibiting a good compliance culture,” he told me. However, many of available trade surveillance solutions in FinTech are inadequate for, and not designed to handle, commodities. As a result, CubeLogic, with its Cubewatch TS software, which currently covers all Market Abuse Regulation obligations for financial markets and extends same capabilities to physical intraday trading, has been very… continue reading