67.These Scheme Trades often involved (1) selling call or put options on futures that would expire at the end of the current month (“first leg option”) and simultaneously (2) buying call or put options on futures for the same quantity at the same “strike price” that would expire early the next month (“second leg option”).
68.These options would typically be deep “in the money,” meaning they were very likely to be exercised or assigned.
69.The sale of the first leg options would result in significant proceeds (referred to as “premium”) being paid to the respective Fund, which was realized as a gain for the current month when the first leg option expired.
70.Bruton picked the size of the first leg option sale so that the premium collected would be sufficient to offset the losses realized for the month and enable the fund to report a net realized gain for the current month.
71.The expiration of the first leg options also resulted in the assignment of futures in the Fund’s account, which would carry a large “unrealized” loss at the current market price.
72.The expiration of the second leg option, typically at the end of the first week of the subsequent month, covered this open futures position, but also required the Fund to realize a large loss (the purchase price of the second leg option).
73.The net effect of the Scheme Trades was to allow Hope to defer indefinitely the Funds’ realization of trading losses while consistently reporting a realized gain in the Funds and collecting an incentive fee.
74.To illustrate with a specific example, the HI Fund began the month of February 2015 with a net unrealized loss of $44 million. Much of this loss became realized early in the month.
75.On February 24, 2015, Hope caused the HI Fund to sell 7,000 call options (i.e., first leg options) on S&P 500 E-mini futures with a strike price of $2,000, for a sales price of $39,228,812.50. These first leg options expired on Friday, February 27 (i.e., 3 days later).
76.That same day, Hope caused the HI Fund to buy 7,000 call options (i.e., second leg options) on S&P 500 E-mini futures with the same strike price as the first leg options. The total purchase price was $39,556,075. These second-leg options expired on Friday, March 6 (i.e., 10 days later).
77.On February 24, 2015, the closing market price for the underlying futures was $2,113.75, meaning that the first and second leg options were deep in the money.
78.Because the first and second leg options were deep in the money on February 24, and because the options expired in such a short period of time, the HI Fund had almost no exposure to market movements in the futures underlying the options. In other words, the HI Fund stood almost no chance of making or losing money on this paired Scheme Trade regardless of which direction the futures market moved.
79.On February 27, the first leg options that Hope had sold expired, and Hope realized a gain from the sale of those options in the amount of $39,228,812.50 (i.e. the sales price of those options).
80.Because those options expired in the money, the underlying futures were assigned, such that the HI Fund’s account was treated as being “short” 7,000 S&P 500 E-mini futures as of that day. Hope did not record any realized loss from that assignment, however, even though, as a result of the assignment, Hope had essentially sold short the futures at a price below the current market price and would eventually need to cover the position in some manner. Instead, the open futures position was treated as an unrealized loss.
81.In account statements sent to investors at the end of February, 2015, Hope reported that the HI Fund had net realized gains of $1,729,670 for the month.
82.Hope charged the HI Fund a fee of $345,934 (i.e., 20% of the reported realized gain), half of which was sent to the Hope Foundation.
83.On March 6th, the second leg options expired in the money, the options were exercised, and the Fund was “delivered” 7,000 futures.
84.The futures delivered as a result of the expiration of the second leg options covered the HI Fund’s short futures position that had resulted from the expiration of the first leg options. Because the positions in the underlying futures cancelled each other out, the HI Fund did not realize any gain or loss on those futures.
85. At that point, consistent with the fund’s accounting policies, the HI Fund realized a loss of $39,556,075, i.e., the purchase price of the second leg options.
86. Hope then entered into similar Scheme Trades in March to avoid having realized losses at the end of that month, and so on.
87.The Scheme Trades were not in the best interest of the Funds.
88.The HI Fund has not had a month with a net realized loss since August 2011, just after it was opened.
89.Between November 2014 and March 2016, Hope collected over $6 million in incentive fees from the HI Fund.
90.Most of the incentive fees would not have been paid in the absence of the Scheme Trades.
91.Of the 10% incentive fee paid to Hope by the HI Fund, Bruton divided the fee nearly equally among herself and two other Hope employees, after paying salaries of other employees and expenses for Hope.