Spoofing isn’t “just another tool”. It is a clearly defined illegal activity. There are specific SEC, CFTC, and Dodd-Frank LAWS against it.
What’s more, all international regulated electronic futures and stock exchanges that are registered to operate in the United States have exchange rules that prohibit “ spoofing” and other forms of deceptive malevolent exchange order messaging. It’s important to realize that it is the Trading exchanges themselves that are referring these abuses to regulators for prosecution.
A sense of context and proportionality is important here. CME and ICE are now major publicly listed multinational corporations. Any reasonable investor would realize that a component of their valuation lies within maintaining regulatory compliance and orderly markets. If you look at the CME’s org chart, a fair bit of their staff is devoted to this enterprise.
And I quote:
“Signed into law in 2010 by President Obama, amended the Commodity Exchange Act’s (CEA) “Prohibited Transactions” section.8 This statute, 7 U.S.C.A. § 6c(a)(5)(C), reads in pertinent part that “it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in any trading, practice, or conduct on or subject to the rules of a registered entity that is of the character of, or is commonly known to the trade as, ‘spoofing’ (bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution).”9 Under 7 U.S.C.A § 13(a)(2), a knowing violation of the anti-spoofing provision is a felony, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of the greater of $1 million or triple the violator ’s monetary gain resulting from the alleged conduct.”