Promotional Material FAQs
Except for routine day-to-day communications, most communications with the public are considered promotional material. This includes websites and social networking communications. Review NFA Compliance Rule 2-29(i)(1) and NFA's Promotional Material Guide for more guidance.
Member firms must supervise their own activities which includes any links on the Member's website. Review NFA Compliance Rule 2-29 and the Interpretive Notice 9037 for more guidance.
A Member must keep all promotional material on file for 5 years from the date of last use and have it readily accessible during the first 2 years of the five-year period. Review NFA Compliance Rule 2-29(f) and CFTC Regulation 1.31 for more guidance.
It depends. NFA Compliance Rule 2-29(h) requires Members to submit any promotional material that uses audio or video content to NFA ten days prior to first use if those materials make specific trading recommendations or refer to or describe the extent of any profit obtained in the past or that can be achieved in the future. NFA also has the authority to require a particular firm to submit its material for pre-approval or submission after first use. Otherwise, you do not have to submit your promotional material to NFA.
Yes. NFA encourages Members to use NFA's pre-review program. The program allows Members to submit promotional material to NFA for comment if the material has not yet been used.
In general, promotional material submitted through NFA's pre-review program is reviewed within 14 days of the date of receipt.
Promotional material must be submitted using NFA's Promotional Material Filing System. Promotional material may only be filed by individuals with access to file promotional material on behalf of the Member.
In order to access the filing system, individuals must be granted permission to "File" promotional material on behalf of the firm by the firm's security manager. The firm's security manager can grant this permission in the Online Registration System (ORS).
If a firm is a sole proprietorship (or has only one principal), the principal is considered supervisory personnel. Therefore, answer "yes" and select your own name.
This date is only meant to provide NFA staff with an estimated date of intended first use. At a minimum, the intended date of first use should be a date at least 14 days in the future for pre-review matters and at least 10 days in the future for pre-approval matters.
Certain NFA Member firms promote other NFA Members. Introducing brokers (IB), for instance, may promote a selection of commodity trading advisors (CTA) that they're soliciting business for. If the material will be used to solicit for another firm, that firm should be noted in this step.
Members should provide any information that they think may be relevant to assist in NFA's review. Examples include how and to whom the material will be distributed and whether the material will be used alone or in conjunction with a broader solicitation. Firms can be as general or specific in this step as they want, but the description should alleviate the amount of back-and-forth and provide for more efficient review.
The best approach would generally be to put the material in the format it will be distributed and submit it to NFA for review. For instance, if it's an addition to a website, it can be added to an offline version of the website and submitted as a PDF or a password protected website. Firms can also put any information they would normally put into an e-mail into a Word document and upload this as an attachment. Finally, there is nothing preventing firms from saving e-mails to their computer and uploading them on the Attachments page. If a firm wants to submit an e-mail blast for NFA review, for example, this would be the best approach.
The firm should check to make sure there are no red Xs next to any items on the Summary page. A red X indicates that the firm will need to go back to the question and address any missing information. Note that any step with a red asterisk next to it is required and will need to be completed before the Submit button appears.
No. Only promotional material a firm intends to use or has previously used should be filed through the Promotional Material Filing System. If you are referring the promotional material of another firm, you should send an email to promoreferrals@nfa.futures.org.