MENU
A client controls two accounts and repeatedly buys shares in one account while selling the same number of shares from the other account at the same price. The transactions create apparent trading volume but no genuine change in economic ownership. What activity does this describe?
The transactions describe wash trading. A wash trade creates apparent marketplace activity without a genuine change in beneficial or economic ownership. The client is effectively trading with itself between controlled accounts, and the activity can create a false or misleading impression of liquidity, investor interest or price formation. Option B is correct.
UMIR prohibits manipulative or deceptive methods and orders or trades that create, or could reasonably be expected to create, a false appearance of trading activity or an artificial price. The fact that trades are entered through separate account numbers does not make them legitimate when the economic owner remains the same.
Arbitrage involves exploiting a genuine price discrepancy between related securities or markets. Passive market making provides bona fide liquidity through genuine bids and offers. Best execution is the dealer's obligation to seek advantageous execution for client orders. None involves fictitious turnover.
Investment Dealers and their representatives have gatekeeping responsibilities. Suspicious patterns must be identified, escalated and, where appropriate, prevented or reported. A dealer should not enter orders when it knows or ought reasonably to know that the activity is manipulative.
The current CIRO UMIR material specifically identifies transactions with no change in beneficial ownership as wash trading and a manipulative or deceptive practice.
===============