Horizon Cash Management is surveying commodity trading advisers (CTAs) and commodity pool operators (CPOs) to document the impact of the MF Global and Peregrine Financial Group (PFG) liquidations on the managed futures industry and its investors.

The survey went out on 31 October, marking the one-year anniversary of the MF Global meltdown.
 
Diane Mix Birnberg, Horizon founder and chairman, says: “I have witnessed ten bankruptcies of futures commission merchants (FCMs) in my 30-year career. Nothing, however, came close to the magnitude of the implosion created by MF Global and the additional damage caused by the PFG meltdown, a mere nine months later.”
 
Horizon says the survey will seek answers to important questions including:
 
 • How have CTAs and CPOs been impacted by these events?
 
 • What do CTAs and CPOs require in order to restore trust in their own businesses and with customers in the futures industry?
 
 • What regulations, rules, procedures and safeguards are needed to restore faith in customer fund segregation and the CTAs’ and CPOs’ ability to continue trading in times of severe market disruptions?
 
The survey, which aims to capture both quantitative and qualitative information, will be distributed to the entire universe of CTAs and CPOs globally in order to ensure a wide statistic base. All responses will remain anonymous. 

The executive summary will be distributed to regulators, government oversight authorities, futures exchanges, FCMs and the media worldwide in early 2013.