Definitions

The following terms as used in the Rules have the meanings set forth in this Chapter, unless otherwise specifically provided elsewhere in the Rules or required by the context.

• Account Administrator: means an officer or employee of a Participant appointed pursuant to Rule 310.
• Affiliate: means a Person who directly or indirectly, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another Person.
• Affiliate Participants and Clearing Members: has a meaning set forth in Rule 1012.
• API: means Application Programming Interface, a programmatic software interface.
• Applicable Law: means, with respect to any Person, any statute, law, regulation, rule or ordinance of any governmental or self-regulatory authority applicable to such Person, including the CEA and CFTC Rules.
• Approved Financial Institution: has the meaning set forth in Rule 803.2.7.
• Audit Trail: has the meaning set forth in Rule 510.
• Authorized User: means a natural person, authorized by the Exchange as an Authorized User in accordance with Rule 306, who is either employed by or is an agent of a Clearing Member or a Participant.
• Bankruptcy Code: means Title 11 of the U.S. Code.
• Bankruptcy Event: has the meaning set forth in Rule 818.
• Block Trade: means a privately negotiated transaction in a Contract that meets certain quantity thresholds and that is permitted to occur away from the Exchange and reported in accordance with Rule 505.
• Board: means the Board of Directors.
• Board of Appeals: means a panel comprised of a chair and two individuals appointed by the Board to consider appeals under Chapter 6.
• Business Day: means any day on which the Exchange and Clearinghouse are open for trading and clearing.
• CEA: means the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended from time to time.
• CFTC: means the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission or any successor agency.
• CFTC Rules: means the rules, regulations and orders of the CFTC, as amended from time to time.
• Chairman: means the Chairman of the Board.
• Chief Executive Officer: means the individual appointed by the Board to serve as the chief executive officer.
• Chief Regulatory Officer: means the individual appointed by the Board to serve as the chief regulatory officer.
• Clearinghouse: means Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company registered by the CFTC as a derivatives clearing organization that is designated by the Exchange to provide clearing services with respect to any or all of the Contracts.
• Clearinghouse Official: means any Officer or Employee of the Clearinghouse and any member of the Board, a committee established by the Board, a Hearing Panel or Board of Appeals.
• Clearing Member: means an entity meeting the requirements of, and approved for, clearing membership at the Clearinghouse that is authorized pursuant to the Rules to clear trades in any or all Contracts. Except for those Clearing Members that clear solely for their own proprietary accounts (each, an Individual Clearing Member), all other Clearing Members must be registered with the CFTC as FCMs (each, an FCM Clearing Member).
• Clearing Member Agreement: means an agreement between the Clearinghouse and a Clearing Member which must be signed in order for a Clearing Member to have access to the Clearinghouse for clearing services with respect to any or all of the Contracts.
• Close-Out Value: has the meaning set forth in Rule 818.
• Collateral: means such property as may be delivered by a Clearing Member to the Clearinghouse as collateral for the obligations of such Clearing Member to the Clearinghouse (including but not limited to Initial Margin and Variation Margin), and all proceeds of the foregoing and all proceeds of any of the foregoing, held in or for the accounts of a Clearing Member in connection with the financial obligations of such Clearing Member, however created, arising or evidenced, whether direct or indirect, absolute or contingent, existing, due or to become due.
• Compliance Department: has the meaning set forth in Rule 602.
• Contract: means any contract, agreement, or transaction approved for trading on the Exchange and pursuant to the Rules.
• Contract Specifications: means the descriptions of the contractual items for each Contract as set forth in the document available on the Website.
• CPT: means Central Prevailing Time.
• Customer: means any Person for whom a Participant carries an account (other than such Participant or any of its affiliates) or from whom a Participant solicits or accepts an order.
• Customer Account: means an account established by a Clearing Member with the Clearinghouse in which the Clearing Member maintains trades, positions and Margin solely for Customers of the Clearing Member.
• Daily Settlement Price: has the meaning set forth in Rule 509.
• Director: means an individual serving on the Board.
• Disciplinary Action: has the meaning set forth in Rule 601.
• Disciplinary Committee: means a function of the Compliance Department to fulfill various adjudicative responsibilities and duties described in Rule 602.
• Emergency: means the occurrences or circumstances which, in the opinion of the Board, require immediate action to be taken in accordance with Rule 213.
• Exchange: means Bitnomial Exchange, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company designated by the CFTC as a designated contract market.
• Exchange Official: means any Officer or employee of the Exchange and any member of the Board, a committee established by the Board, a Hearing Panel or Board of Appeals.
• Exchange Transaction: means a Contract executed through the Trade Matching Engine.
• Expiry: means the Contract date of expiration.
• FCM: means a futures commission merchant as defined in the CEA and CFTC Rules and registered with the CFTC as such.
• FDICIA: has the meaning set forth in Rule 818.
• Final Settlement Price: means the price for each Contract supplied by the Exchange to the Clearinghouse as the Final Settlement Price for the Expiry as specified in Rule 509.
• Governmental Authority: means any domestic or foreign government (or political subdivision), governmental or regulatory authority, agency, court, commission or other governmental or regulatory entity (including any Self-Regulatory Organization).
• Guaranty Fund: means fund comprising the monies, securities and instruments capitalized by Clearinghouse, which fund shall be used as provided in Rule 815 to reimburse the Clearinghouse for losses sustained by the Clearinghouse as a result of the failure of any Clearing Member to discharge its financial obligations in accordance with the Rules.
• House Account: has the meaning set forth in CFTC Rule 39.2.
• Initial Margin: means the initial amount of Collateral that must be deposited with or paid to the Clearinghouse by Clearing Members in accordance with the Rules as a performance bond in respect of the Contracts held in any house account and customer accounts of such Clearing Members.
• Investigation Team: means a group within the Compliance Department, whose function is to fulfill the investigative and enforcement responsibilities described in Rule 602.
• Last Trading Day: means the last day a Contract may be traded as defined in Rule 502.
• Liquidity Event: has the meaning given to it in Rule 809.
• LLC Agreement: means the Limited Liability Company Agreement of the Exchange and Clearinghouse as amended or restated from time to time.
• Margin: means Initial Margin and Variation Margin or either of them.
• NFA: means the National Futures Association.
• Official: means an Exchange Official and a Clearinghouse Official.
• Officer: has the meaning given to it in Rule 203.
• Order: means any order to buy or sell a Contract on or subject to the Rules of the Exchange.
• Participant: means an entity that has signed the Participant Agreement for purposes of entering into Transactions for its own account or accesses the Exchange on behalf of a Customer. In addition, a Clearing Member who does not enter into Transactions for its own account shall be deemed to be a Participant hereunder solely for the purpose of accessing the Exchange in order to liquidate Transactions and any resulting positions previously submitted to the Clearinghouse for the account of such Clearing Member on behalf of a Participant that is in default for failure to perform its obligations to the Exchange or such Clearing Member (to the extent applicable).
• Participant Agreement: means an agreement between the Exchange and a Participant which must be signed in order for a Participant to have access to the Exchange for the execution of trades involving commodity derivative products and related financial instruments.
• Perpetual Futures: means a futures contract with a quarter-century expiration that is perpetually priced, margined, and settled every eight (8) hours based on the implied spot price of the Settlement Price futures contract, as specified in the product specifications.
• Person: means an individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, association, firm, trust, corporation or other entity, as the context may require.
• Position Transfer: means a transaction in a Contract(s) that is executed by the Exchange or the Clearinghouse personnel for administrative purposes outlined in Rule 507.
• Price Bands: mean a price range for aggressive orders based on the last top-of-book price as defined in Rule 504.3.1.
• Price Limits: mean a price range at which new Orders will be accepted as defined in Rule 504.3.2.
• Public Director: means a Director having the qualifications set out in Rule 202.
• Regulatory Services Agreement: means the agreement(s) between the Exchange or the Clearinghouse and the Regulatory Service Provider(s) whereby certain functions mandated under the CEA, such as market monitoring and trade practice surveillance, are delegated to the Regulatory Services Provider(s).
• Regulatory Services Provider: means NFA and such other organizations, if any, that provide regulatory services to the Exchange or the Clearinghouse, together with any such organization's employees and agents.
• Requirements: means the Rules; other requirements implemented by the Exchange or the Clearinghouse pursuant to the Rules; each term of a Contract; and the documentation and other contractual obligations between a Participant (including its Authorized Users) and the Exchange or a Clearing Member and the Clearinghouse.
• Respondent: means a Participant under investigation for alleged Rule violation(s) or against which charges have been filed.
• Rule: means any rule, interpretation, stated policy, or instrument corresponding to any of the foregoing, including these Rules, in each case as adopted from time to time by the Exchange or the Clearinghouse.
• Self-Regulatory Organization: has the meaning given to such term in CFTC Rule 1.3(ee) and includes a derivatives clearing organization that is registered as such with the CFTC.
• Settlement Bank: means a bank that maintains an account either for the Clearinghouse or for any of its Clearing Members, which is used for the purpose of any settlement activity described in 17 CFR § 39.14.
• Settlement Price: means the price for each Contract supplied by the Exchange to the Clearinghouse at the end of each trading day (Daily Settlement Price) or at the end of the Final Settlement Period on the expiration day of the Contract (Final Settlement Price).
• Surveillance Team: means the group within the Compliance Department that is responsible for real-time and post-trade surveillance of the Exchange's trading systems, as described in Rule 602.
• Trade Matching Engine: means the set of algorithms through which Orders are matched.
• Trade Risk Limit: has the meaning set forth in Rule 504.
• Trading Account: means a trading account to be separately tracked and margined by a Participant's Clearing Member.
• Trading Account ID: means an Exchange assigned ID that represents a Trading Account for use by the Clearinghouse and its Clearing Members.
• Trading Hours: means, for any Business Day, the hours specified on the trading calendar at the Website.
• Trading Platform: means the electronic trading facility operated by the Exchange to provide Participants with the ability to execute Exchange Transactions from the interaction of multiple bids and multiple offers within a predetermined, nondiscretionary automated trade matching and execution algorithm.
• Transaction: means an Exchange Transaction.
• Variation Margin: means on the Business Day a Contract has been accepted for clearing by the Clearinghouse, the difference between the price at which such Contract was bought or sold and the Settlement Price for such Contract; and thereafter, the difference, as applicable, between: the Settlement Price on a given Business Day and the preceding Settlement Price for such Contract, or the price at which such Contract was closed on the books of the Clearinghouse and the preceding Settlement Price for such Contract.
• Website: means bitnomial.com/exchange.