Dear John:

Having been Mr. Thakkar’s employee from 2014 to 2015, I can vouch for his high moral character and impeccable grit.

Mr. Thakkar, a Chicago based software developer, is facing a civil lawsuit on charges of aiding and abetting a trader in spoofing (a market manipulation activity). The reason offered is that a rogue trader from London used a software created by Mr. Thakkar’s company to do the spoofing. This trader was later extradited to the US and has confessed to his crime.

I worked with traders and systems developers for many years when I was a futures broker. During the time I worked with them, they never shared with me their “special sauce,” the intellectual property that made their trading systems tick. There was one exception, which I will discuss in a minute.

I have created a petition titled “Justice for Jitesh: CFTC Should Drop Civil Charges and Apologize” on Change.org. Here is a link to sign the petition: Justice for Jitesh Petition. I ask you to read and please sign this petition. My hope is go generate enough signatures that other news media outlets will pick up this this story, increasing the pressure on the CFTC.

Will the fed cut rates? Are we headed for negative rates? Fun with acronyms (ICE buys MOVE) and a guy who lucked into a 14,000% return on an options trade making Wall Street Bets on Reddit proud. That and more in this week’s edition of “The Spread.”