US and UK regulators joined forces earlier this week to penalise a high-frequency trading firm for alleged manipulative trading on commodities markets, in the first example of a UK financial watchdog handing a fine to a member of the HFT community.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority, along with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and futures exchange CME Group, each fined US-based HFT Panther Energy Trading and its founder for "deliberate manipulation" of commodities contracts, the regulators said on Monday.