v3.26.1
Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2025
Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies  
Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies

Note 1. Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies

Nature of business: Grant Park Futures Fund Limited Partnership (the “Partnership”) was organized as a limited partnership under Illinois law in August 1988 and will continue until December 31, 2027, unless terminated sooner as provided for in its Limited Partnership Agreement. As a commodity investment pool, the Partnership is subject to the regulations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), an agency of the United States (U.S.) government which regulates most aspects of the commodity futures industry; rules of the National Futures Association, an industry self-regulatory organization; and the requirements of the various commodity exchanges where the Partnership executes transactions. Additionally, the Partnership is subject to the requirements of futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) and interbank and other market makers through which the Partnership trades. The Partnership is a registrant with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and, accordingly is subject to the regulatory requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Prior to April 1, 2019, the Partnership was also subject to the regulatory requirements under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Effective April 1, 2019, limited partnership units of the Partnership are no longer offered for sale. For existing investors in the Partnership, business continues to be conducted as usual. There was no change in the trading, operations, or monthly statements, etc. as a result of the termination of the offering, and redemption requests continue to be offered on a monthly basis.

The Partnership engages in the speculative trading of futures and forward contracts for commodities, financial instruments or currencies, any rights pertaining thereto and any options thereon, or on physical commodities, equities, listed options, swap transactions and broad based exchange-traded funds. The Partnership may also engage in hedge, arbitrage and cash trading of commodities and futures.

The Partnership is a multi-advisor commodity pool that invests the assets of each class of the Partnership in the Partnership’s subsidiary limited liability trading companies (each, a “Trading Company” and collectively, the “Trading Companies”) which (i) enter into advisory agreements with the independent commodity trading advisors retained by the general partner; (ii) enter into swap transactions or derivative instruments tied to the performance of certain reference traders; and/or (iii) allocate assets to the Partnership’s cash management trading company. The Partnership’s general partner, commodity pool operator and sponsor is Dearborn Capital Management, L.L.C. (“the General Partner”), an Illinois limited liability company. The Trading Companies were set up to, among other things, segregate risk by commodity trading advisor or reference trader. Effectively, this structure isolates one trading advisor or reference trader from another and any losses from one Trading Company will not carry over to the other Trading Companies. The following is a list of the Trading Companies, for which the Partnership is the sole member and all of which were organized as Delaware limited liability companies:

GP 1, LLC (“GP 1”)   GP 4, LLC (“GP 4”)   GP 18, LLC (“GP 18”)    

GP 3, LLC (“GP 3”)   GP 8, LLC (“GP 8”)      

 

There were no assets allocated to GP 1 as of December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024. GP 1 was closed in December 2025.

Additionally, GP Cash Management, LLC (“GP Cash Management”) was created as a Delaware limited liability company to collectively manage and invest excess cash not required to be held at clearing brokers. The excess cash is held in a separate account in the name of GP Cash Management, LLC and custodied at State Street Bank and Trust Company. The members of GP Cash Management are the Trading Companies.

Classes of interests: The Partnership has six classes of limited partner interests (each, a “Class” and collectively, the “Interests”), Class A, Class B, Legacy 1 Class, Legacy 2 Class, Global Alternative Markets 1 (“Global 1”) Class and Global Alternative Markets 2 (“Global 2”) Class units. The GP Class was established December 31, 2022 as a non-earning equity general partner class for accounting purposes only (see Note 5). The GP Class was closed December 17, 2024.

Both Class A and Class B units are traded pursuant to identical trading programs and differ only in respect to the brokerage charge and organization and offering costs payable to the General Partner.

Both Legacy 1 Class and Legacy 2 Class units are traded pursuant to trading programs pursuing a technical trend trading philosophy, which is the same trading philosophy used for the Class A and Class B units. The Legacy 1 Class and Legacy 2 Class units differ only in respect to the brokerage charge payable to the General Partner. The Legacy 1 Class and Legacy 2 Class units were offered only to investors who are represented by approved selling agents who are directly compensated by the investor for services rendered in connection with an investment in the Partnership (such arrangements commonly referred to as “wrap-accounts”).

The Global 1 Class and Global 2 Class units are traded pursuant to trading programs pursuing technical trend trading philosophies. The Global 1 Class and Global 2 Class units differ in respect to the General Partner’s brokerage charge. The Global 1 Class and Global 2 Class units were offered only to investors in wrap accounts.

The Partnership’s significant accounting policies are as follows:

Accounting principles: Pursuant to rules and regulations of the SEC, audited consolidated financial statements of the Partnership are prepared in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”). The Partnership is an investment company and follows accounting and reporting guidance under the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 946, Financial Services – Investment Companies.

Consolidation: The Partnership is the sole member of each of the Trading Companies. The Trading Companies, in turn, are the only members of GP Cash Management. The Partnership presents consolidated financial statements, which include the accounts of the Trading Companies and GP Cash Management. All material inter-company accounts and transactions are eliminated in consolidation.

Use of estimates: The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash and cash equivalents: Cash and cash equivalents may include cash, overnight investments, commercial paper, U.S. treasury bills, money market funds and short-term investments in interest-bearing demand deposits with banks and cash managers with original maturities of three months or less at the date of acquisition.

Valuation of investments: All investments are used for trading purposes and recorded at their fair value, as described in Note 2. Substantially all of the Partnership’s assets and liabilities are considered financial instruments and are recorded at fair value or at carrying amounts that approximate fair value because of the short maturity of the instruments.

Investment transactions, investment income and expenses: Futures contracts, forward contracts and options on futures and forward contracts and securities are recorded on a trade date basis and realized gains or losses are recognized when contracts/positions are liquidated. Unrealized gains or losses on open contracts/positions (the difference between contract trade price and market price) or securities are reported in the consolidated statement of financial condition as a net unrealized gain or loss, as there exists a right of offset of unrealized gains or losses in accordance with FASB ASC 210-20, Balance Sheet, Offsetting. Any change in net unrealized gain or loss from the preceding period is reported in the consolidated statement of operations. Interest income and expense is recognized under the accrual basis. Dividend income is recognized on the ex-dividend date. Premiums and discounts on fixed income securities are amortized and accreted for financial reporting purposes.

Set forth in Note 11 are instruments and transactions eligible for offset in the consolidated statement of financial condition and which are subject to derivative clearing agreements with the Partnership’s clearing brokers. Each clearing

broker nets margin held on behalf of the Partnership or payment obligations of the clearing broker to the Partnership against any payment obligations of the Partnership to the clearing broker. The Partnership is required to deposit margin at each clearing broker to meet the original and maintenance requirements established by that clearing broker, and/or the exchange or clearinghouse associated with the exchange on which the instrument is traded. The derivative clearing agreements give each clearing broker a security interest in this margin to secure any liabilities owed to the clearing broker arising from a default by the Partnership.

Commissions: Commissions and other trading fees are expensed when contracts are opened and closed, and are reflected separately in the consolidated statement of operations.

Redemptions payable: Pursuant to the provisions of FASB ASC 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity, redemptions approved by the General Partner prior to month end with a fixed effective date and fixed amount are recorded as redemptions payable as of month end.

Income taxes: No provision for income taxes has been made in these consolidated financial statements as each partner is individually responsible for reporting income or loss based on its respective share of the Partnership’s income and expenses as reported for income tax purposes.

The Partnership follows the provisions of FASB ASC 740, Income Taxes. FASB guidance requires the evaluation of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing the Partnership’s tax returns to determine whether the tax positions are “more-likely-than-not” of being sustained “when challenged” or “when examined” by the applicable tax authority. Tax positions not deemed to meet the more-likely-than-not threshold would be recorded as a tax benefit or expense and liability in the current year. If a tax position does not meet the minimum statutory threshold to avoid payment of penalties, an expense for the amount of the statutory penalty and interest, if applicable, shall be recognized in the consolidated statement of operations in the period in which the position is claimed or expected to be claimed. As of December 31, 2025, management has determined that there are no material uncertain income tax positions and, accordingly, has not recorded a liability. The Partnership is generally not subject to examination by U.S. federal or state taxing authorities for tax years before 2022.

Organization and offering costs: The General Partner has incurred all expenses in connection with the organization and the continuous public offering of partnership interests and is reimbursed by the Partnership. In addition, the General Partner continues to compensate wholesalers for services rendered to certain Limited Partners. This reimbursement is made monthly and the reimbursement amounts are listed by class in Note 5. In no event, however, will the monthly reimbursement from the Partnership to the General Partner exceed 0.083%, or 1.0% annually, of the net asset value of the Partnership. In its discretion, the General Partner may require the Partnership to reimburse the General Partner in any subsequent calendar year for amounts that exceed these limits in any prior year, provided that the maximum amount reimbursed by the Partnership will not exceed the overall limit set forth above. Amounts reimbursed by the Partnership with respect to the organization and the continuous public offering expenses are charged to expense from operations at the time of reimbursement or accrual. If the Partnership terminates prior to completion of payment of the calculated amounts to the General Partner, the General Partner will not be entitled to any additional payments, and the Partnership will have no further obligation to the General Partner. The Partnership is only liable for payment of offering costs on a monthly basis as calculated based on the limitations stated above. As of December 31, 2025, unreimbursed organization and offering costs incurred by the General Partner were approximately $79,000, and may be reimbursed by the Partnership in the future.

Foreign currency transactions: The Partnership’s functional currency is the U.S. dollar; however, it transacts business in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar are translated into U.S. dollars at the rates in effect at the date of the consolidated statement of financial condition. Income and expense items denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar are translated into U.S. dollars at the rates in effect during the period. Gains and losses resulting from the translation to U.S. dollars are reported in income currently.

The Partnership does not isolate that portion of the results of operations resulting from changes in foreign exchange rates on investments from fluctuations arising from changes in market prices of securities held. Such fluctuations are included with the net realized or unrealized gain or loss from investments.

Statement of cash flows: The Partnership has elected not to provide statements of cash flows as permitted by FASB ASC 230, Statement of Cash Flows. The Partnership noted that as of and for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, substantially all investments were highly liquid in Level 1 or Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy as shown in Note 2, all investments are carried at fair value, the Partnership carried no debt, and the consolidated statements of changes in partners’ capital (net asset value) is presented.

Segment information: FASB ASC 280 Segment Reporting, establishes standards for reporting certain information about operating segments. Operating segments are defined as components of an entity about which separate financial information is available that is regularly reviewed by the chief operating decision maker. The Partnership conducts its business in one operating segment. The Partnership’s chief operating decision maker is the investment committee of the General Partner. The investment committee of the General Partner determines the Partnership’s investment strategy, capital allocation and expense structure, as outlined in the Partnership’s prospectus and assesses each Trading Company’s performance against the Partnership’s investment strategy.