COMMODITIES EXCHANGE ACT

COMMODITIES EXCHANGE ACT, enacted in 1936, set forth a regulatory framework governing futures trading of agricultural commodities on organized exchanges. Futures contracts involve an agreement for delivery of an amount of goods at a specified future time for an agreed price. The 1936 Act expanded upon a previous 1922 legislation and sought to facilitate honest and fair practices and to restrain fraud, excessive speculation, and manipulation in commodity exchanges. Under the 1936 law, Congress established the Commodity Exchange Commission and delegated day-to-day regulatory duties to the secretary of Agriculture. The secretary, in turn, established the Commodity Exchange Administration to under-take these regulatory responsibilities. Substantial amendments in 1974 transferred regulatory authority to a newly created, five-member Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Since federal oversight of futures began in the 1920s, regulation has expanded beyond traditional futures contracts in agricultural products to futures in many other markets, such as energy commodities, government securities, and foreign currencies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Campbell, Donald A. "Trading in Futures under the Commodity Exchange Act." George Washington Law Review 26 (1958): 215–254.

Markham, Jerry W. The History of Commodity Futures Trading and Its Regulation. New York: Praeger, 1987.

Stassen, John H. "The Commodity Exchange Act in Perspective: A Short and Not-So-Reverent History of Futures Trading Legislation in the United States." Washington and Lee Law Review 39, no. 3 (summer 1982):825–843.

Elizabeth LeeThompson

See alsoExchanges .