CFTC

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent government regulator helping oversee securities markets domestically.

Created in 1974 by the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) in the US, the authority protects and regulates market activities against manipulation, fraud, and abuse, and trade practices.

In addition, the CFTC’s mandate involves promoting market fairness for investors. The CEA also included the Sad-Johnson Agreement, which defined the authority and responsibilities for the monitoring of financial contracts between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Together, both the CFTC and SEC are the largest regulators and authorities in the US.

The Commission works to guarantee that trading on the U.S. futures exchanges is fair and honest and maintain integrity in the marketplace. There are 11 U.S. Futures Exchanges.

Moreover, the Commission is outside of the political realm and is not controlled by any party. To ensure this, at no time can more than three members represent the same political party.

In recent years, the CFTC has also facilitated a startup exchange that wants to attract individual traders to the risky world of futures.

The Small Exchange, headed by a former executive of T.D. Ameritrade Holding Corp., won approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2020 to become the newest U.S. futures exchange.

The current exchanges in the U.S. under the regulatory authority of the CFTC include the following:

Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)

CME Group

International Monetary Market (IMM)

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME / GLOBEX)

New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and (COMEX)

Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT)

NEX Group plc (NXG.L)

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)

International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) 2001

New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) 2005

Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) 2007

TSX Group's Natural Gas Exchange Partnership 2008

European Climate Exchange 2010

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE) 2010

NYSE 2013

London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE)

Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX)

Nadex (formerly HedgeStreet)

OneChicago (Single-stock futures (SSF's) and Futures on ETFs)

Nasdaq Futures Exchange (NFX)