Courses

    Futures markets are an important component of today's financial markets, involving more than a billion contracts annually and a trillion dollars in daily cash flows. They permit price discovery and risk shifting. Futures regulation has changed significantly since Congress enacted the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission moved from front line to oversight regulation, and "core principles" replaced prescriptive rules for regulation of futures and option markets. This course begins with the nature of futures markets, their economic purpose and role in today's financial marketplace. The course examines the regulation of futures and related markets in financial and tangible commodities, the structure and requirements of the Commodity Exchange Act, the roles of the CFTC, futures exchanges, traders and brokers, clearinghouses, pool operators and trading advisers, brokerage firms and the growing links with securities, banking, and other sectors. It looks at protections against fraud and manipulation, issues involving regulatory coordination from both a U.S. and international perspective, and the impact of new trading technologies and cross border transactions.