Legal and regulatory developments

For all their vaunted freedom from regulatory controls, the U.S. futures markets are subject to a number of restraints not found in most other financial markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the commodity exchanges have broad powers to suspend or limit trading in any futures contract; the exchanges may increase margin requirements at any time and by any amount; futures contracts may be traded only on licensed exchanges and only as approved by the CFTC; and "daily price limits" restrict the amount by which the prices of many futures contracts may fluctuate during a trading day.