In the Fall of 2011, futures market participants were caught off-guard when MF Global filed for bankruptcy. Essentially, this episode educated industry participants that customer protections in the U.S. commodity futures markets had been more ambiguous than expected. That said, there are a...

This article covers the trading blowups at the hedge fund, Amaranth, and at the Futures Commission Merchant, MF Global. Although the lessons from the Amaranth blowup can best be understood in terms of market-risk principles, the lessons from the MF Global bankruptcy are best understood in terms...

The history of futures regulations reveals four features in determining whether a futures contract can succeed: (a) a contract must have a convincing economic rationale; (b) it is helpful if contracts are viewed as being in the national interest; (c) competition requires regulatory parity among...

One hopes that the CFTC will carefully consider how necessary and appropriate the imposition of speculative position limits is, across commodity markets. This article argues that before making such a finding, the agency should (a) review the empirical evidence on the causes of both commodity...

On September 28th, 2012 a federal judge struck down the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC's) current iteration of federal position limits on holdings of commodity futures contracts. A month and a half later, the CFTC announced that the commission would appeal the court's...

In the United States, there is a rich historical experience with controversies over futures trading that date back to the nineteenth century. After a brief recounting of history, this paper notes that a review of U.S. history provides valuable lessons in figuring out what is necessary for...

On June 25th, 2007, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on the Amaranth debacle, entitled, “Excessive Speculation in the Natural Gas Market.” The report was released in conjunction with the subcommittee's public hearing on the same date. The 135-page...

Until recently, one could only gain expertise in commodity-derivatives relationships if one had worked in niche commodity-processor companies or in banks that specialized in hedging project risk for natural-resource companies. The contribution of this paper is to help fill the knowledge gap in...

This paper discusses intelligent risk-management techniques and new product innovation in the commodity futures markets. First, though, it reviews the century-plus debate on the role of commodity speculators, given the prevalent concerns that this activity may have a destabilizing impact on...