Mission & Responsibilities

Congress created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 1974 as an independent agency with the mandate to regulate commodity futures and option markets in the United States. The agency's mandate has been renewed and expanded several times since then, most recently by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

In 1974 the majority of futures trading took place in the agricultural sector. The CFTC's history demonstrates, among other things, how the futures industry has become increasingly varied over time and today encompasses a vast array of highly complex financial futures contracts.

Today, the CFTC assures the economic utility of the futures markets by encouraging their competitiveness and efficiency, protecting market participants against fraud, manipulation, and abusive trading practices, and by ensuring the financial integrity of the clearing process. Through effective oversight, the CFTC enables the futures markets to serve the important function of providing a means for price discovery and offsetting price risk.

The CFTC's mission is to protect market users and the public from fraud, manipulation, abusive practices and systemic risk related to derivatives that are subject to the Commodity Exchange Act, and to foster open, competitive, and financially sound markets.

Commodity Exchange Act

For convenience, we provide the following links to the CEA and related documents:

• Access the Commodity Exchange Act on the Cornell University Law School Website
• Commodity Exchange Act-U.S. Code Conversion Chart
  The CEA section numbers do not always correspond directly to the sections in the U.S. Code where the CEA is codified. As a research tool, we provide a conversion chart that lists the sections of the CEA and the corresponding sections in the U.S. Code. Section 3 of the CEA, for example, is codified at 7 USC 5. This chart has no legal force and is not intended to substitute for review of the statutes to which it refers.
• Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (PDF)
  (Appendix E of P.L.106-554, 114 Stat. 2763) Title XIII of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, PL 110-246, 122 Stat. 2189, which made amendments to the CEA, and the Conference Report

 CFTC Regulations

• CFTC regulations are found at Title 17 Chapter I of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and are available at the U.S. GPO Access website.
• Prior to promulgation and inclusion in the CFR, CFTC proposed and final regulations are published in the Federal Register.
• CFTC Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions - Semiannual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions from Reginfo.gov
  • Select "Commodity Futures Trading Commission" in the “Select Agency” box and click “Submit.”
  • For background on the Unified Agenda, click on the “About the Unified Agenda” link located above the “Select Agency” box.