Opinion ID: 372623
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Overview of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Text: 3 On October 23, 1974, to remedy perceived abuses in commodity transactions, Congress extensively amended the Commodity Exchange Act by enacting the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974, Pub.L.No.93-463, 88 Stat. 1389. The 1974 Act created the CFTC, an independent federal regulatory agency, to administer the Act and enforce its provisions. Congress determined that (t)he public interest . . . requires that these markets operate under close scrutiny so that they serve their legitimate market functions. H.R.Rep.No.93-975, 93rd Cong., 2d Sess. 34 (1974). The CFTC, as one aspect of this scrutiny, was empowered to go directly into federal court to seek injunctive relief restraining any person from violating the Act. 7 U.S.C. § 13a-1. The substantive content of the regulatory framework for commodity market professionals created in 1974 included a broad definition of the term commodity trading advisor, 1 registration and recordkeeping requirements, 2 and antifraud standards analogous to those in other federal securities laws. 3 4