History
In the United States, trading of futures contracts for agricultural commodities dates back to at least the 1850s. In the 1920s, the federal government proposed the first regulation aimed at futures trading, and passed the Grain Futures Act in 1922. Following amendments in 1936, this law was replaced by the Commodity Exchange Act. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was established in 1974, under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act. The regulation led to the recognition of a new group of money managers including CTAs. At that time, the funds they operated became known as managed futures. In the late 1970s, the relatively new managed futures funds began to gain acceptance. Although the majority of trading was still in futures contracts for agricultural commodities, exchanges started to introduce futures contracts on other assets, including currencies and bonds. In the 1980s, the futures industry developed significantly following the introduction of non-commodity related futures and by 2004 managed futures had become a $130 billion dollar industry.
Read more about this topic: Managed Futures Account
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