USEFUL LINKS FOR ECONOMICS OF FUTURES MARKETS

Market Regulatory Agencies

1. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
2. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Futures Exchanges

1. Chicago Board of Trade  (CBOT)
2. Chicago Mercantile Exchange  (CME)
3. New York Board of Trade.  (NYBOT)
4. Kansas City Board Of Trade  (KCBT)
5. New York Mercantile Exchange  (NYME & COMEX)
6. Minneapolis Grain Exchange  (MGEX)
7. OneChicago (Futures on Individual Stocks)

Other Exchanges

1. American Stock Exchange AMEX
2. NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ)
3. New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
4. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
• Gives information as well as price quotes for options traded on the CBOE.

Futures Market Information.

1. Commodity Futures & Financial Market Charts, Quotes and Margin Requirements 
• In addition to some charts, this web site has a discussion group, a live chat room, a glossary and a pretty good short course on futures markets and trading.
2. Futures Guide
• Lists current futures prices and prices for the past month.  Also has some market news and prices for futures options.
3. Quote Watch
• Futures price quotes.
4. Futures Abbreviations and Symbols
• A listing of symbols for futures months and contracts.
5. Great Pacific Trading Company
• A full service brokerage firm.  This is another place to get price quotes along with some other information and links.
6. Futures Margin Requirements
• You will need to determine margin requirements for your project and paper trading.  You can get them here.
7. Barchart.com
• This is a nice web site where you can do custom charts for either futures or stocks
8. The Stocks & Commodities Novice Trader's Notebook
• Has some good explanations of some of the concepts and tools of technical analysis.
9. USDA Statistics
• You can find USDA statistics here which may be useful for your project.

Stock Market Information

1. Yahoo Finance
• This is my favorite place to get stock market quotes.  You will need  a user name and password.  It's easy, just follow the instructions.  There is no charge for this service.   You can create a portfolio of stocks you want to watch.  The nice thing about this site is that it gives you news releases for stocks along with the quotes.  This will be helpful when gathering information for your paper.
2. Free Realtime.com
• This site gives real time ECN quotes along with 20 minute delayed exchange quotes.  You will have to register for this site but there is no charge.
3. Microsoft Investor
• This is a pretty nice site and includes some stock screener.  You will need to register for some of the best stuff.
4. Earnings Wispers.com
• A good site for earnings report dates and forecasts.
5. Stockcharts.com
• An excellent website for customized charts

Other Links

1. The Motley Fool
• The Motley Fool is a great place to start if you want to learn more about investing.
2. Bloomberg.com
• Lots of information on this site.  You can even get Bloomberg TV or Radio through your computer.  Also check out Bloomberg University for free online investing courses.
3. The Investment FAQ
• This is an excellent guide to various types of investments.  It also includes investment advice and tax information.  Portions of this guide will be required reading during the semester.