Farm Bill Stands to Overhaul Retail Forex Industry

http://seekingalpha.com/article/77525-farm-bill-stands-to-overhaul-retail-forex-industry

The Farm Bill was finally passed by the US Senate Thursday and it stands to overhaul the entire FX industry.

As far as I understand, in the past, the National Futures Association governed the Retail Forex industry, but now under the Farm Bill, that jurisdiction moves to the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) which regulates the commodities and futures markets in the US.

The biggest changes brought forth by the Farm Bill is the requirement for all retail forex brokers and introducing brokers to be regulated AND meet specific capital requirements.
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What is the FOREX (Foreign Exchange)market?

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market

The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex and related markets is continously growing and was last reported to be over US$ 4 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlement.<1>


see: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/03/091703.asp

With the increasingly widespread availability of electronic trading networks, trading on the currency exchanges is now more accessible than ever. The foreign exchange market, or forex, is notoriously the domain of government central banks and commercial and investment banks, not to mention hedge funds and massive international corporations. At first glance, the presence of such heavyweight entities may appear rather daunting to the individual investor. But the presence of such powerful groups and such a massive international market can also work to the benefit of the individual trader. The forex offers trading 24-hours a day, five days a week, and the daily dollar volume of currencies traded in the currency market exceeded $3 trillion in 2007 (according to the 2007 Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivative Market Activity), making it the largest and most liquid market in the world.