ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in this book. The enactment of new financial services legislation is often followed by years, even decades, of prolonged and complex litigation in which the courts define the terms of the statute and set the limits of its reach. Congress circumvented this extended judicial review process for the new antimanipulative powers that it gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The historical antimanipulation authority in the Commodity Exchange Act before the passage of Dodd-Frank covers what is stated to be non-fraud-based manipulation. Dodd-Frank and other legislation designed to deter and punish manipulation will provide no panacea for halting volatile stock and commodity prices. The conflicts that arise in applying a tort-based scienter test to manipulative market trading have given rise to an unresolved debate in the courts over whether open-market trades can constitute manipulation.