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CFTC approves Cantor’s futures contract on The Expendables

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has voted to approve the Cantor Futures Exchange’s Domestic Box Office Receipts futures contract on the motion picture The Expendables.

This includes specific modifications requested by the CFTC to guard against manipulation or any other abusive conduct in the trading of any contract by knowledgeable and informed sources within the studio or distribution company.

The Commission previously issued a statement on 14 June 2010 approving the Media Derivatives Exchange’s (MDEX) Weekend Motion Picture Revenue futures and binary option contracts for the motion picture Takers.

The Commission finds the issues raised by the MDEX contracts for Takers – regarding whether the underlying is a commodity, whether the contract is readily susceptible to manipulation and the contract’s economic utility – are essentially the same for the Cantor DBOR contract currently under review. 

Based on its review, the CFTC says it finds no material difference between the DBOR contract and the MDEX contracts approved on 14 June and accordingly find that the Cantor DBOR futures contract is based on a commodity, is not susceptible to manipulation and can be used to fulfil an economic hedging purpose.

Section 5c(c)(3) of the Act requires the Commission to “approve any such new contract or instrument… unless the Commission finds that the new contract or instrument…would violate this Act.”

The Commission does not believe that the terms and conditions of the proposed DBOR futures contract violate the Act or the Commission’s regulations.

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