Grain Futures Act of 1922

In 1922, the U.S. Congress passed a law stipulating that all grain futures (derivative contracts for things like wheat or corn) had to trade on exchanges with an adequate regulatory apparatus. (We know...the name is really boring. They probably thought about the name for a while, but eventually it got to be happy hour, so they gave up and just went with The Grain Futures Act of 1922.)

Previously, Congress had passed the Futures Trading Act of 1921 (another law they spent a long time naming). It was declared unconstitutional. So, Congress went back to the well in 1922, tweaking the bill somewhat.

The 1922 law laid out what a commodity contract should look like and banned unregulated trading. Meanwhile, the Grain Futures Act set up the Grain Futures Commission, an organization to oversee the process. This eventually developed into the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.