Designated contract market

A designated contract market is a CFTC-registered futures exchange. Registration status matters for the anti-spoofing provision, which is tied to trading on a registered entity.

Also known as DCM. compliance and practice · updated 2026-09-08

Where does designated contract market come up?

This term is used in the following manipulation techniques, each explained in full on its own page.

• Spoofing — Spoofing is placing orders a trader intends to cancel before execution, to create a false impression of supply or demand and move the price toward a smaller genuine order on the other side.

Enforcement actions involving these techniques

See also

• CEA section 4c(a)(5)(C) — Section 4c(a)(5)(C) of the Commodity Exchange Act is the express anti-spoofing provision added by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. It p…
• Futures contract — A futures contract is a standardised agreement to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a set future date, traded on a designated…

Terms that refer here

Registered entity

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