Wool and Wool Top Futures: A Survey of Open Contracts on the Wool Associates of the New York Cotton Exchange, Inc., October 29, 1954

Excerpts from the report Foreword: Wool was placed under the Commodity Exchange Act by an act of Congress approved by the President on August 28, 1954. Under this legislation the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act were made applicable to wool as of October 27, 1954. One of the first steps taken under the new regulatory program was to get the positions of all traders in the wool futures market. This was done by a complete survey of the positions in wool futures as of Friday, October 29, 1954. This survey, giving a complete cross section and the composition of the wool market, provides a point of reference at the inception of regulation of trading in wool futures under the Commodity Exchange Act. The trading in wool futures is conducted on only one exchange in the United States--the Wool Associates of the New York Cotton Exchange, Inc. This is also the contract market for futures trading in wool tops, a semimanufactured product of wool. The market in wool tops was started in 1931, and wool tops were placed under the Commodity Exchange Act in 1938, prior to the beginning of trading in wool futures. The survey of October 29, 1954, covers both the wool and wool top futures markets. It provides information on the number of traders, the relative size of their positions, the amount of speculative as compared with hedging positions, and data on the geographical location and occupations of persons holding positions in wool and wool top futures. The following report gives for the first time a full picture of the composition of the closely related wool and wool top futures markets.