Registration with the cftc is generally paired with membership of the nfa, which is where the day-to-day supervision happens: examinations, financial surveillance, promotional material review, and enforcement. Members appear in NFA BASIC, a free public database of registration status and disciplinary history that plays the role finra-brokercheck plays in securities.
NFA rules reach areas the statute leaves open, including standards for promotional material, requirements for supervising associated persons, and specific obligations for retail forex dealers such as reporting the percentage of profitable customer accounts.
Check BASIC before funding any futures or forex account. A firm soliciting US customers without registration is the clearest warning sign available.
Related: nfa, cftc, commodity-trading-advisor, futures-commission-merchant, hypothetical-performance-disclaimer