The first literary project at newauthority.com is a preservation and study effort. We intend to reissue and to comment on Technical Bulletin 1001. This is a document produced during the early years of Commodity Futures trading in the Twentieth Century. This one hundred and thirty-four page document is valuable because of its unique view into the records of one of the largest brokerage firms in Chicago. This view into actual trading records of clients of the brokerage is unparalleled to this day. The forward of Technical Bulletin 1001 says it all:

Federal regulation of the commodity futures markets began in 1922. Since that time Federal Agencies regulate and study trading operations on commodity exchanges. The Commodity Exchange Act amendments of 1936 provided more extensive regulatory and study powers to the Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Exchange Authority. These powers allowed for the first time a real view into the working of the futures markets.
The Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Exchange Authority began work on Technical Bulletin 1001 in 1939. War and a reduction in funds delayed and limited the efforts of the Commodity Exchange Authority. In spite of these obstacles the CEA produced a valuable study. The CEA used the technology of the era to analyze data obtained from the Chicago brokerage. It is possible now to use modern technology to analyze data in Technical Bulletin 1001. This may lead to new conclusions. Since its publication in 1949 Technical Bulletin 1001 served many futures traders as a guide. Some of the conclusions reached in the Bulletin passed into the lore of the futures trade. One of these conclusions is that a majority of small speculators lose money trading futures.  A bright spot in Technical Bulletin 1001 is Trader 7732. This California businessman had the largest profits among the traders studied. The record of his trading activity is one of the most valuable parts of this CEA study. For many years brokerage firms distributed publications derived from the Bulletin. These publications not only warned of the dangers in trading futures but also presented the excellent trading example, Trader 7732. The USDA’s CEA closed in the 1970’s. This facility, newauthority.com., aims to continue the CEA’s tradition of study.