Futurisation forces hundreds of traders to sit exams

Swaps-to-futures switch at Ice – plus hedge fund regulatory changes – behind threefold jump in numbers taking futures trading exam

Hundreds of energy traders in the US are going back to school in order to obtain the series three futures trading licence offered by the National Futures Association (NFA) - one of the more benign side-effects of regulatory change, but one that has caused its fair share of confusion.

The initial surge occurred in October, when Ice converted cleared over-the-counter energy swaps - which require no licence to trade - into energy futures, which do. That forced banks, brokers and other market