It is estimated that worldwide there are between 500 and 1,000 million futures and options contracts traded each year. Exchanges in developed countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Japan are being challenged by new arrivals in developing countries like Brazil. Thousands of people are now employed in this industry and for each thousand there are perhaps a dozen regulators, let alone academics and others interested in the field. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that a publisher should consider producing this new Review.

The first edition contains three articles: one by the editor Edward J. Swan, giving a general historical perspective on the development of derivatives regulation in the U.S.; one by Iain Cullen on the particular legal pitfalls for custodians for investors involved in derivative trading in the U.K.; and one by Joao Afonso de Silveira de Assis and Marcelo Santos Barbosa on the