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A futures contract is a derivative, but the futures exchange doesn't call them 'derivatives,' they call them 'futures.'

Life can be lived at a remove. You trade in futures, and then you trade in derivatives of futures. Banks make more money trading derivatives than they do trading actual commodities.

Derivatives trading should be standardized and as much as possible moved to clearinghouses.

Oil futures were originally created to give heating oil dealers, gas retailers, aviation companies and other businesses a method of hedging against adverse price changes. Instead, they've become just another Wall Street plaything.

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

When they are employed wisely, derivatives make the world simpler because they give their buyers an ability to manage and transfer risk.

I found that options traders - the Amex was mainly an options exchange - routinely conspired to keep as wide as possible the spreads between the prices investors paid and the prices floor traders paid for the same securities.

Derivatives in and of themselves are not evil. There's nothing evil about how they're traded, how they're accounted for, and how they're financed, like any other financial instrument, if done properly.

An unregulated derivatives market essentially gives Wall Street a way to place hidden taxes on everything in the world.

The marginal people on the trading desks, there's no skill set. If they don't trade derivatives, I don't know what they can do. The next stop is driving a cab.