478
Opinion of the Court
such options. We agree that Congress intended no such anomaly. But we are satisfied that the anomaly is best avoided by reading the proviso broadly rather than reading the exemption narrowly.
The proviso's language fairly accommodates inclusion of both options and futures. To fall within the proviso, a transaction must "involve the sale [of foreign currency] for future delivery." § 2(ii) (emphasis added). Because options convey the right to buy or sell foreign currency at some future time prior to their expiration, they are transactions "involv-[ing]" or related to the sale of foreign currency for future delivery. Thus, both futures and options are covered by both the exemption and the proviso. While that may not be the only possible reading of the literal text, and we do not intend to suggest that a similar construction would be required with respect to other provisions of the CEA, our interpretation is faithful to the "contemporary legal context" in which the Treasury Amendment was drafted. Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 699 (1979); see also Massachusetts v. Morash, 490 U. S. 107, 115 (1989) (noting that " 'in expounding a statute, we [are] not . . . guided by a single sentence or member of a sentence, but look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy' ") (quoting Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U. S. 41, 51 (1987)).
Finally, the CFTC calls our attention to statements in the legislative history of a 1982 amendment to the CEA,13 indicating that the drafters of that amendment believed that the CFTC had the authority to regulate foreign currency options "when they are traded other than on a national securities exchange." See S. Rep. No. 97-384, p. 22 (1982). Those statements, at best, might be described as "legislative dicta" because the 1982 amendment itself merely resolved a conflict between the Securities Exchange Commission and the CFTC
13 Futures Trading Act of 1982, Tit. I, § 102, 96 Stat. 2296, 7 U. S. C. § 6c(f).
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