Useless: Commodity regulators back limits on energy trading

The nation’s top commodities regulator today advanced new rules aimed at keeping a handful of speculators from dominating the energy futures markets.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 4-1 to formally propose capping the number of futures contracts that traders can hold in natural gas, crude oil, heating oil and gasoline, with broad exemptions for some groups.

The rule, subject to a 90-day public comment period before it can take effect, would touch only the biggest energy traders. As many as 10 nationwide would have to scale back their positions if the caps were in place today, according to CFTC staff.

The proposal is less restrictive than many traders anticipated when CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler last July announced the panel would consider position limits in response to concerns that a small concentration of big traders had manipulated energy prices and caused wild swings in the cost of crude oil.

Commissioner Bart Chilton said the proposed limits "err on the high side" but "would still ensure that the very largest traders’ positions— those with the greatest potential for causing market contortions—would be limited."

If the limits were too restrictive, Chilton noted, they could spur traders to flee the regulated markets by moving activity off the exchanges and overseas, where they could evade the new caps.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6815686.html

Useless: Commodity regulators back limits on energy trading

Useless: Commodity regulators back limits on energy trading

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