Increased energy market supervision; CFTC regulation

There is an interesting story by Reuters about how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.K’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) have announced they will closely moniter energy markets. The story also details some of the CFTC’s plans to tighten commodity trading rules, including position limits in U.S. futures markets and sujecting more  over-the-counter derivatives subject to mandatory clearing. Under [...]

Recap of first CFTC hearing into speculation

Commodify Me! has been busy with the daily grind of life and would like to apologise for not posting this sooner. Anyway, as we all know, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission held the first of its three hearings last week looking at ways to curb excessive speculation in oil, gas and other engery markets. The [...]

U.S. Senator takes aim at commodity index traders

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network has a brief story about U.S. Senator Susan Collins telling the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Gary Gensler that index traders are distorting markets for wheat, oil and other commodities. Collins has introduced the Commodity Speculation Reform Act, which would limit the number of contracts that non-commercial investors could hold in [...]

Senate probe finds excessive speculation in wheat markets

A story by Reuters about a U.S. Senate report finding excessive speculation in wheat markets: Commodity index traders had snapped up more than 200,000 wheat contracts by mid-2008 that helped fuel last year’s record jump in prices, which ended up raising costs for both industry and consumers, according to a  year-long bipartisan Senate probe. The [...]