Archive for 15/12/2010

CFTC position limits - coming soon

Here’s a great piece in the mainstream press about the position limits that will be imposed by the CFTC. You might recall I posted a letter based on a campaign by Ted Butler during the public hearing part of the discussion process at the CFTC earlier this year.

The funny thing about this article is the headline is wrong, and very misleading. Bart Chilton has been a vocal proponent of doing the right thing, ie imposing limits and ending the blatant manipulation by a very small number of big banks, especially in silver. So - ignore the headline.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-14/cftc-should-resist-lobbying-on-speculation-limits-chilton-says.html

You will note the mention of Gary Gensler, the CFTC Chairman, who is now memorialized in public thanks to this article as a proponent of the changes. And you will notice the timing - mid-January for energy and metals. There has been speculation that the dates would slip but the slant of this article seems to say that won’t happen.

JP Morgan went on record this week to say they would reduce their short position in silver, and it’s true their short position has gradually been reduced over recent weeks. But there’s still a long way to go. The meeting at the CFTC tomorrow will be significant, and one outcome is the mid-Jan deadline being upheld. That would mean a lot of short covering in the next few weeks.

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