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From Sagar Chakraverty, Opalesque Asia:

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed on 14-Jan 2010 (report here) to implement speculative position limits on futures and options contracts in certain energy commodities. To prevent excessive concentration in energy trading, the CFTC proposed to cap the number of contracts a company can hold across exchanges.

The proposed regime would act as an effective regulatory tool for controlling market disruptions that could result from uncontrolled speculative trading.

Market participants have 90 days to comment on the proposals before they are put to a vote by the full commission.

The proposed regulations cover four referenced energy commodities. They are: (1) Henry Hub natural gas, (2) light sweet crude oil prices, (3) New York Harbor No. 2 heating oil, and (4) New York Harbor gasoline blend-stock.

These regulations would apply to all CFTC-regulated exchanges. Currently, these four commodities are traded on two reporting markets: the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX); and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), located in Atlanta, Georgia.

This action comes after Gensler declared last month at a CFTC Global Markets Advisory Committee meeting (here): "If we don't reform our regulatory system, others around the globe w......................

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