Comment Text:
Thomas Stack
4056 N. Monitor Ave.
Chicago, IL 60634-1731
March 24, 2011
David Stawick
Secretary, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581
Dear Mr. Stawick:
I am in agreement with the standardized statement below and I would also like to state that the continued speculative activities of the commodity
market(s) are only benefiting the speculative players and the minority trading forums that fund such activity. We cannot allow a relative few to wreak such havoc on our economy and the world economies in general.
Market regulation is not a bad thing when such regulation is imposed to reign in practices that our counter to sound trading principles. It is counterintuitive for speculation to thrive when the core fundamentals of the markets so affected do not support the speculative condition that is artificially created - in other words if the supply situation of a commodity is only experiencing modest shifts up or down in availability, trading activity should reflect that - not this hyped up bias that inflates pricing way beyond what true fundamentals indicate.
Please fix this now!!!!
Excessive speculation hurt the economy in 2008 and, once again, is harming the economy in 2011. According to data recently released by the Commission, speculators have raised their positions in energy markets by
64 percent compared to June 2008, bringing speculation to the highest level on record.
We need meaningful, effective speculative position limits to restore balance to commodities markets and ensure that they are connected to market fundamentals, so that they fulfill their price-discovery function properly and without distortions caused by excessive speculation. In particular, I:
• support the Commission's immediate adoption of spot-month speculative position limits; • urge the Commission to adopt effective back-month levels that will accomplish the legislative purpose of curbing excessive speculation; • urge the Commission to adopt single-month limits that are no higher than two-thirds of the all-months-combined levels; • urge the Commission immediately to adopt a position-accountability regime for the nonspot months in place of its proposed position-visibility rule; and • urge the Commission to adopt lower speculative position limits for passive, long-only traders.
Time is of the essence, and I urge you to act quickly. Our pocketbooks and the broader economy depend on it.
Sincerely,
Thomas Stack
773-545-6693
