Comment Text:
Dear Chairman Gensler and fellow Commissioners:
I have included a form letter that I agree with for your consideration. I wish to explain why I agree with the form letter. I do not buy options, but I do buy silver whenever I have extra money.
There are few things people like me can do to prepare for the difficult economic times ahead. Our homes have lost most of their value, our wages have decreased, food and energy are way up and it looks like future will be even worse. Lots of us have a few old silver coins and we try to buy more when we can. Those few silver coins (whether they are worth a few hundred or a few thousand) may make the difference of our families survival in the next few years. They are the only things that may go up in value. A few hundred dollars in silver is likely to go up in value more than a few thousand dollars in a bank account. Silver can make a difference for the average American. It does not seem like the government has any interest in the welfare of the average person. You can, by setting the position limits to a low enough figure, give us a chance to survive with respect. Let silver have a chance to find its fair market value. I am sure that value will be much higher than the current price. That would give a little longer to buy food for our families if things got much worse. We beg you to not give the big banks the right to control the price of silver. We beg you to give back to the American people the opportunity of controlling our own future as much as possible.
I urge you to approve the staff’s proposal on position limits, including limiting exemptions to bona fide hedgers. I would ask you, however, to readjust the proposed formula in silver. The current formula would result in a position limit of over 5,000 contracts for any single speculator, on an all-months-combined basis. 5,000 contracts is the equivalent of 25 million ounces of silver. This is too high of a threshold in light of the realities of the world silver market.
There are only three mining companies in the world who produce more than 25 million ounces of silver per year and only a similar number of industrial consumers using more than that amount. Any speculator holding an amount of silver derivatives greater than what 99% of the world’s silver producers and consumers make or use in a year would have inordinate pricing power. The purpose of speculative position limits is to prevent such a circumstance.
Please institute a 1500 contract (7.5 million ounce) position limit for silver.
Respectfully submitted,
Randy Now
