Comment Text:
This communication is to address the issue of the CFTC's proposed 5,000/ 5,500 contract limit in the silver futures market.
This proposed number is patently absurd.
The CFTC knows as well as anyone, that the silver market is so tiny that a 5+ thousand contract limit is a joke as far as limits go, and is far more massive still than any other commodity, and is more than plenty to manipulate the market with, whatever direction any party desires. Down as has been the historic norm for the mega banks with their endless barrage of shorts assaulting the markets.
Irrespective of the fact that a 5+ thousand contract limit is way bellow current levels of open positions for single entities, and apparently it only appears low enough to regulators because the current positions are so obscenely outsized, far larger than any other commodity in the history of the planet, and markets.
There has been much banter about a 1,500 limit, but even that is too much for the mega banks.
In my informed opinion these elite entities, all two of them, and their front proxies, should be prevented from even entering the silver market at all. These mega banks are so massive that even a single one has been allowed to control derivatives nominally valued at more than 5 times the entire US annual GDP. This is outrageous! Anyone remember AT&T? Didn't that company get broken up because it got to big, and supposedly "uncompetitive"? How about the electric companies? Anyone? Same thing. This situation with these TBTF banks is about 20,000 times more out of control than that, and where are the regulators? Venality prevails. AT&T wasn't in the business of creating wealth out of thin air. Neither did they have the political control that these entities currently wield.
If these banks were operating according to existing commodity law, and not operating with the endless list of faux wares with a silver tag on them, and ultimately backed by nothing, they would never even be interested in participating in this tiny market to begin with as there is no room for the kind of money these elite entities throw around on a daily basis.
Instead, we have a situation where the actual value of the real metal in play, is utterly dwarfed by the faux, modern alchemist creations of the very banks that have been rigging the markets for decades, always to the downside. I don't even need to go into the possible other agendas regarding metals suppression, as most reading this will be well aware.
What's more, there's been a 2.5 year CFTC criminal investigation into the silver market manipulation, with zero, nadda, results to date. This is nothing short of time buying complicity on the part of the CFTC IMO. The supreme irony is the fact that virtually every piece of evidence of criminal manipulation of the silver market specifically, is in fact the CFTC publications themselves. This is clearly complicity. Or, it is incompetence on a level that is simply not credible as "incompetence" by any measure.
The two "mystery" banks, and all other TBTF entities, have no legitimate business even in the silver market at all, and this is a loud NO vote for them to even be there at all.
If these entities disappeared from the face of the Earth today, the only losers would be the criminals at their respective helms, and the puppeteers that control them.
IMO, 1,500 contracts is too much, and 5+ thousand is ridiculous! Zero is the equitable number for the mega institutions.
The big banks non participation would benefit an endless list of legitimate participants, i.e., legitimate speculators, investors, producers, and the like. The fact that the price of silver will go parabolic absent these monstrous entities' involvement should be, not only further evidence, and proof that these mega TBTF entities have been manipulating the show downward for at least two decades, but is the only mechanism which will bring the necessary amount of silver into production with which to feed industry. It's called free market dynamics, which are waaayy out of balance because of the distortions these mega players inflict on the markets.
The days of readily available silver, which is so critical to technological progress in general, not to mention national security issues, are about to end abruptly, entirely due to the long term rigging of this market.
This absurd "favor" of a 5,000/ 5,500 contract limit, to the giant banking cartel is just that, absurd.
In addition it should be reiterated that these mega banks are engaged in ongoing criminal activities in the markets, and to which the CFTC now proposes to lend a "favor" of a massive 5+ thousand contract limit. That's an utter farce, and one which merely provides continuity to the crimes that are ongoing, and which have yet to meet any opposition by the "authorities". Nice job guys! Well done! The one, or two guys that are actually doing something, and actually do have the interests of law abiding people in mind, and are moving to that end, excepted from that sarcasm.
My vote, and that of countless others, for which I can confidently speak, is 1,500 max! And no "exemptions" for anything but actual producers of silver. Any exemptions for non producers is pure fraud, and is yet another element of continuity of crime by the elite "way too big" banks.
The best solution is to prevent the involvement of the elite mega banks altogether. There is no legitimate reason for them to be there at all, period, and every reason to eliminate them. Their presence is only disruptive of free market principals.
Perhaps the argument could be made that most of this commentary is out of line with the intention of the public commentary for this topic. However, I disagree with that assessment. if one does their due diligence, they will find that it is all entirely relevant, and even if more than a little redundant, and a sizable diatribe, needs to be said, repeatedly, and is highly relevant, and directly relates to position limits - the how, and why, quantity, etc.
I sincerely thank the CFTC for creating the opportunity to be heard, the scathing accusations from me, and my opinions, notwithstanding.
Erik Segelstrom
