Comment Text:
Dear Commissioners:
I have owned and traded precious metals for some time, and am continually frustrated by artificial shorts in the gold and silver markets. The after-hours market action yesterday (February 24th, 2011) with an apparent massive bear raid on no news, followed by an immediate rise in global trading, looks for all the world like an attempt to shake out weak positions in the March contract. This type of action should be investigated, and action taken if laws were broken. The complete lack of transparency is frustrating, to say the least.
At the very least, 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.
Please institute a 1500 contract (7.5 million ounce) position limit for silver.
Thank you for your consideration,
Kurt Wiedenhoeft
