Comment Text:
The staff recommendation of a 5000 contract limit for silver is a joke. Allowing banks to exceed that limit by three or four times through hedging exemptions is also hilarious. The CFTC needs to get realistic about making the silver market a fair trading arena.
Over 3000 members of the public recommended contract limits of 1200 to 1500 contracts, and those recommendations were arrogantly ignored by the staff recommendation of a 5000 contract limit. Allowing the big four traders to exceed even that limit is further evidence that the CFTC has lost credibility as a disinterested market referee.
Off topic, but related, is the failure of the enforcement division to even acknowledge repeated instances of market manipulation in silver, the latest of which occurred Thursday, February 24, when silver long holders were shaken out by a $1.50 decrease that occurred in a few minutes. It takes huge market power to create a move like that when physical supplies are simultaneously extremely tight. What good is the CFTC when they cannot even recognize, let alone prevent, a market crime in progress.
My vote is for the CFTC to adopt a 1200 contract limit in silver. It will assure that no concentration can exist. The few legitimate miners who hedge on a larger scale would qualify for hedge exemptions.
Again, CFTC foot dragging with its investigations, failure to recognize manipulation, and recommendation of ineffective reforms, has destroyed public trust in it; and planted the idea that the CFTC is merely an extension of the CME.
