Comment Text:
Dear CFTC:
We respectfully request that you implement position limits for silver at 1500 contracts (7.5 million troy ounces of silver).
Now that you have had a chance to review the manipulative affect of very large naked shorting by certain large "players" we hope that the facts will impel you to implement such position limits effective immediately.
If you do not, it will be clear to us, as well as to many others, that your ability and willingness to effectively regulate the markets has been compromised to the point that you simply are not capable of protecting the public interest. This, of course, will be consistent with Wall Street's capture of other regulators and their past failure to protect the public interest.
We speak as investors who withdrew most of our capital from the equity exchanges after the May 2011 flash crash. This egregious flash crash abuse, undoubtedly caused by high frequency trading, the lack of enforcement of rules against submitting trades in bad faith that are immediately canceled, and the ability of Wall Street to co-locate computers to front-run the public's trades before they even hit the exchange floors, was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, when it came to our ability to believe that the equity markets are not completely rigged. We could go on about FINRA's manifest failures vis-a-vis IndyMac, the SEC's other failures vis-avis the Madoff scandal, naked shorting by large Wall Street firms, egregious insider trading, the FDIC's ongoing failures to close down insolvent banks in a timely maner, and the New York Federal Reserve's complicity in insisting that AIG's counterparties receive 100% payment for CDS's after they had agreed to take severe haircuts amounting. (We could enumerate more examples, but they are numerous to list here.)
We respectfully request that you consider the implications of refusing to effectively regulate silver through position limits of 1500 contracts. Those with whom we interact often tell me that they have lost faith in markets which increasingly appear to be not merely corrupt, but actively rigged in favor of Wall Street insiders and against the public interests.
We do not believe any meaningful economic recovery will occur until fairness and equity are restored to the capital markets.
I hope that the CFTC will take action to help restore public faith in American financial markets by implementing the requested position limits for silver.
Thank you.
Very Truly Yours,
Randehl K. & Janis F. Stevenson
