Comment Text:
Katherine Holland
40 Hedgerow Lane
Warren, ME 04864-4294
April 11, 2011
David Stawick
Secretary, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581
Dear Mr. Stawick:
Why are gas and home heating oil prices nearing $4 per gallon when oil supplies are plentiful? Excessive speculation hurt the economy in 2008 and is doing it again in 2011. Speculators have raised their positions in energy markets by 64 percent compared to June 2008, bringing speculation to the highest level on record.
We need meaningful, effective speculative position limits to restore balance to commodities markets and ensure that they are connected to market fundamentals, so that cannot distort caused by excessive speculation. In particular, I:
• request that the Commission require speculators to take delivery of the oil that they "purchase" by the end of the trade date; • support the Commission's immediate adoption of spot-month speculative position limits; • urge the Commission to adopt: effective back-month levels that will accomplish the legislative purpose of curbing excessive speculation; • single-month limits that are no higher than two-thirds of the all-months-combined levels; • a position-accountability regime for the nonspot months in place of its proposed position-visibility rule; and • lower speculative position limits for passive, long-only traders.
Please act quickly. Our pocketbooks and the broader economy depend on it.
Sincerely,
Katherine Holland
207-273-3223
