They did this a couple months ago with the ags/grain complex; seemed to take some of the spec out of those asset classes. Any thoughts?
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Energy markets aren't being manipulated and speculators aren't a ``major factor'' in record prices, the head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said. ``We have a high degree of confidence that people are not manipulating the market,'' Commission Chairman Walter Lukken said today at a Senate hearing. Crude oil futures contracts today touched a record $123.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It closed today at $123.57 a barrel, up more than double a year ago. The commission regulates trading on Nymex and other commodity and options markets. Trading on the markets it regulates increased about 27 percent last year, Lukken said. ``We have not seen that speculators are a major factor in driving these prices,'' Lukken said at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. Market fundamentals ``largely support where prices are at today,'' he said. Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, questioned Lukken about the effects of raising the margin requirements for oil trades. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, has voiced support for increasing the amount of money traders must have on hand to participate in oil markets, in an effort to dissuade speculators. ``There would be migration off exchanges,'' Lukken said of the idea. ``It would be a tax on a type of trader.' To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aX0iaEd9bOMU
``We have a high degree of confidence that people are not manipulating the market,'' Commission Chairman Walter Lukken said today at a Senate hearing. That might be somewhat debateable, but after today, when you have a threefold increase in inventories, gasoline stocks rose more than expected, and the dollar was up .55 cents at one time, that`s bs, no attacks, no news, nothing......total and complete "talking his book" for more volume commissions........that is as disengenuous as it comes!
They did raise the margins yesterday by 11.5%... it didn't seem to take any "gas" out of the markets http://nymex.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1842 So does this mean that speculators aren't driving the market? 5yr
thanks spy....price is going up; we will have to see how this margin change affects price, once we have a 3.00 dollar pullback in CL.......
5yr under normal market conditions, when the inventory reports are expecting one thing, and we get a MUCH bigger than expected build in inventories, with 3 stright weeks each week being bigger than expected in an exponential factor, that coupled with a strong dollar, after being weak the day before, CL should have been negative for the day---yes I contend that CL is the most manipulated trading asset right now in the market--this is crox writ large........they take it up way ahead of funadamentals, plausible demand functions, on sure "PUSH IT UP CAUSE THEY CAN CRAP"!
Yes, if they raise the margin requirements, maybe it'll slow down the 'Speculator-in-Chief". Maybe if they also take away his 'war-chest', the war will also wind-down.
They did raise the margin requirements, they announced it on the 6th. Crude oil has gone straight up since then. I have seen raising margins effect markets before, usually goes done on the day it happens as people adjust their positions, but then continues the trend. Oil didn't even tick down on it, this is one strong market. 5yr
Same guys who gave us the derivative nonsense resulting in the mortgage fiasco are behind the current crude spike. They have more money than God. They don't "trade" markets. They choose a market and make that market. And right now, every ivy-league monkey with connections is leveraged with OPM riding their coat-tails.
another NG build, 3 straight weeks, each week`s build in crude and NG bigger than the previous. People are clueless if they do`t think specs are behind this bs, nothing fundamentally has changed in oil to account for this move. It will be an interesting ride on the way down, just like a Miami Condo, somebody bought at the top of that market as well, they thought 8-12 million for a small condo was a Great Deal, they could sell it 6 months later for 18 million!