CFTC to move quickly on position limits

WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will move aggressively to rein in excessive speculation in the energy and metals markets by focusing largely on expanding their existing authority, and could have new regulations in place as early as late October.

"We're looking at a pretty fast time line," Bart Chilton, a CFTC Commissioner, said in an interview. "We're going to use our authority to the fullest extent possible. That doesn't mean we're going to be draconian or go too far."

In response to recent swings in oil prices, the CFTC announced this week it was considering clamping down on big market players by implementing position limits on all commodity futures contracts, focusing especially on energy and metals such as gold and silver.

Chilton said while he couldn't ultimately predict what the CFTC will do, he would like to put out proposed rules in September, open them up to public comment and implement them by late October or November.

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WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday proposed clamping down on dealers in freewheeling markets for little-understood derivatives that helped create a crisis in U.S. and world financial markets.

In testimony at a joint hearing by two congressional panels that will play a role in writing legislation on derivatives, Geithner set out proposals that would make big dealers like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs subject to much stronger supervision than was the case in the past…

Comment: could it be that this Oct/Nov time frame is the time JP Moron et al have to close their humongous short inthe silver market? This action of the past month + in silver has been so far out of wack it is just nonsense. Midas commented yesterday that he wondered if it was JM Moron and company that are driving the price down in order to be able to exit their short position. It sure feels like some act that is not sensible, logical, legal, or for profit. He may have just nailed it. Of course We have had ray;s of hope before so it iw with gaurded enthusiasm that I will hold hope that we may get a small sense of control over the trading/manipulation we have seen in crimex over the last 13+ years.

Fool me seventeen times ...shame on me.