ed steer doesn't expect the cftc to enact and/or enforce position limits on silver, and i agree with him.

In a private letter to clients yesterday, Ted Butler had this to say about the Bank Participation Report... "What JPM did in the past month [since the September BPR - Ed] is contrary to everything that Chairman Gensler has spoken out against since he has been in office. The current [and forever] silver investigation came as a direct result of the Bank Participation Report of August 2008... and my urgings for readers to write in to the Commission. This new BPR is much worse than that one. JPMorgan is now short almost 30% of world silver production. This at a time when mining companies are retreating from hedging their production."

Oh... and one more layer of icing on this particular cake. The current position limits per trading entity [for all months] is 6,000 contracts for gold, and 6,000 contracts for silver. According to this Bank Participation Report... JPMorgan and HSBC are short 116,790 contracts in gold and 35,874 in silver. If they followed the CFTC regulations, the total short [or long] position allowed is 12,000 contracts total for both banks. So, they are currently 104,790 contracts over the position limit in gold, and 23,874 contracts over the position limit in silver.

The CFTC will not even enforce these limits. At the moment, there are effectively no limits in gold or silver. The bullion banks are allowed to short whatever quantities of gold and silver on the Comex that's necessary to control their respective prices... and that's exactly what they've been doing for the last 20+ years!. And you wonder why the prices of both metals are going nowhere [relatively speaking]. And your gold and silver mining companies haven't lifted a finger to help you. Not one of them has written a letter to the CFTC and complained. The words 'fiduciary duty' [as it applies to their shareholders] appears to mean nothing to them.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayGsd.php