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WASHINGTON — Federal regulators will examine whether the government should impose limits on the number of futures contracts in oil and other energy commodities held by speculative traders, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday.
The agency will hold a public hearing this month to gather views, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement.
By law, the CFTC sets limits on the amount of futures contracts in agricultural products that can be held by each market participant to protect the market against manipulation. But for energy commodities — crude oil, heating oil, natural gas, gasoline and other energy products — it is the futures exchanges themselves that set the position limits. The Associated Press
