U.S. Considers Curbs on Speculative Trading of Oil
"My firm belief is that we must aggressively use all existing authorities to ensure market integrity," Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
said in a statement.
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS/AP
Published: July 7, 2009
WASHINGTON — Reacting to swings in oil prices in recent months, federal regulators announced on Tuesday that they were considering trading restrictions on hedge funds and other “speculative” traders in markets for oil, natural gas and other energy products.
In a big departure from the hands-off approach to market regulation of the last two decades, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, said his agency would consider new limits on the volume of energy futures contracts that purely financial investors would be allowed to hold.
The agency also announced that it would pull back part of the veil on the oil and gas markets, publishing more detailed information about the aggregate activity of hedge funds and traders who arbitrage between domestic and foreign energy prices.
“My firm belief is that we must aggressively use all existing authorities to ensure market integrity,” Mr. Gensler said in a written statement.
Mr. Gensler announced that his agency will hold several hearings in July and August, the first of which will examine whether to impose federal “speculative limits” on futures contracts for energy products.
Oil prices have swung wildly in the last year, hitting about $145 a barrel last summer, then plunging to $33 in December before rising to about $70.
Much of that gyration stemmed from chaos in the global financial system, as banks and much of Wall Street came perilously close to collapse last September and the global economy fell into the most severe recession in decades.
But a growing number of critics have blamed some of the extreme volatility on the role of purely financial investors — those who are simply betting on the direction of energy prices, as opposed to those who actually use such products, like airlines.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent regulatory agency that regulates the trading of futures contracts for commodities ranging from wheat and corn to oil, precious metals and currencies, has for years followed a deregulatory path that rarely interfered with the burgeoning markets they regulated.
Federal officials said “speculative” traders were primarily those that the agency defines as “non-commercial,” which are essentially financial investors who are not users or producers of the commodities and are primarily interested in betting on the direction of prices. “Commercial users,” by contrast, include farmers, airlines and oil companies that want to hedge against the risk of rapid price changes.
Non-commercial traders accounted for almost a fifth of the activity in several major oil and gas products for the week that ended June 30, according to data compiled by the commodities agency.
Mr. Gensler, who was nominated by President Obama and took over the agency earlier this year, made it clear that he is pushing toward tighter regulation on several fronts. His efforts mirror actions taken by the Justice Department to strengthen antitrust enforcement and by financial regulators to police banks and investment firms much more closely.
Mr. Gensler noted that his agency already imposes volume limits on speculative trading in agricultural products like wheat and corn. But in the case of energy products, the agency allows the futures exchanges — primarily the New York Mercantile Exchange — to set limits.
A future is a contract to buy or to sell a particular volume of a commodity by a particular date. Futures contracts were originally created to help farmers shield themselves from price volatility between the time they planted their crops and the time of harvest. But futures are now used to hedge price swings in everything from oil and gas to electricity, Treasury bonds and foreign currencies.
In the case of energy products, Mr. Gensler said, the exchanges were not required to set or enforce position limits aimed at preventing “excessive speculation.” The contrast between approaches taken for agricultural and energy commodities, he said, “deserves thoughtful review.”
Mr. Gensler added that the agency would be reviewing the manner in which traders receive exemptions from trading limits by claiming the need to carry out “bona fide hedging transactions.
SPEKULATOR BUKAN OPEC PENENTU HARGA MINYAK
SPECULATIVE TRADING OF OIL TO BE CURBED
SPEKULATOR BUKAN OPEC PENENTU HARGA MINYAK DUNIA
Pasaran Hadapan Komoditi atau (Commodity Future Market) digunakan oleh bank, petani, pengeluar atau pengeksport, pengurus dana dan pengguna sesuatu komoditi sebagai satu kaedah bertahan terhadap kerugian yang mungkin berlaku ("hedging"). Ia juga merupakan suatu spekulasi tentang kenaikan atau penurunan sesuatu komoditi seperti petroleum.
Trading atau perniagaan (jual beli) kontrak hadapan memiliki beberapa kelebihan berbanding dengan perniagaan saham. Pertama ialah "leverage" atau peluang membuat duit yang berlipat kali ganda berbanding dengan modal yang dikeluarkan. Dalam kes petroleum, untuk membeli saham komoditi minyak petroleum adalah mahal tetapi untuk membeli kontrak hadapan minyak petroleum adalah sangat murah. Kenaikan harga satu peratus diterjemahkan kepada keuntungan berpuluh peratus. Kedua, perniagaan kontrak pasaran hadapan dikenakan komisyen yang sangat rendah tetapi komisyen untuk membeli atau menjual saham adalah tinggi. Ketiga, perniagaan pasaran hadapan memberi keuntungan kepada peniaga tak kira sama ada pasaran bullish atau bearish. Walau bagaimanapun pasaran hadapan mempunyai risikonya yang tersendiri.
Petikan dari akhbar the Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060200091.html
"Naturally, since the past few years, the US financial sector has begun to turn its attention from currency and stock markets to commodity markets. According to The Economist, about $260 billion has been invested into the commodity market -- up nearly 20 times from what it was in 2003.
Coinciding with a weak dollar and this speculative interest of the US financial sector, prices of commodities have soared globally.
And most of these investments are bets placed by hedge and pension funds, always on the lookout for risky but high-yielding investments. What is indeed interesting to note here is that unlike margin requirements for stocks which are as high as 50 per cent in many markets, the margin requirements for commodities is a mere 5-7 per cent.
This implies that with an outlay of a mere $260 billion these speculators would be able to take positions of approximately $5 trillion -- yes, $5 trillion! -- in the futures markets. It is estimated that half of these are bets placed on oil.
Today's oil prices are believed to be determined by the four Anglo-American financial companies-turned-oil traders, viz., Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, J P Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley. It is only they who have any idea about who is entering into oil futures or derivative contracts. It is also they who are placing bets on oil prices and in the process ensuring that the prices of oil futures go up by the day.
But how does the increase in the price of this oil in the futures market determine the prices of oil in the spot markets? Crucially, does speculation in oil influence and determine the prices of oil in the spot markets?
Answering these questions as to whether speculation has supercharged the demand for oil The Economist, in its recent issue, states: 'But that is plain wrong. Such speculators do not own real oil. Every barrel they buy in the futures markets they sell back again before the contract ends. That may raise the price of 'paper barrels,' but not of the black stuff refiners turn into petrol. It is true that high futures prices could lead someone to hoard oil today in the hope of a higher price tomorrow. But inventories are not especially full just now and there are few signs of hoarding''.
Rediff, India -
Naturally, it has been opined by experts that since the advent of oil futures, oil prices are no longer controlled by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum ...
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Graf pengeluaran dan penggunan minyak dunia
Malaysia ajak dunia gantung pasaran hadapan minyak
Oleh Azman Zakaria dan Sazarina Shahrim
Sumber Berita Harian Online
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia mengajak komuniti antarabangsa mengkaji kemungkinan menggantung urus niaga minyak dalam pasaran hadapan bagi menangani kenaikan mendadak harga bahan api itu yang turut melonjakkan harga komoditi lain, termasuk makanan.
Ketika mengemukakan saranan itu, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi berkata, komuniti antarabangsa perlu mengambil langkah berani yang belum pernah dilakukan itu untuk mengelak bidaan spekulatif yang menyebabkan kenaikan melampau harga minyak.
Perdana Menteri memberi contoh Jepun ketika ini sudah pun menggantung urus niaga beras dalam pasaran hadapan serta menawarkan untuk menjual beras daripada stok penimbalnya pada harga lebih rendah.
“Kita harus mengkaji langkah sedemikian bagi kemungkinan melaksanakannya untuk pasaran minyak, iaitu penyumbang penting yang melonjakkan harga komoditi lain.
“Semua langkah ini tentunya memerlukan rundingan dan perjanjian pada peringkat antarabangsa,” katanya dalam ucaptama pada Rundingan Meja Bulat ke-22 Asia Pasifik, di sini semalam.
Turut hadir, Raja Muda Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, Pengerusi dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Institut Kajian Strategik dan Antarabangsa (Isis) Malaysia, Datuk Seri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan serta Pengerusi Isis-Asean, Prof Dr Carolina Hernandez.
Abdullah berkata, kenaikan mendadak harga bahan makanan, minyak dan komoditi memerlukan maklum balas global kerana usaha peringkat serantau dan nasional biasanya terhad.
Katanya, beban kenaikan harga yang kini sebahagian besarnya ditanggung negara membangun dan miskin, dengan mudah boleh melimpah kepada masyarakat maju. Read More “SPEKULATOR BUKAN OPEC PENENTU HARGA MINYAK DUNIA” »»
