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Abstract: 

This article reviews the current state of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) rulemaking with respect to position limits as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Position limits rules place a cap on the futures, options, and economically equivalent derivatives positions held by market participants with respect to 28 commodities. The CFTC’s position limits rules were first proposed in 2011, but were vacated in 2012 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The rules were re-proposed in 2013, along with accompanying proposed rules relating to aggregating positions. More recently, in September 2015, the CFTC proposed a supplement to its revised aggregation proposal. However, much uncertainty remains.

Keywords: position limits; ISDA/SIFMA comment; Commodity Futures Trading Commission; position aggregation; necessary and appropriate

Affiliations:  1: New York Law School.