The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an advisory warning traders to adhere to speculative position limits throughout the trading day.

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued a notice indicating that, while the CFTC and exchanges monitor adherence to speculative position limits by relying on information generated by large trader reporting systems at the end of the trading day, “speculative position limits apply on an intraday basis as well as an end-of-day basis.”

“A trader whose position exceeds the applicable speculative position limit at any time during the day is in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, even if the position is subsequently reduced to a level within the applicable limit by the close of the market for that day,” it said, warning that intraday speculative position limit violations have been subject to CFTC enforcement action.

The CFTC said that it issued the advisory to alert market participants “to their ongoing legal obligations to comply with speculative position limits”. These limits apply to positions held on exchanges, including designated contract markets and on exempt commercial markets with significant price discovery contracts.

IE