The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may impose stricter limits on commodities speculators who are believed to be behind the main force behind wild swings in the futures markets over the past two years. The investigation has the support of politicians seeking greater price stability for the global economy and consumers, but traders argue that such restrictions will only reduce market liquidity and not necessarily prices.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said his agency will hold a series of hearings from July through August to determine whether or not it should place new limits on energy futures contracts.

Right now, the CFTC sets limits on the amount of futures contracts in some agricultural products that can be held by market participants. But futures exchanges are free to determine what, if any, position limits should exist for energy futures.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) currently restricts oil traders to 10,000 net futures

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The financial debate during the past few days was dominated by President Obama’s sweeping revamp of financial market supervision, and this issue also occupies a number of slots in today’s Video-o-rama.

But it was not all about regulation, as pundits were also trying to figure out whether there were in fact economic “green shoots” and what the implications for financial markets might be. Commentators include Michael Lewis, John Rogers, Robert Kleinschmidt, Jack Welch, Barry Ritholtz, Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Roach, Mario Gabelli and George Friedman.

The compilation kicks off with author Michael Lewis discussing his article “The End of Wall Street”, and concludes with a fascinating analysis of the Iranian situation by George Friedman of Stratfor, geopolitical analysts.

You Tube: Michael Lewis - the end of Wall Street? “Author Michael Lewis discusses how his experience working at Salomon Brothers and writing Liar’s Poker influenced his article, ‘The End of Wall

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Gold dipped in Hong Kong but was little changed when New York opened on Thursday, but it took off from there, rising as high as $965 just before the noon hour, then eased through the rest of the Comex and the Globex to finish at $959.00/oz., up $10.70. Overnight, gold is sharply higher.

Platinum sank to as low as $1123 at the close in Hong Kong, but rose through the New York day, bouncing off of $1145 several times before slipping a bit to end at $1139, up $6. Overnight, platinum is trending higher.

Silver was down in early Hong Kong trading, falling to near $14.60, but it was all up from there as it blasted to a high of $15.25 near noon, then held most of its gains through the rest of the day, closing at $15.15, up 40 cents. Overnight, silver is strongly higher. (Click here for

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Gold tracked back from its lows on Thursday as the dollar retreated from earlier highs, with worse-than-expected U.S. macro data and weaker European equity markets fuelling doubts a recent winning streak was sustainable.

Higher-than-expected U.S. jobless claims and producer prices data helped precious metals erase larger losses from earlier in the day.

This followed a fall in U.S. retail sales data on Wednesday, which dented sentiment that had boosted equity and commodity markets and signalled the economy’s troubles were far from over.

Spot gold was at $925.55 per ounce at 1407 GMT, from $925.45 late in New York on Wednesday, when it touched a six-week high on buying by gold-backed exchange-traded funds.

“The jobs data is worse than forecast,” said James Moore, an analyst at The Bullion Desk.com. “It’s a bit of a reality check that maybe the recession in the U.S. is going to

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The base metals were all gushing red on Monday. Copper was down from the pre-dawn hours straight through the day with only minor interruptions, finishing at its intraday low of $2.061/lb., down 9¾ cents from Friday.

Nickel followed the same path, closing at its intraday low of $5.4758/lb., down more than 25 cents. Zinc was slammed, ending at $0.6506/lb., down nearly 3½ cents. Aluminum was weak, shedding just under 2 cents, to $0.6316/lb., while lead completed the rout, dropping almost 3½ cents, to $0.6591/lb.

Copper led the industrial metals lower, falling the most in two months as the metal followed equities downward and ran counter to the rising dollar, which raises the cost of commodities transactions conducted in the currency.

“Of all the five broad commodity sectors, industrial metals have tended to have the strongest positive correlation to the S&P,” wrote Michael Lewis, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in London.

Analysts said copper

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Here at “A Dash” we like the comparisons between analyzing sports and analyzing markets.  There is much more data in sports, and the risk/reward calculations are similar.

When it comes to the NBA, we are zeroed in on the Michael Jordan era.  To celebrate a birthday party for a famed Chicago options trader, one of our friends sent invitations to a party — dinner and Bulls tickets for a playoff game that night.  Attendance was excellent!

Can We Learn from the NBA?

Shrugging off the current Bulls record, we try to remain open to new information.  In particular, is there any relevance for investors?

Investment experts are weighing in on the Shane Battier article by Michael Lewis.  In a reprise of Moneyball, Lewis shows how Battier is more valuable than his obvious stats indicate.  Briefly put, he makes everyone on his team better — …

Michael Lewis: Prophet, Pariah

by Alexander Wissel Editor in Chief, Investment U

The End of Wall Street’s Boom

In December, Condé Nast Portfolio.com released one of the best articles in the past few months.

Shared around the offices of Investment U, it contains one of the best descriptions of what happened to the mortgage and credit industry – well before CMOs became front-page news. It’s author, Michael Lewis, is often known for his book “Liar’s Poker,” which became a bible of sorts for those looking to claw their way to the top of the investment-banking world. Unfortunately, Lewis wrote the book as an indictment, a warning to the barons of Wall Street about the unsustainable excess they were creating and the greed that followed. His warning went unheeded.

Lewis takes a look at our current mortgage and credit crisis from start to finish. His story centers on Steve Eisman, a contrarian

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One of my favorite authors, Michael Lewis, writes for Portfolio Magazine, and has an excellent new piece out. If you're interested in how this whole mess began, this provides a nice viewpoint. Click here for the article.

With the outlook for the economy and financial markets rather gloomy, it is good sometimes to reflect on matters from a different perspective. In the article below Michael Lewis shares with us, in a humorous manner, his ideas on how we can survive the current mess. Lewis is the author of Liar’s Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, and The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.

The first thing you need to know about recessions is that they don’t signal the end of anything on Wall Street.

They’re more like a red flag during a Formula One race: The cars coast gently around the track until the wreckage is cleared whereupon

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