EU market feels chill of still-unknown position limits

Eventual caps unlikely to hit trading, but fears remain over lack of clarity

“Nothing to fear but fear itself” is one way to capture what’s been happening in the European Union commodity derivatives market, as regulators have kept firms guessing over the crucial details of the bloc’s long-anticipated position limits regime.

Most firms now expect the limits to be set at generous levels, with little impact on business. But the prolonged uncertainty has already had a chilling effect on the market, well before the caps on net positions in listed and economically equivalent