June 7, 2001
Notice No. 01-191

TO:
ALL NYMEX DIVISION MEMBERS
ALL NYMEX DIVISION CLEARING MEMBERS / MEMBER FIRMS

FROM:
NEAL WOLKOFF, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

RE:
EXCHANGE TO SUBSTITUTE POSITION ACCOUNTABILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR POSITION 
LIMIT RULES

The board of directors of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., has 
approved substituting position accountability requirements for the current 
position limits on all but the last three trading days of its crude oil, 
heating oil, unleaded gasoline, and natural gas contracts, beginning with the 
Friday, June 15, trading session.

For the last three days of trading in a particular delivery month, each of 
those contracts would continue to have a position limit of 1,000 lots.

The current net position limits levels will be reflected in the 
accountability levels. These are:

   Any one month         All months
Crude oil  10,000   20,000
Unleaded gasoline 5,000   7,000
Heating oil  5,000   7,000
Natural gas  7,000   12,000



Any market participant with positions exceeding these levels may be contacted 
by the Exchange with inquiries regarding the participant's hedging 
requirements or financial condition. The Exchange would reserve the right to 
require that the position be reduced or capped.

There will no longer be any gross limits on the number of positions that can 
be held, as long as they are offset by positions on the opposite side of the 
market (example: a participant with 10,000 long positions in September, 
October, and November crude oil futures and 10,000 short positions for 
December and January would be considered to have a net position of 10,000 
contracts).

These new rules are also intended to apply to the Brent crude oil futures 
contract, planned for launch this summer. The board has also approved a 
minimum reporting level of 100 lots for that contract.

These rules, which closely resemble those in place for metals traded on the 
COMEX Division, must be approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission 
prior to implementation.


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