27. Financial Regulatory Agencies · Notable
Replace the CFTC position limits rule with delegation to exchanges
Printed page 834 27. Financial Regulatory Agencies
“Replace the existing position limits rule, which reduces liquidity and makes markets more volatile, with further delegation of authority to the exchanges to set position limits and position accountability levels where appropriate for the relevant market.”
What has happened
- Not started
The CFTC's position limits rule, 17 CFR part 150 as adopted in 2021, is unamended and unrepealed, and nothing delegates further authority to the exchanges to set limits or accountability levels. A Federal Register full-text search for "position limits" restricted to CFTC rules and proposed rules since 2025-01-20 returns ten documents, all of which mention limits in passing — the 24/7 trading and perpetual contracts requests for comment, the prediction markets proposals, the compute derivatives request, the event contracts data proposal, two orders and a 2025 margin rule — and none of which proposes to replace part 150. The Commission's whole 2026 Unified Agenda has no position-limits entry, and no bill of the 119th Congress addresses federal position limits.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Queries. Federal Register full text since 2025-01-20, quoted
"position limits"restricted toconditions[agencies][]=commodity-futures-trading-commissionand to types RULE and PRORULE → 10 documents, each read by title; the same term unrestricted by type returns 220, essentially all of them exchange rule filings about options position and exercise limits, which is the shape that would manufacture a false positive. The Commission’s complete rulemaking output for the window (45 rules and proposed rules) was listed from the Corpus and read by title. - The agenda. The CFTC’s whole active 2026 Unified Agenda (18 RINs) — https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain?operation=OPERATION_GET_AGENCY_RULE_LIST¤tPub=true&agencyCode=&showStage=active&agencyCd=3038 — has no position-limits entry.
- Adjacent, and worth naming. On 2026-07-21 the Commission issued a final order under 17 CFR 20.9 rendering the routine position-reporting requirements of part 20 (large trader reporting for physical commodity swaps) “ineffective and unenforceable”, effective on issue (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/21/2026-14710/order-sunsetting-certain-large-trader-reporting-requirements-for-physical-commodity-swaps, text read at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-07-21/html/2026-14710.htm). That removes a reporting regime that supported swap position limits; it does not replace the limits rule and it delegates nothing to the exchanges, so under “progress is measured on this ask” it stays here as a lead.
cftc.govis open; its press-release index for the window was swept and nothing announces a position-limits rulemaking.
- Action
- rescind
- Object
- the CFTC position limits rule
- ID
- 2160