Word: mehle
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...nation still did not know the names of the big speculators in commodities (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). But last week Commodity Exchange Authority Administrator J. M. Mehl told the why and the how-much of the boom on the commodity exchanges. Said Mehl: high margins on the stock exchanges (75%) had "curbed" speculation there. The money had "sought an outlet" in commodities where some margins have been...
...heavy was the flood? In the twelve months ended June 30, said Mehl, the dollar value of regulated commodity transactions rose to $33 billion, more than double the previous twelve-month period. Most of the trading was speculative, said Mehl. By the end of June, for example, 90.4% of Chicago corn futures accounts were speculative. Price changes, said Mehl, had been aggravated by many "weakly financed" traders. "Shorts are quickly forced to cover," while "longs are washed out by temporary reactions...
...Mehl wanted the power to regulate commodity margins as the Federal Reserve Board regulates stock margins. He pointed out that since Oct. 7, when the grain exchanges had boosted their margins to 33⅓%, speculation has "declined sharply." Commodity traders, who are dead set against any governmental control of margins, took no comfort from Mehl's report. But New York Stock Exchange President Emil Schram cried that Mehl had performed a "public service" in showing how high stock exchange margins had helped bring on the speculation in commodities. However, Schram thought that the answer was not to raise commodity...
...first "boo" came from J. M. Mehl, administrator of the Department of Agriculture's Commodity Exchange Authority. The Board of Trade's margin requirements, raised only the week before, were still too low, said Mehl. He asked that they be doubled in order to "lessen the danger of a boom-&-bust situation...
...Scare. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange was impressed. It raised margins on butter trading by 66%, on eggs 25%. Many a grain broker privately ordered his customers to post higher margins. But the grain-exchange officials took no heed of Mehl. Board of Trade President J. O. McClintock said firmly: "A margin fixed at an extreme limit is likely to throw . . . the market out of gear...