Nymex

* CFTC says JPMorgan account held unsegregated funds * Tens of millions of dollars commingled--CFTC * MBF says no custom...

J.P. Morgan Chase is buying a stake from MF Global in the London Metals Exchange that will make it the largest single share holder ahead of guess who? Right, Goldman Sachs!

Historically, fat finger trades -- where a trader presses the wrong key or adds a zero too many on an electronic trading system -- were considered exclusive to equities markets. But they are now stretching their piggy little digits into other asset classes.

As the price of oil climbed over the past few months, a growing army of commentators and pundits grimly hinted about "speculators" who were manipulati...

If you think chaos in Libya is the only force driving up gasoline prices these days, think again. Over the past few decades, institutional investors like hedge funds and investment banks have flooded oil markets with hundreds of billions of dollars.

The current price of crude taken together with the country's jobless rate makes no sense at all. Clearly the price of oil has lost all ballast to the dynamic of supply and demand.

In theory, oil markets only respond to two forces: supply and demand. However, it has become clear that the whimsical perceptions of oil traders can also have just as much influence on oil prices.

Our valiant oversight heroes examined Swiss company VITOL's books last month and found that VITOL was more of a speculator holding oil contracts than a means of lining up the actual delivery of fuel.