Can exchanges change the rules any time they want to?
The answer is yes. Such an event happened at the Comex a number of years ago! It was called the Great Silver Fiasco, which was associated with the Hunt brothers. Silver made 19 consecutive moves to the downside, and destroyed several individual commodity traders, when the Comex Board of Directors changed the exchange rules to allow silver prices to fall and not rise. A liquidation only restriction was passed by statute, after the Comex had raised margin rates to drive the small traders from the market. The effect of this statute meant no new long contract positions could be initiated. The Comex Board of Directors were allegedly short forty million ounces of silver, not a conflict of interest according to them. Their dictatorial powers allegedly gained $400,000,000 for each $10 silver decline. The Hunt brothers had profitably speculated on silver, until the Comex Board of Directors changed the rules. The Hunts were wiped out at least as far as their silver holdings were concerned. They
