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‘Charlie Sheen’: Secret Silver Investor?

This post originally appeared on the Deal Journal blog on WSJ.com . To read the original post, click here .

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Charlie Sheen loves tiger blood, machetes and goddesses. But is he also a closet commodities fan?

A person writing under the name “Charlie Sheen,” the disgraced sitcom actor, filed a comment with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last week, and he recommended the agency adopt more conservative position limits on derivatives tied to silver.

Market participants were buzzing about the appearance of Sheen’s name in the otherwise low-gloss world of commodities.

(It’s not as though silver bugs, already a crew prone to conspiracy theories about speculators and market manipulation, needed more reasons to worry.)

CFTC spokesman Dennis Holden was unable to confirm that the March 1 filing was posted under a bogus name. The letter attributed to Charlie Sheen was erased from the agency’s archives on Tuesday following inquiries from Dow Jones Newswires.

An identical memo was posted under the name of David J. Dunak, a self-described silver investor, on Feb. 24. In an interview on Tuesday, Dunak said he took cues for his wording from precious metals commentator Ted Butler. Other comments on the CFTC website also contain language that mirrors Butler’s online commentary.

It’s possible other silver investors also picked up similar language from Butler — even a sitcom star recently fired from his day job, or stand-ins for Sheen.

On the website SilverSeek.com , Butler invites readers to “rattle on the cages” of the CFTC, among others, and lists the email addresses of CFTC staffers “for those who wish to contact the regulators.” He provides a separate sample letter for regulators on the website of Investment Rarities Incorporated.

An email to Butler Research LLC, Butler’s publishing company, was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Representatives at CBS, the network airing Sheen’s former sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” didn’t immediately return requests for comment. Sheen couldn’t be reached.

Dunak said he had no knowledge of the Sheen memo. “I don’t assume any other identities,” Dunak said. “I never have.”

In “Charlie Sheen’s” March 1 memo, the writer asks the CFTC to re-adjust its proposed position limits in silver.

“Sheen” says that the “current formula would result in a position limit of over 5,000 contracts for any single speculator.” The memo writer said that limit is equivalent to 25 million ounces of silver. Only three mining companies worldwide produce that much silver each year.

It turns out that even real silver experts agree with “Charlie Sheen.” Critics of the CFTC’s proposed rules have called for a revised cap of 1,500 contracts or fewer to prevent market manipulation in silver.

If Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen or any other actors want to weigh in on the CFTC proposed rules, the agency’s website is accepting comments through March 28.

Read more: ‘Charlie Sheen’: Secret Silver Investor? – SmartMoney.com http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/economy/charlie-sheen-secret-silver-investor-1299627187485/#ixzz1GFe0tTvI

Posted by on March 11, 2011.

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Categories: Commodities, North America

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