Avarice alone can't explain why so many of them fall for flimflammery, from hedge funds and secretive offshore commodities pools to ordinary Ponzi schemes.
If convicted, Mr. Baker, 44, faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of wire fraud and obstruction of justice, and five years on allegations of commodities fraud and embezzlement of commodity pool funds, Mr. Fitzgerald said.
He is also president of Millennium Wave Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer, introducing broker, commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor.
The remarks gave a boost to an American Stock Exchange-traded commodity pool that reflects natural gas prices, the United States Natural Gas Fund, which added 4.1%.
According to the commodities trading commission, Mr. Eustace fraudulently operated four commodity pools from 2001 to 2005, when he lost about $200 million while trading commodity futures and options.
In fact, of nearly 3,400 enforcement actions brought be-tween 1997 and 2002, only 2% involved hedge funds or commodity pools.
"So long as you have money available to banks at zero cost, no long-term productive outlets for investment, and the capacity to make money by manipulating commodity pools, the situation is ripe for speculative excess," University of Texas economist James Galbraith told HuffPost.
Polite investors pressing capital into commodity investment pools impact these volatile markets where speculative funds account for a sizable part of the open interest in oil, copper, corn and soybeans, even gold.
Adding these commodities to the pooled procurement system and ensuring timely payment could increase cost savings and improve efficiency similar to gains historically made under PPS.
