Did Amaranth engage in natural gas speculation? Did it engage in excessive speculation? What is excessive speculation?

What will be an ideal response?

Amaranth carried uncovered natural gas positions; so, by definition, it was speculating. Whether it engaged in "excessive speculation" is a matter of debate because the U.S. Congress never defined or clarified what it meant by "sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in prices." Even if Amaranth did speculate excessively, such speculation would not have violated any U.S. law. The CFTC was empowered by Congress to prevent excessive speculation. Therefore, the burden was placed on CFTC to implement regulations that prevented such activities and not on companies to stop from engaging in them.