Right.
But when the market, oblivious of the fundamentals, drives the prices outside the supply/demand curve’s pricing, then the market can crush the producers and consumers.
Before the CFMA in 2000, we had commodities markets. The markets worked just fine. The energy futures markets worked just fine prior to 2000, and prior to ICE, et al.
People who want to say that eliminating ICE or the CFMA would bring about dire consequences are talking through their hats. We’d just return to a pre-2000 world, when energy futures were regulated. No big deal. The markets worked then. There were speculators, but their position sizes were limited.
For apples and oranges. The oil market was in a long bear that destroyed domestic production. Odd though, as the current bashers were basking in cheap oil then, they weren't bashing the speculators for making it too cheap.