As it ponders concrete caps on speculation in oil, natural gas and other commodities, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is already sending tremors through the nascent commodity investment business.

In the past two weeks, the managers of several products that allowed investors to bet on raw materials prices have announced big changes, either because of direct CFTC intervention or fear of it. These exchange-traded funds and their cousins, exchange-traded notes, have grown to $59bn in five years, according to Morningstar. The obvious danger is that the CFTC’s intervention could tarnish their appeal to investors.