An analysis recently done by the New York Mercantile Exchange says that energy-oriented hedge funds trading in the natural gas market do not cause undue price volatility on Nymex. Since last October, however, market participation and influence of hedge funds has skyrocketed, with one source estimating that some 75 commodity funds may now be participating on Nymex. In a study released in March, Nymex says it used proprietary market data to find that hedge funds represented only 9.05% of all gas-futures trading volume in the first eight months of 2004 and 20.4% of gas-futures open interest. Participation in the exchange's crude oil trading volume was even less. "It appears that hedge funds have been unfairly maligned by certain [parties] who are seeking simple answers to the problem of substantial price volatility in energy markets...," Nymex reports. The futures exchange concludes that observers and critics should instead focus on the dramatic increase in gas demand as the driving force behind gas-price movements on the exchange.