(17)Position limits should not create barriers to the development of new commodity derivatives and should not prevent less liquid sections of the commodity derivative markets from working adequately. Competent authorities should take into account in applying the methodology the time required to develop and attract liquidity to both new and existing commodity derivatives and, in particular, for commodity derivatives that may support risk management in bespoke or immature markets or seek to develop new hedging arrangements in new commodities. Given the broad range of markets and commodities to which the position limits regime applies, there is no single and predetermined time period which adequately captures the shift from a commodity derivative contract being new to being established. Equally, there are many commodity derivative contracts which may never attract sufficient participants or liquidity to enable the effective application of position limits without the risk of participants regularly and inadvertently breaching the limit and consequently disrupting the pricing and settlement of those commodity derivatives. In order to address these risks to the efficient functioning of markets, the methodology provides for a tiered approach whereby the position limit for the spot month and for other months is set at a fixed level of 2 500 lots for commodity derivatives and 2,5 million securities in issue for securitised derivatives with a commodity underlying until a threshold of 10 000 lots or 10 million securities, respectively, is exceeded. Contracts exceeding these thresholds while still being relatively illiquid should, where appropriate, be able to benefit from a higher limit in order to ensure that trading in such contracts is not unduly constrained.