Incredible week under the surface for POG. The COT is out and the specs are now net short 57,160 contracts, up from 38,226 the previous week. So to douse water on this emerging blaze, the specs needed to short an additional 19,000 contracts and POG STILL WENT UP A COUPLE BUCKS! And guess who bought the spec shorts? Good guess, the COMMERCIALS, WHO ARE NOW NET LONG 59,488 CONTRACTS! That's 21,000 more long than last week.
Despite all the extra supply from the specs, open interest only expanded 12,653 contracts to 139,180, so it doesn't appear that the hedgers are especially accommodative either. I don't have the raw numbers going back a few years, but I would guess that spec net shorts as a percentage of open interest has got to be pushing a record envelope at 41.1%.
Key dates: Jan. 23: BOE auction, would be a good time for some large hedger to close out positions. That would be a major catalyst. And if they are asleep at the switch we still have the Jan. 31 rollover as the vast majority of shorts are in the Febs. There is about seven trading days in there when the shorts will be falling without a parachute. Somebody just needs to take physical delivery of some gold. |
