I think you are being very unfair to GATA. They have brought to light many indisputable facts about the gold market. Their contentions and evidence have been ridiculed, denied, and abused, but never effectively refuted or disproved. I have listened to Chris Powell speak several times, and he is a quiet, conservative, New England newspaper editor, who chooses his words carefully and is not prone to exaggeration or inflammatory rhetoric. He and GATA have earned the right to be taken seriously in their interpretation of the data.
In this case, the change in margin rules, while affecting both longs and shorts, will definitely have a greater effect on the speculators, who are net long, than on the commercials, who are net short, as pointed out by Jon Matz. It is certainly not going to stop a gold bull, if we are having one, but it is also another example of how the Comex has always been willing to change the rules to protect its big customers, who in this case are feeling the squeeze and are desperate for the gold price to back off.
/Kit |
