Well if there not Beam we are as close as we are going to get IMO. Just to add further here are some snippets from Ed Steer and his Saturday column. This is one on my daily reads.
caseyresearch.com
First a little bit more on bullion sales;
"There were no reported sales from the U.S. Mint yesterday...which I find hard to believe considering the awesome retail demand that I'm hearing lots about...including what's going on in our own store. Maybe one of the reasons there hasn't been any new silver eagle sales is that they don't have any blanks to make them with. To add fuel to this fire, one major U.S. silver wholesaler that we deal with is not taking orders for 1-ounce silver rounds until further notice. I've heard other rumours within the wholesale silver delivery system that are even more interesting, but I consider them to be hearsay...and I'm not about to spread them in this space."
Regarding yesterday's COT numbers;
The Commitment of Traders Report numbers in both silver and gold were bang on what Ted Butler said they would be in his mid-week column..."If I had to guess, I would say around a 4,000 to 5,000 contract net reduction in silver...and a 15,000 net contract reduction in gold [hopefully more than this in each market]. That's through Tuesday's cut-off: [Wednesday's] action will undoubtedly reduce the total Commercial net short position even further."
In silver, the actual decline in the Commercial net short position was 5,538 contracts, or 27.7 million ounces. The Commercial net short position is now down to 92.51 million ounces. Ted says that JPMorgan's short position in silver is "around" 100 million ounces. This means that JPMorgan Chase is short over 100% of the Commercial net short position in silver. This is a preposterous situation...and I would guess that Ted will have more to say about this to his paying subscribers in his weekend review later today.
There were new records set all over the place yesterday. The net long position in the Non-Commercial category in silver is down to 8,146 contracts...or 40.73 million ounces...a number so low I have no living memory of it being lower. Neither does Ted...and he's been at this for close to thirty years. The raptors [the small commercial traders other than the Big 8] are holding a record long position as well. He'll have much more to say about all of these records in his column.
In silver, the Big 4 are short 192.4 million ounces of the stuff...which works out to 35.3% of the entire Comex silver market on a 'net' basis, once all the market-neutral spread traders are subtracted from the total open interest. The '5 through 8' traders are short an additional 56.1 million ounces of silver, which works out to 10.3% of the entire silver market on a 'net' basis. So of the 35 traders that hold short positions in the Commercial category of the COT Report, 8 of them are short 45.6% of the entire Comex silver market. That leaves the balance of 54.4% divided up between the remaining 27 traders...about 2% of the market each. JPMorgan is short about 18.3% of the entire Comex silver market [on a 'net' basis] all by itself.
As bad as these numbers are, just a few months ago, JPMorgan's 'net' short position in silver was double that amount.
In gold, the Commercial net short position declined by 15,951 contracts, or 1.60 million ounces. The Commercial net short position now sits at 14.25 million ounces.
The Big 4 are short 9.72 million ounces of gold, which represents 27.7% of the entire Comex short position in gold on a 'net' basis. The '5 through 8' traders are short an additional 5.05 million ounces of gold, which represents an additional 14.4% of the entire short position in Comex gold. Of the 50 traders holding short positions in the Commercial category in the COT Report in gold, the Big 8 are short 42.1% of the entire Comex futures market. This leaves 42 traders splitting up the 57.9% of the short position in gold that remains...barely over a percent each.
The Big 3 in gold and silver...are JPMorgan Chase, and most likely Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia in number two position, followed by HSBC USA.
And his summary;
However, as I mentioned further up in this commentary, yesterday's rally did not go unopposed...and Ted Butler isn't sure how much deterioration we had...but still feels [as I do] that we are locked and loaded for a major move to the upside. How fast prices rise...and to what heights...is always 100% in the hands of JPMorgan et al. It has always been that way in the past...and remains to be seen if that's the case this time.
I can't believe that "da boyz" would go to all the trouble of blasting out an historic Commitment of Traders Report, with new records in virtually every category, only to put their collective heads back in the proverbial lion's mouth. Of course both Ted and I have had that feeling at other major price bottoms...but this price bottom is certainly one for the record books.
We'll have to wait to find out if things are different this time or not...and I doubt we'll have much longer to wait to find out.
I've been around this planet long enough to recognize that everything economic, financial and monetary is starting to float off the rails...but the timeline is the big unknown...as is the form of the ultimate collapse.
And as I've said before, all we can do is prepare the best we can with precious metals...and the shares of the mining companies that dig this stuff out of the ground...and hope it's enough.
The question always remains will JPM et all short the metals on every rally attempt as they have always done. If they do we will see as we always do and very control ascent. If for the first time ever they stand back and put their hands in their pockets we will see real free market action and a moon shot rise in the PM's. I'll believe when I see it. |
