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Gold/Mining/Energy : Silver prices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (340)	12/26/1997 2:40:00 PM
From: Jim Ilchyshn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8010

Mark, The commercials are the ones that actually use the product or sell the product. As in silver it would be the Kodak's, the jewellers, the mining companies etc. But just like when the Hunt's cornered the market, they really didn't have a need for the product, they just saw an opportunity to make those who needed the product pay more for it. As for being short, if they do really need the product, they will have to pay more for it by covering their shorts. Just bought two more contracts today... hope it works out! Good luck, - Jim.

To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (340)	12/26/1997 6:06:00 PM
From: RagTimeBand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8010

Mark This is in addition to the information Jim gave you in post #341. The CFTC determines "reporting levels" for companies involved with the various commodities. The "reporting level" is what's necessary to off-set exposure the company has to its market. Here's the interesting part: The CFTC COT report shows those contracts that exceed the "reporting level". The following is from CFTC Explanatory Notes: "Reportable Positions. Clearing memebers, FCMs, and foreign brokers make daily reports to the Commission and exchanges showing futures and options positions on their books for traders that hold positions exceeding reporting levels established for futures or options. Positions of individual reportable traders are classified either as commercial or noncommercial. All of trader's reported positions in a commodity are classified as commercial if the trader uses that particular commodity market for hedging as defined in the Commission's regulations." IMHO if their motiviation for taking a position isn't a hedge, it's possible it's a comment as to their feeling about a commodity being overbought or oversold. This is especially important if the number of contracts is large, when compared to historical levels. Regards - Emory