Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here are the following closes for gold and silver today:
Gold: $1176.20 down $7.50(comex closing time)
Silver $15.73 down 41 cents.
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold $1178.50
Silver: $15.86
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Gold/Silver trading: see kitco charts on the right side of the commentary
Following is a brief outline on gold and silver comex figures for today:
At the gold comex today, we had a poor delivery day, registering 0 notices serviced for nil oz. Silver comex filed with 51 notices for 255,000 oz. Remember we are entering options expiry week: This Thursday, the comex gold and silver expires and then next Tuesday, we have options expiry on the gold/silver LBMA contracts and on the OTC contracts. So gold and silver will be subdued in price for the next 7 days.
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today, the total inventory rests at 245.75 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period.
In silver, the open interest rose again by 623 contracts despite yesterday’s slight silver price rise by only 4 cents. The total silver OI continues to remain extremely high, with today’s reading at 195,364 contracts now at multi-year highs despite a record low price. In ounces, the OI is represented by 977 million oz or 139% of annual global silver production (ex Russia ex China). This dichotomy has been happening now for quite a while and defies logic. There is no doubt that the silver situation is scaring our bankers to no end as they continue to raid as basically they have no other alternative.
In silver we had 51 notices served upon for 255,000 oz.
In gold, the total comex gold OI rests tonight at 419,884 for a gain of 2048 contracts as gold was down $17.80 yesterday. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz.
we had no changes in gold inventory at the GLD; thus the inventory rests tonight at 705.47 tonnes. The appetite for gold coming from China is depleting not only gold from the LBMA and GLD but also the comex is bleeding gold. I am sure that 700 tonnes is the rock bottom inventory in gold. Anything below this level is just paper and the bankers know that they cannot retrieve “paper gold” to send it onwards to China.In silver, /we had a small withdrawal in inventory at the SLV of 956,000 oz/326.918 million oz
We have a few important stories to bring to your attention today…
1. Today, we had the open interest in silver rise by 623 contracts to 195,364 despite the fact that silver was only slightly up in price by 4 cents yesterday.. The OI for gold fell by 2048 contracts down to 419,884 contracts as the price of gold was down $17.80 yesterday.
(report Harvey)
2. Today, 6 important commentaries on Greece
zero hedge, Reuters/Bloomberg
3.Gold demand from China
(Dave Kranzler IRD)
4. Gold trading overnight
(Goldcore/Mark O’Byrne)
5. Trading from Asia and Europe overnight
(zero hedge)
6. Trading of equities/ New York
(zero hedge)
7 Ted Butler on the criminal actions of our favourite banker, JPMorgan
(Ted Butler/GATA)
8. Shipping rates from China have plummeted to all time lows suggesting the demand for goods from China is waning badly
(Wolf Richter/WolfStreet)
9. USA industrial production and durable goods both down badly
(zero hedge)
we have these plus other stories to bring your way tonight. But first……..
let us now head over to the comex and assess trading over there today.
Here are today’s comex results:
The total gold comex open interest fell by 2,048 contracts from 421,932 down to 419,884 as gold was down $17.80 in price yesterday (at the comex close). We are now in the big active delivery contract month of June. Here the OI fell by 58 contracts down to 407. We had 30 notices served upon yesterday. Thus we lost 28 contracts or an additional 2,800 oz will not stand for delivery as they were no doubt cash settled. The next contract month is July and here the OI rise by 29 contracts to 661. The next big delivery month after June will be August and here the OI fell by only 3,287 contracts down to 271,465. The estimated volume today (which is just comex sales during regular business hours of 8:20 until 1:30 pm est) was poor at 81,162. The confirmed volume yesterday (which includes the volume during regular business hours + access market sales the previous day was poor at 132,511 contracts. Today we had 0 notices filed for nil oz.
And now for the wild silver comex results. Silver OI rose again by 623 contracts from 194,742 up to 195,364 despite the fact that the price of silver was just slightly up in price by 4 cents, with respect to yesterday’s trading. We continue to have our bankers pulling their hair out with respect to the continued high silver OI. The front non active delivery month of June saw it’s OI remain constant at 73 contracts. We had 0 contracts delivered upon yesterday. Thus we neither gained nor lost any silver that will stand for delivery in this non active June contract month. The next delivery month is July and here the OI surprisingly fell by only 8,026 contracts down to 68,044. We have 5 trading days left before first day notice on June 30 and the front month is not contracting much in volume at all. The estimated volume today was good at 46,098 contracts (just comex sales during regular business hours. The confirmed volume on yesterday (regular plus access market) came in at 82,003 contracts which is huge in volume. We had 51 notices filed for 255,000 oz today.
June initial standing
June 23.2015
Gold
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
64.30 oz (Brinks)2 kilobars
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
nil
No of oz served (contracts) today
0 contracts (nil oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
407 contracts (40,700 oz)
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
2689 contracts(268,900 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
99.93 oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
521,842.2 oz
Today, we had 0 dealer transaction
Dealer withdrawal:
we had zero dealer withdrawals
total Dealer withdrawals: nil oz
we had 0 dealer deposit
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 1 customer withdrawal
i) Out of Scotia: 64.30 oz ( 2 kilobars)
total customer withdrawal:64.30 oz
We had 0 customer deposits:
Total customer deposit: nil oz
We had 2 major adjustments:
i) Out of Brinks:
5,964.07 oz was adjusted out of the customer and into the dealer of Brinks.
ii) Out of JPMorgan;
37,986.34 oz was adjusted out of the dealer and this landed into the customer account of JPMorgan.
Today, 0 notices was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 0 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account
To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the June contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (2689) x 100 oz or 268,900 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of June (407) and the number of notices served upon today (0) x 100 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for gold for the June contract month:
No of notices served so far (2689) x 100 oz or ounces + {OI for the front month (407) – the number of notices served upon today (0) x 100 oz which equals 309,600 oz standing so far in this month of June (9.644 tonnes of gold). Thus we have 9.644 tonnes of gold standing and only 16.07 tonnes of registered or for sale gold is available. We lost 28 contracts or 2,800 oz to probable cash settlements.
Total dealer inventory 516,722.669 or 16.07 tonnes
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7,901,043.953 oz (245.75 tonnes)
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.75 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period.
end
And now for silver
June silver initial standings
June 23 2015:
Silver
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory
331,354.200 oz (Scotia)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory
nil
No of oz served (contracts)
51 contracts (255,000 oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
22 contracts(110,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)
273 contracts 13,650,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month
526,732.4 oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month
5,575,143.2 oz
Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 0 dealer withdrawal:
total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 0 customer deposits:
total customer deposit: nil oz
We had 1 customer withdrawals:
i ) Out of Scotia: 331,354.200 oz was withdrawn
total withdrawals from customer; 331,354.200 oz
we had 0 adjustment
Total dealer inventory: 57.840 million oz
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 181.117 million oz
The total number of notices filed today is represented by 51 contracts for 255,000 oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in June, we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at (273) x 5,000 oz = 13,650,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of June (73) and the number of notices served upon today (51) x 5000 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for silver for the June contract month:
273 (notices served so far) + { OI for front month of June (73) -number of notices served upon today (51} x 5000 oz ,= 13,760,000 oz of silver standing for the June contract month.
we neither gained nor lost any silver ounces that will stand for delivery in this non active delivery month of June.
for those wishing to see the rest of data today see:
http://www.harveyorgan.wordpress.comorhttp://www.harveyorganblog.com
end
The two ETF’s that I follow are the GLD and SLV. You must be very careful in trading these vehicles as these funds do not have any beneficial gold or silver behind them. They probably have only paper claims and when the dust settles, on a collapse, there will be countless class action lawsuits trying to recover your lost investment.
There is now evidence that the GLD and SLV are paper settling on the comex.
***I do not think that the GLD will head to zero as we still have some GLD shareholders who think that gold is the right vehicle to be in even though they do not understand the difference between paper gold and physical gold. I can visualize demand coming to the buyers side:
i) demand from paper gold shareholders
ii) demand from the bankers who then redeem for gold to send this gold onto China
vs no sellers of GLD paper.
And now the Gold inventory at the GLD:
June 23/no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 705.47 tonnes
June 22/ a huge increase of 3.27 tonnes of gold into GLD/Inventory tonight: 705.47 tonnes
June 19.2015: no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes.
June 18/no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes
June 17/no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes
June 16./no change in gold inventory/Rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes.
June 15/we lost a huge 2.08 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventor rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes
June 12/we had a small withdrawal of .24 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests this weekend at 703.98 tonnes.
June 11/we had another huge withdrawal of 1.5 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests tonight at 704.22 tonnes
June 10/ we had a huge withdrawal of 2.98 tonnes of gold from the GLD/inventory rests at 705.72
June 9/ no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 708.70 tonnes
June 8/ a big withdrawal of 1.19 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests at 708.70 tonnes
June 23 GLD : 705.47 tonnes
end
And now for silver (SLV)
June 23/we had a small withdrawal of 956,000 oz/Inventory tonight rests at 326.918 million oz
June 22/ no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 19/no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 18 no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 17/no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 16./no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 15/we had no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 12/we had another addition to the tune of 956,000 oz/Inventory rests this weekend at 327.874. Please note that there has been an addition on each of the past 5 days.
June 11.2015: we had another monster of an addition to the tune of 2.791 million oz/Inventory rests at 326.918
June 10/another monster of an addition to the tune of 1.126 million oz/Inventory rests at 324.127
June 9/ a monster of an addition to the tune of 3.393 million oz/inventory rests at 323.001 million oz.
June 8/no change in inventory/SLV inventory rests at 319.608 milion oz.
June 5 a huge addition of 1.433 million oz of silver added to the SLV/Inventory at 319.608 million oz
June 23/2015: we had a small withdrawal in silver inventory of 956,000 oz/SLV inventory rests tonight at 326.918 million oz
end
And now for our premiums to NAV for the funds I follow:
Sprott and Central Fund of Canada.
(both of these funds have 100% physical metal behind them and unencumbered and I can vouch for that)
1. Central Fund of Canada: traded at Negative 7.9 percent to NAV usa funds and Negative 7.8% to NAV for Cdn funds!!!!!!!
Percentage of fund in gold 62.7%
Percentage of fund in silver:38.0%
cash .3%
( June 23/2015)
2. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): Premium to NAV rises to.65%!!!! NAV (June 23/2015)
3. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV falls to – .58% toNAV(June23/2015
Note: Sprott silver trust back into positive territory at +.65%
Sprott physical gold trust is back into negative territory at -.58%
Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail.
Sprott formally launches its offer for Central Trust gold and Silver Bullion trust:
SII.CN Sprott formally launches previously announced offers to Central GoldTrust (GTU.UT.CN) and Silver Bullion Trust (SBT.UT.CN) unitholders (C$2.64)
Sprott Asset Management has formally commenced its offers to acquire all of the outstanding units of Central GoldTrust and Silver Bullion Trust, respectively, on a NAV to NAV exchange basis.
Note company announced its intent to make the offer on 23-Apr-15 Based on the NAV per unit of Sprott Physical Gold Trust $9.98 and Central GoldTrust $44.36 on 22-May, a unitholder would receive 4.45 Sprott Physical Gold Trust units for each Central GoldTrust unit tendered in the Offer.
Based on the NAV per unit of Sprott Physical Silver Trust $6.66 and Silver Bullion Trust $10.00 on 22-May, a unitholder would receive 1.50 Sprott Physical Silver Trust units for each Silver Bullion Trust unit tendered in the Offer.
* * * * *
end
And now overnight trading in gold/silver from Europe and Asia/plus physical stories that might interest you:
First: Goldcore’s Mark O’Byrne
(courtesy Goldcore/Mark O’Byrne)
Doubts Over UK’s “Fintech” in Age of Cyber War
By Mark O’ByrneJune 23, 20150 Comments
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– Doubts over City of London’s “fintech” in age of cyber war
– Thousands left in “financial limbo” after tech “error”
– 600,000 RBS customer payments go “missing” in “system failure”
– Glitch comes after bank was fined £56 million in November for 2012 tech fiasco
– Failure is “the latest of many in the industry” – Treasury Committee
– Banks “ageing tech systems” ill-equipped to deal with cyber-terrorism, cyber-war
– Gold coins, bars held outside tech dependent banking system not vulnerable to cyber-attacks
Banks’ “archaic technology systems” are unable to cope with the demands of modern online banking according to the Financial Times. The claim was made over the weekend in an FT article discussing the latest fintech glitch suffered by Royal Bank of Scotland last Tuesday in which payments of 600,000 customers “went missing.”
It would follow that these same “archaic” systems would not stand up very well in the face of a concerted cyber-attack from hostile terrorists or indeed nation-states.
The latest fintech failure affected RBS customers and customers of ITS , Coutts and Ulster Bank in Ireland.
Customers were left without cash for three days after a computer “glitch” led to 600,000 payments – including wage packets, benefits and tax credits – going “missing.”
The UK regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has said it will review this latest issue when the affected customers have been dealt with. In November RBS was hit with a £56 million fine after the June 2012 fiasco which left 6 million customers inconvenienced for weeks, many of whom could not access funds.
The FT warns that
“The latest problems throw doubts on the ability of banks’ archaic technology systems to cope with the increasing number of customer transactions spurred by digital banking.” The Chairman of the Treasury Committee at Westminster, Andrew Tyrie, said “This looks like a serious IT failure at RBS, the latest of many in the industry.”
In January, Sam Wood – a director at the PRA – told a committee
“I feel we are a very long away from being able to sit here with confidence and say that the UK banks’ IT systems are robust.”
In March, International Financial Data Services, “the main record keeper of investment transactions in the UK” experienced a “systems hardware failure” which delayed investment payments into the UK, according to the FT.
In October, 22 million customers at Britain’s largest retail banking group, Lloyds, could not access cash following a systems failure. There have been multiple systems failures in the U.S. also.
It would appear that the banking behemoths that have dominated the landscape for decades have grown too large and unwieldy to adapt to the constant and rapid evolution of 21st century financial technology and fintech.
Their “archaic systems” are unlikely to be sufficient deal with a concerted cyber-attack by sophisticated hackers working for hostile nation states or terrorist groups.
We have documented how cyberwar poses a real threat to the nuclear, finance and banking sectors. Our modern technology systems and the vital infrastructure of such critical industries as finance and banking are exposed like never before.
It is believed that some nation-states have engaged in cyber-attacks against the infrastructures – including financial infrastructures – of their rivals.
In February, we covered how Kaspersky Lab demonstrated how an international criminal group hacked over 100 banks worldwide gaining full access to customer accounts – changing their bank balances at the touch of a key – and stealing $1 billion.
With no end in sight to the new Cold War it is a certainty that cyber warfare will be increasingly employed against populations of the East and West. If vulnerable banking systems were targeted it would cause chaos if records of who owns what and vital records of deposits were changed or destroyed.
Just this month, it was revealed that an attack on the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management, compromised the data of 4 million current and former federal employees.
The U.S. has accused Chinese hackers of building huge databases that could be used to recruit spies. The massive breach of a federal personnel database was “classic espionage” on an unprecedented scale, according to a senior administration official yesterday.
“This was classic espionage, just on a scale we’ve never seen before from a traditional adversary,” the official said.
Last year China shut down a bilateral working group on cyber security after the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking American firms.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Internet security was something that the international community needed tackle together, as it was a common problem.
Separately, overnight came the latest Edward Snowden revelations alleging that the U.S. NSA and the UK’s GCHQ worked together to subvert popular anti-virus software products like Kaspersky Labs’ software.
The spy agencies are understood to have reverse engineered popular anti-virus software packages and monitored email and web traffic to discreetly get past the software and obtain intelligence.
We previously referred to Russian Prime Minister Medvedev’s threat of cyberwar. He stated that Russia’s response to U.S. attempts to have it locked out of today’s international payments system (SWIFT) would “economically and otherwise” … “know no limits.”
Cyberwar is a real risk for all digital or virtual wealth today – whether that be digital bank accounts and deposits or electronic stock and other exchanges.
Fintech solutions are coming and not before time but many of these solutions are also vulnerable in the short term as the nascent industry grows and the best solutions survive and thrive and less safe ones are slowly found out by the market and disappear.
The risks posed to bank deposits, markets and indeed all online investments by hacking, cyberterrorism and cyberwar remains very under appreciated.
Given these real risks, tangible gold becomes not important but a vital means of preserving wealth. Physical gold coins and bars, due to their tangible nature, are not vulnerable to crises that may afflict electronic digital currency and other digital wealth.
Those who hold physical gold and silver coins and bars outside the banking system as an insurance policy would certainly weather the storm better than those who do not.
It is an increasingly risky world and yet these risks are far from appreciated. While many will say the risks will not materialise, we believe that it is prudent to be aware of and take appropriate measures to protect your wealth.
Our modern western financial system with its massive dependency on single interface websites, servers and the internet faces serious risks that few analysts have yet to appreciate and evaluate.
Must Read Guide: 7 Key Gold Must Haves
UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,183.35, EUR 1,052.24 and GBP 749.17 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,193.70, EUR 1,052.14 and GBP 752.53 per ounce.
Gold fell $15.70 or 1.31 percent yesterday to $1,185.10 an ounce. Silver climbed $0.09 or 0.56 percent to $16.20 an ounce.
Gold in Singapore for immediate delivery hovered at at $1,185.50 an ounce near the end of the day, while gold in Switzerland was also flat.
Gold held overnight losses as its safe haven appeal was overshadowed by the possibility of Greece making a deal with its creditors by the deadline on June 30th. Yesterday, Eurozone leaders welcomed Greece’s new budget proposals as a step in the right direction.
Donald Tusk, European Council President, said that his goal is to have the the Eurogroup finance ministers approve a cash-for-reform package by Wednesday evening and put it to euro zone leaders for final approval on Thursday morning.
With the news that a deal is imminent investors put money into riskier assets and stocks have again surged internationally in another bout of “irrational exuberance”.
In late morning European trading gold is down 0.15 percent at $1,183.95 an ounce. Silver is off 1.16 percent at $15.99 an ounce while platinum is up 0.98 percent at $1,073.30 an ounce.
Breaking News and Research Here
end
(courtesy Bill Holter, Eric Sprott and Greg Hunter with Rick Wiles):
Roundtable interview, Eric Sprott, Bill Holter, Greg Hunter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCIVRVA-Xk
end
(courtesy Company Press Release/GATA)
China Construction Bank said preparing to join London gold price fix
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2015-06-22 12:40. Section: Daily Dispatches
ICE Benchmark Administration Announces Two New Direct Participants to the Gold Auction
Company Press Release
via Business Wire
Monday, June 22, 2015
LONDON — Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global network of exchanges and clearing houses, today announced that two new direct participants have been approved by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) to participate in the gold auction, which is used to determine the LBMA Gold Price.
The new direct participants are Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered. It was announced last week that Bank of China has been approved to participate in the gold auction. All three new participants join today.
Since assuming administration of the LBMA Gold Price, IBA has grown the number of direct participants in the auction from four to 10.
Further new participants are expected in the coming weeks, including China Construction Bank, which is on track to become the 11th direct participant.
Volumes have also increased significantly, with average daily volumes for the morning and afternoon gold auctions more than doubling, compared with the five months prior to IBA’s administration. …
… For the remainder of the statement:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150622005467/en/ICE-Benchmark-Ad…
end
An extremely important commentary tonight from Ted Butler
First: (Chris Powell/GATA and then Ted Butler)
Ted Butler: The ultimate confirmation
Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2015-06-23 01:58. Section: Daily Dispatches
10:02p ET Monday, June 22, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Using U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data, silver market analyst Ted Butler argues today that the four big shorts in the U.S. silver futures market have never taken a loss — that is, have never had to close a short position at a price higher than the one at which it was established. This, Butler argues, is “The Ultimate Confirmation” of the silver market’s manipulation, “The Ultimate Confirmation” being the title of his analysis.
But, Butler adds, now that the biggest short, JPMorganChase, appears to have amassed a huge long position in silver, eventually the bullion bank will let the price rise and realize as much as $3.5 billion in profit.
Maybe — but what if, as JPMorganChase officials asserted a few years ago, the bullion bank’s position in the silver futures market is not its own but that of clients, or that of one client particularly, the U.S. government? In that case even a $3.5 billion profit on a soaring price of silver, a monetary metal, would be puny compared to what the silver price was reflecting — the collapse of the U.S. dollar, whose support has been the U.S. government’s main objective during its decades of surreptitious intervention in the futures and currency markets.
Silver and gold are far more likely to break out of their futures-market shackles on account of something else Butler notes in his analysis.
Butler writes: “It is truly astounding how the acceptance that silver and gold prices are manipulated by Comex trading has grown from the levels of five or 10 years ago. Go back 20 or 30 years and you could count on one hand the number of observers who believed that silver or gold was manipulated in price. Despite the growing acceptance, not everyone believes that silver is manipulated in price yet, but it occurs to me that we are moving toward total acceptance as new facts are uncovered.”
And when everybody realizes it, no one but governments and their brokers will trade the rigged futures markets in the monetary metals, all trading will be cash-for-delivery only, and at last fundamentals of supply and demand for real metal will prevail.
Butler’s analysis is posted at GoldSeek’s companion site, SilverSeek, here —
http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/ultimate-confirmation-14556
— and at 24hGold here:
http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-the-ultimate-confirmatio…
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
And now the Ted Butler paper:
(courtesy Ted Butler)
The Ultimate Confirmation
Theodore Butler
|
June 22, 2015 – 9:03am
I’ve embraced one central theme for the past 30 years – that the price of silver has been manipulated lower on the COMEX. For a good part of those three decades I’ve exerted an intense effort in analyzing the actual supply/demand fundamentals of silver, including production/consumption trends and the resultant annual balance between the two, inventories, investment demand, etc. Those fundamentals indicate that the price of silver must increase dramatically in the future, making the manipulation both the cause and explanation for the continued low price.
While I still follow the actual fundamentals of the metal closely; increasingly, I write less about their influence on the price. Why shouldn’t I? After all, I can’t remember an occasion over the past few years where the actual fundamentals had any effect on price; silver (and gold) prices are set on the COMEX when speculators adjust futures positions. Yes, the fundamentals will dictate the future price of silver, but they have zero influence on short to intermediate term pricing. That’s why I focus so closely on COMEX positioning.
When I step back, it is truly astounding how the acceptance that silver and gold prices are manipulated by COMEX trading has grown from the levels of five or ten years ago. Go back twenty or thirty years and you could count the number of observers who believed that silver or gold was manipulated in price on one hand. Despite the growing acceptance, not everyone believes silver is manipulated in price yet, but it occurs to me that we are moving towards total acceptance as new facts are uncovered.
The most compelling facts proving that silver is manipulated in price include the data showing the COMEX has become an exclusive speculative venue where managed money speculators vie against mostly bank speculators called commercials and the fact that COMEX silver has the largest concentrated short position of any commodity. Together, these two facts prove beyond question that silver is manipulated in price. Now a new fact has emerged that ties those two facts together and illustrates and proves the manipulation like never before.
I recently observed that JPMorgan and other members of the 4 largest short sellers on the COMEX had never taken a loss on any newly added short position in COMEX silver futures over the past seven years. Let me clarify that statement; JPMorgan and other commercial traders in the big 4 have never bought back a silver short sale at a higher price than the price they first sold short at (for a loss) and only and always have bought back silver short sales at lower prices than originally sold (for profits). In other words, the four big shorts in COMEX silver have a perfect trading record – all profits, no losses. (Of course, if a managed money trader enters into the ranks of the big 4, that trader will likely incur losses – I am only speaking of the biggest commercial traders).
In baseball terms, this is the equivalent of a Major League pitcher throwing nothing but perfect games for a full season or a batter hitting 1.000 for a whole year. Or in other words, a statistical impossibility. Think I’m overstating the case? Well, just imagine anyone entering into inherently dangerous trades (shorting the most undervalued asset of all) several times a year, year after year, and always booking profits and never a single loss. Do you think you or anyone else could do that? Yet JPMorgan and the other three largest commercial traders have done nothing but that in COMEX silver.
The proof of this resides in the data from the CFTC in the concentration section of the COT report. Every time the big 4 have increased their concentrated short position in COMEX silver, which only occurs on rising prices, they have never bought back those short sales on higher prices than originally sold, only at lower prices.
The most amazing aspect to this is that I have been studying this data all along and didn’t really see it. I have commented in the past on many occasions how the big 4 never buy back silver short positions to the upside, only to the downside. In fact, that’s a key core premise of my COT analysis in that whenever the concentrated short position has increased in size, that’s negative for prospective prices and when the position has contracted, that’s usually a good signal for higher silver prices to come. I guess that means even in understanding how the silver market functions, I overlooked putting a glaring feature into proper perspective – JPMorgan and the big 4 as a whole achieved the statistically impossible; never taking a loss.
My assertion is easy enough to verify by comparing changes in the concentrated short position and price movement and it is downright shameful that I have to be the one pointing this out to the CFTC and for the agency to not properly analyze its own data. But, what’s new about that? The important point is that JPMorgan and the other big 4 never taking a loss is the ultimate proof of the COMEX silver manipulation. That’s because no one could achieve a perfect short term trading record in a free market; that would only be possible if the market was rigged.
In fact, JPMorgan’s perfect short term trading records in COMEX silver was achieved because it had no choice in never buying back short silver positions at a loss. Had it ever bought back short positions to the upside, the price of silver would have exploded and confirmed to the world that silver was manipulated in price. The only reason silver has yet to truly explode in price is because JPMorgan never covered short positions to the upside. I confess to being repetitive in declaring nothing matters more to the price of silver than whether JPMorgan adds to its short position on any and every silver price rally.
Another lie that has been exposed with the revelation that JPMorgan or the other big 4 shorts have never taken a loss in COMEX silver dealings is that any of these big traders were ever legitimately hedging. Hedging involves an offsetting position opposite of and equal to the COMEX short position. In every hedge there must be a long and short leg in place and what the hedger loses on one leg, he makes up on the other, regardless of whether prices rise or fall. Sometimes the long leg shows profits and the short leg shows losses, other times not. In other words, were the big 4’s COMEX short position ever part of a legitimate hedge transaction, it would be impossible, at least on some number of occasions, for there not to be losses on the COMEX short position and gains on the hedged portion of the trade.
Because every COMEX short position resulted in gains, it’s clear there were never any offsetting legitimate hedges as it would be doubly impossible for there to never be losses on the COMEX side of the hedge. So much for all the balderdash that the commercials are only hedging; JPMorgan and the others live to speculate and manipulate. Never taking a loss automatically means a market is manipulated and no legitimate hedging takes place; there are no other possible conclusions.
This business of JPMorgan and the other big 4 commercial traders fully explains how and why silver has been manipulated for all these years – the big shorts sell as many new shorts as possible to eventually cause prices to cease rising and whenever the technical funds are finished buying as many COMEX silver contracts and then begin to sell, the big shorts, led by JPMorgan then grease the skids for lower prices and buy back the short contracts they sold short to the upside. It’s the perfect market scam.
What makes JPMorgan the biggest market crook of all (and what enables me to get away with stating that openly) is not just the raking in of the hundreds of millions of dollars and more that JPMorgan achieved by never taking a loss; but because this crooked bank used the continuously depressed price of silver to acquire the world’s largest position of actual silver, more than 350 million oz at last count.
But due to the growing recognition that JPMorgan has almost single-handedly manipulated the price of silver over the past seven years and has picked up a massive amount of underpriced actual silver in the process, the equation going forward has changed. While it’s true that JPMorgan has picked up another $30 million in illicit profits on the COMEX on the short side over the past month, more will come to be aware of just what dirty tricks the bank employed in achieving those profits. For JPMorgan to earn profits with no controversy or criticism is one thing; to be openly accused of manipulation is an entirely different matter.
More importantly, the financial equation has changed for JPMorgan. Making $30 million on a one dollar profit on 6000 closed out COMEX short contracts within weeks is one thing; but making $350 million for each and every dollar that silver advances will eventually prove too attractive for JPMorgan to put off indefinitely. Let me empathize that – $350 million is what JPMorgan will make when silver starts to advance on every dollar advance. A ten dollar move will equal $3.5 billion for the bank; a one hundred dollar move comes to $35 billion. The math is pretty simple and strongly suggestive of sharply higher silver prices, given how much JPMorgan stands to make.
While many feel that JPMorgan will continue to manipulate and cap the price of silver forever, the actual amount of money that the bank stands to make on sharply higher silver prices dictates otherwise. Of course, the bank is likely to depress the price of silver for as long as it can accumulate more actual silver and do so without too much outside notice of what these crooked market operators are really up to. The moment one or both of those conditions change, there is no reason for silver not to take off to the upside.
Ted Butler
June 22, 2015
end
(courtesy Larry Parks/GATA)
Larry Parks: Free trade is impossible when one side controls trade currency
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2015-06-22 17:41. Section: Daily Dispatches
1:40p ET Monday, June 22, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Free trade is impossible when one side in the transaction has exclusive power to issue the currency in which trade is conducted, Larry Parks, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education, writes this week.
Parks shows that while termination of the U.S. dollar’s convertibility to gold in 1971 has enabled the United States to exact tribute from the world through an ever-increasing trade deficit, it also has devastated the productive capacity of the U.S. economy.
Parks writes: “The cumulative trade deficit today, about $10 trillion — no typo — would not have been possible if we had an honest monetary system, one that is in compliance with the Constitution. Imagine what would have been, and would be, the employment level, standard of living, pension funding levels, etc., if we had produced an additional $10 trillion worth of goods and services over the period. It would be a different world.”
Parks’ commentary is headlined “The Trans-Pacific Partnership Violates Free-Trade Principles” and it’s posted at FAME’s Internet site here:
http://fame.org/the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-violates-free-trade-pr…
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
(courtesy Ronan Manley/Bullionstar/GATA)
Ronan Manly: London gold fix prior to this year wasn’t really so primitive
Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2015-06-23 03:23. Section: Daily Dispatches
11:20p ET Monday, June 22, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
The London daily gold price fixing prior to this year’s supposedly great reforms was almost surely not as primitive as its participants and mainstream news organizations have maintained, gold researcher and GATA consultant Ronan Manly writes today. Manly compiles evidence that the fixing long has been largely computerized, adding that this technology may have facilitated market manipulation. He suggests that financial journalists look into it, but of course those who work for respectable news organizations won’t dare do so if they want to keep their jobs.
Manly’s analysis is headlined “The Pre-2015 London Gold Fixings — More Technologically Advanced Than Reported” and it’s posted at Bullion Star here:
https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/the-pre-2015-london-gold-f…
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
“China Gold Demand Picking Up Strongly This Month”
June 22, 2015Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metalsanti-gold terrorism, Comex, LBMA, SGE, Shanghai Gold Exchange
While the London and New York fraudulent paper gold market continues to function as the price-setting markets for the global price of gold, China continues hoovering physical gold. In the latest week reported (June 8-12), 46 tonnes of gold were removed from the Shanghai Gold Exchange. This puts the year-to-date total at 1,061 tonnes, which is up 20% for the same period over 2014 and 7% over 2013. Koos Jansen refers to the YTD total as “staggering” LINK.
The actual amount of gold being “consumed” by China is quite contrary to the flood of bearish media reports on gold this year, including several which characterize China’s demand a weak. The reports, of course, are entirely misleading as they rely on data from the World Gold Council. The WGC only tracks and publicizes gold which enters China through Hong Kong. This is despite the fact that China opened up Beijing and Shanghai for gold imports specifically to mask the amount of gold that it is bringing into the country:
Opening the capital as the third shipment point will help the PBOC keep purchases discreet as it is believed to be adding to its bullion reserves. – South China Morning Post, April 21, 2014 – LINK
Of course, the western media only uses factual reporting when it fits the propaganda it promotes.
Lawrence Williams has written a short piece describing the facts about the amount of gold flowing into China vs. the media disinformation:
Contrary to a number of media reports telling us China demand for gold has collapsed, and also that premia on the Chinese gold markets have turned to discounts, the latest figures out of Shanghai belie these statements…We have been calculating that perhaps around 40% of Chinese gold imports are now coming in directly rather than via Hong Kong which makes the Hong Kong figures, as reported by the mainstream media, no longer indicative of total Chinese demand.
Here’s the link: China’s Gold Demand Is Strong
We can pnly wonder how much longer London and NYC can rig the price of gold, as occurred in overnight trading into Monday morning:
Once again gold was somewhat steady during Indian/Asian market hours. Rumors about a deal with Greece started to appear shortly before Asia closed and London opened. Of course the market manipulators used this as an opportunity to put downward pressure on gold. Then the Comex opened. Selling hit the Comex floor right at the floor trading opened at 8:20 a.m. EST. There was no news or events that would have triggered selling by an investment account that was long gold futures. This was yet another blatant paper attack on the price of gold by the banks, acting on behalf of the policy-makers at the Fed and the U.S. Treasury – collectively the “Plunge Protection Team.”
Of course, it’s easy to put the blame on an HFT hedge fund. But this is nothing more than a shameless manner in which the truth gets repackaged by the elitists and served up the masses wallowing in a cesspool of denial and hungry for a fairytale.
But here’s the truth:
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