JPMorgan controlling silver market
Wolf359
Posts: 7,657 ✭✭✭
Ted Butler analyzed the 10/13/2009 Commitment of Traders and the Bank Participation Reports. On an interview on KingWorldNews says he has calculated that JPMorgan has a short position on the
COMEX silver market equal to 40% of the entire market.
Audio, 4:58 to 6:40
COMEX silver market equal to 40% of the entire market.
Audio, 4:58 to 6:40
0
Comments
if true, 40% of one side of the market is not controlling it - they are in deep trouble
daily margin calls will be in the millions if the price goes up a quarter
they can sell more if the price rises to try to lower
when they give up, and start buying back their positions - there will be a BIG jump in price as a major seller becomes a major buyer
think of what happened to Barings Bank
<< <i>I am not sure how he can calculate a 40% short position by one trader
if true, 40% of one side of the market is not controlling it - they are in deep trouble
daily margin calls will be in the millions if the price goes up a quarter
they can sell more if the price rises to try to lower
when they give up, and start buying back their positions - there will be a BIG jump in price as a major seller becomes a major buyer
think of what happened to Barings Bank >>
It will be the mother of all short squeezes unless the government lets them off the hook. It seems the government is only concerned when the manipulation is on the long side.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
the sellers hold position toward expiration
some buyers decide to take delivery
the sellers deliver their product until they have no more
and then have to go to the cash market to buy more
as more is bought, less is available bumping the price as sellers decide to hold longer
frequently futures contracts are liquidated before delivery as margins are less than 10% of total contract size
this still does not seem possible as there is a contract limit of something like 8000 contracts
in all expirations
Another game is to sell SLV shares short and crash the market a little there. In any case as long as the longs DONT take delivery and think they have silver in Kitco, Perth or SLV (unallocated accounts) then they will continue to dominate and manipulate with fractional reserve bullion banking.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
This still does not seem possible as there is a contract limit of something like 8000 contracts in all expirations
There are no firm limits in the silver contracts even if "6000" may be the perceived gentleman's limit. Look at the Oct. 2009 report linked below and you will find 2 US banks with 116,000 gold futures contracts and >130,000 silver contracts. I'd venture a safe bet that there are players with positions well over 10,000 to 20,000 contracts each. The SEC is possibly considering applying a limit to silver as low as 1500....maybe gold around 6000. At least those numbers make sense. But there would be nothing from stopping a determined short from spreading around their contracts to get the desired effect.
The other thing the banks did in July 2008 was to double their short silver derivatives from $90 BILL to $190 BILL. That extra $100 BILL in paper silver had a 10X effect on the market vs. the Comex position changes. Up to last fall, derivatives had been like a get out of jail free card for all that ails you....assuming you were a bank. That $100 BILL paper silver increase levered up into the equivalent of 5 BILL ounces of silver. That's 40X the amount that Warren Buffet squirreled away in the 1990's and his move bumped up silver a couple dollars per ounce. The paper silver dump in July 2008 did its job. The derivatives have since been reduced back to $111 BILL per the last OCC report. No doubt a lot of those short contracts were removed once silver fell back to $8-$12 per ounce.
October 2009 CFTC Bank Participation Report
Here's the latest bank report. It shows but 2 reporting US banks in the silver and gold shorts. They carry about 30% of the total position. If you remove the straddle positions those numbers would probably be 40% or higher. Does it make sense that 2 US banks are carrying close to 1/2 of the short position on the Comex? Those 2 positions work out to be around 725 tons of "paper" gold. Plat and Pall aren't far behind at around 20%. The Canadian dollar and Yen are also in the same league with the gold and silver ratio's...about 30% held by 2-3 US banks. Those 2 US banks sure seem to be covering the dollar from different fronts. But I believe these Comex currency positions are pretty small compared to the total Forex trading. The Comex gold trading also pales in sized to what is handled on the otc London market daily where around 2400 tons of "paper and/or real" gold per day is processed.
Note that not all banks have to report to the CFTC. There are other "banks" carrying short positions that don't have to report.
roadrunner
"It is a "short" short position, or a "long" short position? I have asked this question many times and no one ever gives me an answer. "
say the future delivery price (of something for sometime) is trading at $20
2 traders take opposite positions
one buys at $20 and is long
one sells at $20 and is short
you might be confusing the futures with options on futures
probably puts which are the right to sell at a specific price and time
which have both a buyer and a seller (long and short)
I will stand by my 6000 contract position limit and CFTC/COMEX/NYMEX would stop anything not legal
but I can not explain that high position unless they are calender spreads with spreads not counting in limit?
how about cross market spreads? probably some convoluted strategy that few of them understand?
Well, of course. Not everyone can be a counterparty. I see no issue here.
What I want to know is whether JPM is actually short or long silver. And just saying they have 40% of the short contracts doesnt tell me anything. Lets say I have 100 short puts on the market. That means I am actually long the market.
Someone please tell me whether JPM is actually short silver. Until we know for sure, this issue should have very little importance to anyone.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
<< <i>And just saying they have 40% of the short contracts doesnt tell me anything >>
If that doesnt spell it out that they are not only the largest short holder but that they are also manipulating the prices down, then you need to apply for a job at the CFTC. They might have need for more members who can deny the obvious.
because you apparently do not understand the futures market
if there are a million contracts of open interest at close of a day, and 1 trader is short 40%,
that means they have sold 400,000 contracts
roadrunner
<< <i>Bear Stearns held the largest concentrated short position in COMEX silver (and gold) futures at the time of its forced merger with JP Morgan in March. That position was not discovered until the publishing of the August Bank Participation Report followed by the October 8 letter from the CFTC to Congressman Miller. Furthermore, Bear Stearns had no legitimate backing to the short silver position, either in actual metal or cash. >>
http://community.market-watch.com/groups/small-silver-investor/topics/jp-morgans-silver-shorts-subtitle
remove the dash between market and watch for the link. It appears to be aforbidden word
<< <i>just saying they have 40% of the short contracts doesnt tell me anything
because you apparently do not understand the futures market
if there are a million contracts of open interest at close of a day, and 1 trader is short 40%,
that means they have sold 400,000 contracts >>
Wrong. I've tried to explain this 100 times. JPM is only the counterparty. Look up the word "hedge". From Wikipedia-----"When trading futures contracts, being 'short' means having the legal obligation to deliver something at the expiration of the contract, although the holder of the short position may alternately buy back the contract prior to expiration instead of making delivery. Short futures transactions are often used by producers of a commodity to fix the future price of goods they have not yet produced. Shorting a futures contract is sometimes also used by those holding the underlying asset (i.e. those with a long position) as a temporary hedge against price declines".
JPM most likely did not open these positions. Who holds the open contracts? And what does that really mean?
Roadrunner understands what I am getting at, although he has a somewhat different interpretation.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
or if they plan on delivering at contract expiration or cancelling contracts by buying them back
if they are short, they have sold future contracts
I just do not understand what you are getting at cohodk
if JPM got these contracts from a merge/buy-out of another company (like Bear Stearns), they now become responsible - unless a bankrupcy or something then the clearing firms insurance
but they most know about them if they list them on their books
<< <i>JPM most likely did not open these positions. >>
I believe you are wrong. These are not for miners hedging future production against price drops. Aside from the contracts they got from Bear JPM takes its own positions in order to control the market. Then then claim it as income from trading. Often they will sell a huge volume of calls and then open enough short contracts (with speculators taking the long end) to bring down the price and be assured the calls they sold expire out of the money. After a while of these games they have made huge trading profits, collected huge trading bonuses but are stuck with a ton of underwater positions such as now.
If they get far enough under (like now) they can wait for some major event, declare force majure and walk, maybe right after the Chinese decide to default. The longs on the other end of these contracts will see thier values skyrocket but will then be unable to collect.
Thats why "Hold the physical" is the battle cry of the forum.
Well, you should care as it is the basis of your beliefs. Who said JPM has silver bars sitting in a vault? The silver miners will sell short against future production.
These are not for miners hedging future production against price drops
How do you know this?
You see what I am getting at is that there is an awful lot of misinformation (half truths) that is being presented as absolute fact. Show me concrete facts, rather than speculation, hyperbole, and fear, and I will then consider that JPM is willfully controlling the silver market in an attempt of manipulate the price of silver. Until then, I will continue to trade SLV over physical as it is more efficient and has returned 59% this year vs about 15% if one had been buying ASE's all year.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
<< <i>I do not care if they are just a brokerage clearing firm for many traders and silver mining operations and it is truly a hedge play and they have sold short with actual silver bars to cover it sitting in the vault
Well, you should care as it is the basis of your beliefs. Who said JPM has silver bars sitting in a vault? The silver miners will sell short against future production.
These are not for miners hedging future production against price drops
How do you know this?
You see what I am getting at is that there is an awful lot of misinformation (half truths) that is being presented as absolute fact. Show me concrete facts, rather than speculation, hyperbole, and fear, and I will then consider that JPM is willfully controlling the silver market in an attempt of manipulate the price of silver. Until then, I will continue to trade SLV over physical as it is more efficient and has returned 59% this year vs about 15% if one had been buying ASE's all year. >>
Unfortunatley they don't exactly advertize this information
One must connect the dots and draw their own conclusions
As for your example.....hmmmm........I would need to see your math persuant to your post above on needing see concrete facts : )
SLV-----While maybe easier----I'd rather have the physical as it serves dual purposes
While I do use SLV-------------I use it as short vehicle to hedge at times
To each is own
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Threads from early Jan offering ASEs for sale. I believe today they can be bought for about $20. Maybe someone could find a greysheet from early Jan to confirm.
ASE for $18 each
Group purchase for $15 each.
So you could have bought 1 coin at a time--as MANY did and made 15%, or bought a monster box and made 33%. In either case SLV CRUSHED physical. No suppositions, conspiracies, or "reading between the lines" needed. Just facts.
SLV-----While maybe easier----I'd rather have the physical as it serves dual purposes
Hmmm---maybe even treble? What Uncle Sam doesnt know wont hurt him.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
<< <i>Jan 1 SLV was about $11. today in the last few days around 17.50. Thats 59%.
Threads from early Jan offering ASEs for sale. I believe today they can be bought for about $20. Maybe someone could find a greysheet from early Jan to confirm.
ASE for $18 each
Group purchase for $15 each.
So you could have bought 1 coin at a time--as MANY did and made 15%, or bought a monster box and made 33%. In either case SLV CRUSHED physical. No suppositions, conspiracies, or "reading between the lines" needed. Just facts.
SLV-----While maybe easier----I'd rather have the physical as it serves dual purposes
Hmmm---maybe even treble? What Uncle Sam doesnt know wont hurt him. >>
SLV-----While maybe easier----I'd rather have the physical as it serves dual purposes
OK, three purposes
I think on the math part, physical ASE's would have probably have netted you close to 50%
Since there is a direct correlation between SLV and ASE's a 59% gain in SLV would probably net a 50% gain in ASE's in the same time frame
I used a 10% net premium between buy/sell to get to that figure
I think that's more then fair
I'm not big on ASE's in general for full disclosure
There are several better forms IMO
What SLV doesn't give you is insurance on a doomsday scenerio.
Matter of fact in a default doomsday scenerio SLV could go to zero while physical soars
Probably never happens....but then ask Bear Steans and Merrill Lynch former employees if they ever thought they would go poof
It would of been a 100% no response..............SH!t happens
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
When silver was $11, ASE's were $15-16 and 100oz bars were over $1400. Nobody has made close to 50% on physical silver since the beginning of the year. The only corroloation between spot silver and SLV is that both are supposed to move in the same direction. A year ago people were saying that SLV would dramatically underperform physical, yet just the opposite has happened. Even the SLV detractors will admit this, but will continue to repeat the mantra. Maybe they'll be proven right, but so far they are quite a ways behind the 8-ball.
Physical does not give you insurance in a doomsday scenerio either. I think even the most ardent PM bulls would admit this. In a doomsday scenerio do want 100oz of silver or a cow?
Look, I'm all about making as much $$$$ as possible. If you say the dollar will be devalued by another 30%, then I say, how can I make 50% more. Owning paper metal has outperformed physical and thats an undisputable fact. FWIW---I just looked at a pile of slabbed $2.5 Indians I bought last winter and the greysheet bids are lower today than 9 months ago. Yet gold is $200 higher. What a preservative of wealth!!!
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
I don't buy ASE's (nor like them) so I'll take your word for it. You seem sincere
I do buy 100 oz bars. I suggest you find a new dealer. I've never paid close to those premiums
Junk silver junk has very low premiums
A lot of PM mining stocks outperformed SLV/GLD so there
I maybe able to buy a cow with a bag of junk silver
I doubt you could do the same with a 250 share stock certificate of SLV
My odds will be better, that I know
Let's pray it never comes to this as I don't know how to milk a cow
FYI- Capmark Financial officially filed for BK protection tonight
When does this stop?
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
The government is incapable of ever managing the economy. That is why communism collapsed. It is now socialism’s turn - Martin Armstrong
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
<< <i>China's currency is currently pegged to the US dollar. So as the dollar goes down so does the Yuan. So China is currently devaluing their currency. Why do they do this? >>
Not true
They are letting it float close to the dollar or in a narrow trading range for now.
They are letting it fluctuate against a basket of currencies and not just the dollar
The Yuan used to be 8.3 against the dollar a few years ago. ( It was this amount for 13 years)
It's now 6.85 ish against the USD
I can vouch for this as I live in China 5 months a year
It's 2010 that many think China will pull the plug entirely and let the Yuan totally appreciate against the dollar
The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the dollar
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
<< <i>
<< <i>China's currency is currently pegged to the US dollar. So as the dollar goes down so does the Yuan. So China is currently devaluing their currency. Why do they do this? >>
Not true
They are letting it float close to the dollar or in a narrow trading range for now.
They are letting it fluctuate against a basket of currencies and not just the dollar
The Yuan used to be 8.3 against the dollar a few years ago. ( It was this amount for 13 years)
It's now 6.85 ish against the USD
I can vouch for this as I live in China 5 months a year
It's 2010 that many think China will pull the plug entirely and let the Yuan totally appreciate against the dollar
The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the dollar
MJ >>
The WSJ or Bloomberg just ran an article on it this morning. The Chinese are purposely devaluing the YUAN in lockstep with the dollar. It may not be an "official" pegging, however it is still a pegging. And why they do this? To boost their exports and keep their manipulated economy humming. The Chinese are much more worried about deflation than the USA, that why the YUAN hasnt risen.
So what isnt true about them devaluing their currency?
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
LOL! Let's face it, the Metals Banks have complete control and we can only *hope* we are on the *right side* of thier trade when they make it!
China is innocent, believe me.
They already are a Superpower, they hold all of our paper.
Ill know at the end of the day. They always tell at lemetropolecafe
You made two statements-
<< China's currency is currently pegged to the US dollar. So as the dollar goes down so does the Yuan. So China is currently devaluing their currency. Why do they do this? >>
Because the first two sentences are false
As far as devaluing their currency.
Of course they are keeping it artificially low by their choosing and I acknowledged that.
However, they are free to let it float at any time.
That wasn't true awhile ago.
<<Why do they do this? >>
The same reason we do
You think they are going to let us have our cake and eat it to?
They have leverage
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
<< <i>Owning paper metal has outperformed physical >>
I will try to provide you with an answer even though Im not sure what your question is. First though I need to correct this statement of yours.
Before last year physical and COMEX prices were about the same as has been for a long time. Come the crash of June-Sept08 the COMEX margin players were first hit with a coordinated major short selling by Bear, JPM and others that brought the COMEX price down from 18 or so to about 12, then came the stock market crash and the margin guys had to sell fast to raise cash for their overleveraged stock/commodity positions. This brought silver into the 9-10 range on COMEX. Standard Wall Street games.
If you held paper silver you got killed. Those of us who had physical could still get 15-17oz because there was a big-time shortage of the real stuff and those prices. No one was going to give the real stuff away at the phony COMEX price. I was selling eagle rolls at 370. The way it was explained was that physical had a big “premium”. That was bull. Physical was selling for the real price and the shorts were killing the margined guys on COMEX.
You took advantage (I did too) and bought some SLV at the discount price and took advantage of the squeeze on the COMEX longs.
Now you figure you did better because you owned the paper than if you owned bullion. You are correct. You got into the right end of a manipulation and squeeze at the right time. You would not have felt that way if you owned paper in May08 and your paper went down to 10 bucks while the bullion owners were getting 16.
Here is the education part which Im sure you already know.
Buying and selling bullion will protect your assets and allow you to participate in the long term appreciation of silver vs the dollar.
Buying and selling COMEX/SLV will give you a wild ride in which you will at times do much better or much worse depending on how lucky you are at getting on the right side of the manipulation at the right time. In the end you may also find yourself getting a payout from a BK judge or a ENRON type story when SLV has only some silver and a lot of paper to cover their obligations. Audits are in the queue for these guys.
You seem to think we need to explain something to you, no one does. You can believe what you wish, its no skin off me. You may or may not believe that the total amount of shorts on COMEX far exceeds the amount of available silver. I am not going to run around the world taking inventory.
Good luck on your investing or gambling. Whichever you choose to do.
i clearly remember during the time frame when stocks were going so
low that one could buy at near spot prices. the trick was you had to
buy in very large lots. A 1000 oz bar for example or all the junk silver
you wanted from places like Silvertowne in very large lots. (500 ozs
minimum order if i recall right). Also NWT could get you silver at close
to spot prices if you did not mind waiting 3 months to take delivery.
also keep in mind some forum members here were buying quality 1
oz rounds for just a few dollars over spot and reaping those large
premiums. You just had to buy a couple hundred ounces at a time which
the average joe did not wish to do.
it was those flustered people rushing to buy that did not do proper
research that were paying those enormous premiums. Anything to get
their hands on silver. 18-20 dollars per ounce on ebay was the norm
for a little while.
so perhaps you are recalling the events incorrectly? small lots had huge
premiums but silver itself could be had for reasonable amounts over
spot as long as you had 2500-5000 bucks to throw at it for a quantity
order from a real provider of silver.
Im not trying to be obstinate, just looking for real answers and whether the "problem" really means anything. I have a different opinion on what the "short position" means so I guess we'll just have to agree to differences. Thats what makes the world go 'round.
What I wanted an answer to was Justacommeman assertation was that my statement was false when in fact the Yuan and dollar have been moving in lock step. He apparently doesnt like the word "pegged", so I would like to know what would be the correct term. And why is it ok for China to devalue and why is it such a problem for the US to devalue. And lets say the dollar goes down, does that mean it will never go up, thus reversing any "ill" effects of a weak dollar?
Many see the weak dollar as a big problem, and I agree if it persists for an extended period. But what if this is just a few year phenomona. Lets make real estate, the stock market, and exports cheap for the rest of the world. We have a major problem with excess real estate inventory. Whats wrong with the Germans, Swiss, Brits and French buying all the excess condos in Miami and Vegas. Certainly would solve a big problem wouldnt it? Or maybe they would want to buy some commercial real estate on the cheap. Or how about the Europeans come in and buy US equities thus bailing the boomers out of their 401(k)? Whats wrong with this? Nothing.
When the problems are resolved the dollar will go higher. If gold goes to 3000 in the meantime, well then great. We'll all be rich, right. Whats wrong with that? Nothing.
Look for the positives, not the negatives. We have enough blowhards on TV, radio and print preaching doom and gloom. Be proactive and make America great. We are not going back to the 1800's. The dollar will survive and flourish when this period is over. Your offspring will enjoy a better life than you did. Believe in America.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
Maybe you could buy "junk silver" but I was still getting a nice premium on my 90% coins. The fact remains that one could get a much higher price on an ASE that a COMEX contract because the shorts had killed the market. It would have been a much different story if silver holders were lining up to dump at/below spot at the B&M. The B&M had no sellers, only buyers and they were paying a premium because they were selling for a premium the same day.
I have a Yuan ETF which stays the same. I guess Im learning what "pegged' means. I do know when it breaks, i dont expect the Yuan to go down.
World mined silver is around 650 MILL ounces per year. Let's call that $1 BILL/yr in dollars for a round number. Each silver contract is 5000 ounces or roughly $85,000. The 2 US banks reporting on the bank participation report are short over 30,000 contracts. That's about $2.55 BILL. Clearly, those are not all being used for miners hedging production....even if every miner in the world signed up with JPM and locked in a price for 100% of their forward production. That number is > 2-1/2 times annual world production. Those 2 banks are only around 30% of the total short contracts so that brings the total shorts (and longs) to $8.3 BILL. On top of that you can factor in the $111 BILL in the OCC report of silver derivatives. That's 13.3X the Comex figures. I see lots of big numbers that bury the actual hedging miners into the ground. And the massive derivative's number sort of hints that all is not legit here.
On the gold side, the commercials are short over 380,000+ contracts. With 100 oz contracts, that's 38 MILL ounces or 1187 tons of gold. Well at least in this case world production is about 2X that amount. Using GLD along with the Comex inventory, they can still cover that number.
If JPM or other major player revealed what they were really doing behind the scenes, and for whom, I think the end result would be a very high silver price. By the time we get the answer, everyone else will know it as well.
roadrunner
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeIi50WDkmC0
Wang said she doesn’t expect policy makers to take her advice. She sees the yuan staying pegged to the U.S. currency for six to nine months as the government continues to protect exporters
China is “stealing jobs” from other countries and undermining the global recovery by keeping the yuan pegged to the U.S. currency, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times last week
I guess they are making false statements also.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
It says very specifically the range the yuan is allowed to float against the dollar
Maybe float and pegged mean the same to you
If so, there is no debating anything with you
I already told you it traded in a narrow range
Your article confirmed it
I told you that the Chinese would probably let the yuan appreciate in 2010
Your article confirmed it
Paul Krugman is a joke
He's all yours, keep him
Good luck with the Happy Day's outlook and all is well
I'm embarrassed what we are leaving our kids
I'm a realist
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I'll agree with you there. But I am teaching my kids what it means, how people will react, and how to find opportunity in it.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
Of course they need to do well with it as we also expect them to keep our social security and medicare going for the last 30 years of our lives with all the taxes theyll have to pay on it..