Q: I thought I had a handle on the basics of how the precious metals paper markets are manipulated until I saw this quote from Ed Steer in the Monday email news summary: “[T]he Commercial short position…will…have to be alleviated with an engineered price decline for ‘da boyz’ to buy back at a profit the short side of a contract they purchased from Managed Money technical funds as they went long.”  Shouldn’t that have read “they sold to” instead of “they purchased from”?  If the quote was not an error, then I’m thoroughly confused, and I’d be tickled pink if you could put together (probably repeat) a short step-by-step explanation of the paper market manipulation process that dummies like me can understand.

Best Regards,Wayne

Andy Hoffman’s Answer:Wayne,First of all, shame on Ed Steer for getting caught up in COMEX den of corruption – giving ridiculous advice based on likely fraudulent data, based on specious assuptions; and in the process, inadvertantly performing a fear-mongering service for the Cartel, turning potential PM buyers into terrified traders.  Ed, a great guy, was on GATA’s board for many years, and should know better!

Unlike in the past – say, five-plus years ago – COMEX “commercial” positions no longer “indicate” anything about future price movements; especially as, a year and a half ago, the CME (owner of the COMEX) added a disclaimer to all COMEX reports that the information may not be factual.  Frankly, the only thing one can be sure of regarding their fraudulent activity – again, assuming the data is factual – is they’ll NEVER go long, as they have been net short the PM bull market from its beginning.  And oh yeah, that they’ll always do the opposite of what the funds are doing – in what I view to be the most blatant evidence of market manipulation imaginable.  And by the way, do you know what paper gold and silver prices did when the “commercials” (i.e, JP Morgan et al) nearly went net long in June 2013 and 2014?  They got smashed into oblivion!  Thus, proving reliance on such data is useless.

As for his comment, it is either ambiguous or, as you suggest, a typo.  He is intimating that they naked short paper contracts with the government’s full backing; and once these stops are broken, and the technical funds are forced to sell, they theoretically buy back at a profit.  But again, such “analysis” hasn’t had any real correlation to reality for many years; as today, not only is the data likely fraudulent, but they now attack every minute of every day, irrespective of their “short” or “long” position.

Q: Is there any chance that Katherine Hudes contention of a large gold stockpile hidden in three places around the world could be right?   That these criminals have access to it and will on the eleventh hour pull a rabbit out of their hat.   

I doubt it but physical never seems to run out in spite of the math saying it should.  Where is it coming from?

Mark

Bill Holter’s Answer:
Of course there is a “chance”, there is a chance I could stand on one foot, playing piano with one hand and painting a portrait with the other while putting Pavarotti to shame with my gruffy voice.  A very fat chance indeed!  I wrote an entire article last February entitled “Yamashita’s Gold” on this very subject.  To answer your question directly, no, I do not believe there are 170,000 tons laying around and in U.S. control.  That said, I do believe there is gold under the Emperor’s palace in Japan not accounted for and China has far more than they claim.  It is also my opinion the Marcos gold has already been found (20++ years ago) and fed into the market.  No way to tell for sure but we do know supply has not met demand for many years …the Chinese and rest of the world know this also.  I would not worry about this because if it was true, gold would never have been allowed to go over $875 in the first place.