PMs: The COMEX cartel is massively "managing" the price of gold these days

[Seraphim]

15 cents in silver is hardly solid .

Gold just got through 1700
Silver is fighting hard to get through 33

Today is options expiry, so maybe it has to do with it. But if these levels stay for a few days, than we´re off for a rally.

EDIT: OK silver is now solidly through $ 33.

 

[pmbug]

The move up was inevitable IMO, but it was surprising in its suddenness.

 

[Dr.3D]

The Gold/Silver ratio is still 51.39. I suspect silver will catch up pretty soon.

 

[swissaustrian]

The move up was inevitable IMO, but it was surprising in its suddenness.

It´s a bit worrying to me that this happens on an options expiry day.
There is big open interest at 1700 and 33, so it makes "sense" to see prices at these levels. Additionally, the intraday timing was weird: The London pm gold fixing (10 am) was intraday comex low - as it has been in the majority of comex trading days during the last decade. Right after 10 am the big surge began. So the whole move looks heavily "managed" in order to have a desired settlement price for options. The coming days will show whether this is sustainable price action or not.
Good chart from zerohedge:

 

[swissaustrian]

very obvious intervention at 1800 today. Everything goes up (usd down) in the last hour and gold goes down right when it passes 1800.

 

[swissaustrian]

And... they did it again. Just as the only safe haven out there was about to break 1800:

 

[swissaustrian]

And again, it gets boring...

 

[Khun Jean]

I like 'boring' you can make money with that!

 

[Gaddafi Duck]

I´ve watched the gold market closely for the last few days. Before the COMEX opened, gold traded in a nearly 1:1 correlation to the USD/EUR exchange rate. Asia bought the dips. Right after the open this changed. Gold always traded lower than at the opening during COMEX trading, even if everything else (stocks, EUR, oil) made new highs. This doesn´t make sense if you assume that gold trades freely. Just take a look at the chart. It seems like somebody is "defending" ~ $1675 to the upside:

So if gold goes down, it's manipulation...if gold goes up, it's OMFG GUYS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE BECAUSE THE GOLD MARKET IS SKYROCKETING, WATCH! WATCH!

Seriously, if you only understood logistics, supply, and demand, (and understand that the metals market's liquidity increases during market open hours), then you'd realize there are a hell of a lot more factors affecting gold than just blatant manipulation. Do you understand the concept of price convergence? Can you explain why there's a disconnect between the cash and futures markets for commodities?

If you can't understand what I just wrote, let alone have an explanation, then you are in no position to chock up a decline in gold price as beingdue completely to "manipulation". Maybe it's just because I have to research and justify my views on a daily basis to my customers and my coworkers, because they demand more of an explanation than simply me saying, "Oh, it's JPMorgan shorting the paper market." Yeah, because the ONLY thing affecting commodities are big banks shorting and shorting and shorting. Apparently you don't understand what position or spot limits are because if you did you'd understand the shit GATA shovels out daily is a joke.

Logistics, supply, demand, price convergence, the Goldman roll, spot and position limits, there are SOOOO many factors much larger than a fuckin' banker dressed in a suit shorting gold. Sorry, I know it sucks that reality is different than what you try to make it out to be. Trust me, I've had a few kick in the balls myself. The "real world" demands a more educated explanation than spewing out bullshit conspiracy theories. This post won't convince you, and frankly I don't care, but just realize your views are well insulated from reality. Go up to the NYMEX gold pit and mention that to a gold trader. I'd love to see the YouTube of them laughing at you, then subsequently explaining the dynamics of the futures and cash markets with you left completely clueless to the lingo and the explanation.

 

[swissaustrian]

Options expiry is tomorrow - just in case anybody wonders what the hell happened to gold today:

For a comparison, Silver magically stuck to $ 31 once it had reached this level

 

[Steven Douglas]

Logistics, supply, demand, price convergence, the Goldman roll, spot and position limits, there are SOOOO many factors much larger than a fuckin' banker dressed in a suit shorting gold.

That is true, and I agree with you in principle. It gets particularly messy, however, when whatever combination of all these complex factors results in a wiping out of the illusions of entire fortunes. And that begs the question, What were the causal factors that could ever have made them illusions in the first place? That, I think, is explicable and can be defined, without ever having to determine which combination had to occur and in what order for the illusion to be destroyed.

The problem, as I see it, is one of conflating causes and effects, and the tendency to focus on effects with no fundamental examination of the merits of the causes. It is very similar to inflation, which is looked upon as the absolutely meaningless "sustained increase in the general level of prices for goods and services" (focus on an effect with multiple causes), with no single word used to define "a dilutionary increase and subsequent debasement of the value of the money supply" (focus on a cause with multiple effects).

We are backwards in all of this, batting at myriad leaves and branches while leaving the roots unexamined. Those who see market manipulations (like JPM playing shorts against longs) as a fundamental problem on its own, regardless of other causes, are answered with an effects-centric "That's NOT the only reason prices change!" And while that is very true, it has nothing to do with examination of one core causal fundamental...in vacuo, on its own merits. Likewise, someone who sees prices of all commodities on the rise can point to "inflation of the money supply", but will be met with the argument that inflation (as defined only in terms of the effect - or "rising prices"), "...is NOT the only reason why prices can go up!" So what?

So yes, a banker dressed in a suit can short gold, even as he can create fictitious money, and these will not be the only causes, because there are indeed other, and even far more complex, dynamics involved. Focusing on the effects will NEVER produce any cut-and-dry answers, as the multiple causes will necessarily remain forever moot. But what does that have to do with the fact that a banker dressed in a suit can do either of these things with impunity in the first place? To me that's like saying that the person shaving off parts of the outer hull of a ship is NOT the only thing that can cause a ship to sink. What do I care? How about we remove the ONE KNOWN destructive cause, assuming we could even focus on the cause, let alone agree that it is inherently destructive, before examining the effects?

An even better example: The coroner listed the official cause of Elvis' death as "cardiac arrhythmia". Well. How useful. And how many factors can cause that? Constipation, or intestinal blockage (death by inflation?) can cause that. But now we have to trace backward and ask what can cause such a blockage? Oh, lots of things, like eating tons of butter-fried cheese and peanut butter sandwiches - or, say, too many prescription medications. But let's focus on the arrhythmia, shall we? Pay no attention to each of the root causes behind the curtain, since any one or more of them in combination could have been responsible, but all likely played "some part".