Silver-metal-investment

Silver gains popularity among investors amid economy fears

2013-01-23T17:15:00.004-08:00

Silver gains popularity among investors amid economy fears

Worries about the challenge of reviving the sluggish US economy and dealing with the Eurozone debt crisis have prompted nervous investors to find safe havens to put their money.
Gold has been long considered a safe-haven asset, but investors are now being attracted to silver.
The BBC's Leisha Chi has been finding out why some bullion experts believe silver will outperform over the next few years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20954417

Silver prices will go crazy as demand overwhelms supply: Embry

2013-01-23T17:13:00.004-08:00

Silver prices will go crazy as demand overwhelms supply: Embry

John Embry, chief investment strategist with Sprott Asset Management, believes silver prices will go "ballistic" as demand massively outpaces supply while investor demand builds due to dwindling above-ground sources.

Speaking to King World News Embry notes that over the past half century billions of ounces in above ground silver have been consumed, with the precious metal serving as both as investment holding and key industrial material.
According to Embry demand far exceeds the amount of silver coming out of the ground or silver being recycled, and prices are set to go "crazy" as the skewed supply-demand relationship unfolds.
Although Embry remains immensely optimistic about gold and foresees a raging bull market in both gold and silver, he also expects the gold-silver ratio to decline as is typical during strong periods for precious metals.

http://www.mining.com/silver-prices-will-go-crazy-as-demand-overwhelms-supply-embry-36227/

Silver price to 'increase 400pc in three years'

2012-11-21T17:37:00.002-08:00

Silver price to 'increase 400pc in three years'

The silver bull run will continue says investment specialist Ian Williams of Charteris Treasury.

Silver will increase in value five times over the next three years, according to mixed asset fund manager Ian Williams.

"Silver is about to enter a sustained bull market that will take the price from the current level of $32 an ounce to $165 an ounce and we expect this price to be hit at the end of October 2015," he predicted.

"This forecast is based entirely using technical & cyclical analysis and is in keeping with the mathematical form displayed so far in the bull run that has taken Silver from $8 an ounce in 2008 to its current price of $32 an ounce – having hit $50 an ounce in 2011."

Mr Williams said that the silver price was more volatile than gold, but that he expected silver to continue to dramatically outperform gold.

The Charteris manager said that macro fundamentals were supportive for the silver price, such as the re-election of President Obama, who supports Ben Bernanke's policy of quantitative easing.

Darius McDermott of Chelsea Financial Services agreed that QE means good news for precious metals.
"Strong demand for precious metals will remain as long as we have QE, which do well with each round of money printing. QE is bound to lead to inflation at some point and at that time, real assets will do best," he said.
"Investing in a fund that holds a range of precious metals gives you positive diversification and less reliance on just gold."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/4931726/Wanted-Someone-who-thinks-the-gold-price-is-going-to-fall.html

The silver series - Part 1

2012-11-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

MASSIVE COMEX SILVER WITHDRAWAL ON FRIDAY- 3.6 MILLION OUNCES WITHDRAWN FROM BRINKS!

2012-10-17T14:56:00.001-07:00

MASSIVE COMEX SILVER WITHDRAWAL ON FRIDAY- 3.6 MILLION OUNCES WITHDRAWN FROM BRINKS!

There was a massive silver withdrawal out of the Comex on Friday. Over the past week, there has been a steady increase in the total amount of silver in the Comex warehouses.

However, in one huge withdrawal, 3.6 MILLION OUNCES, a whopping 17% of Brinks total REGISTERED silver inventory was removed on Friday. I have not seen such a large withdrawal from the registered category for quite some time.
Furthermore, this single withdrawal from the Brinks registered category was nearly 10% of all the total registered silver in the Comex warehouses.
NEW IMPORTANT UDPATE BELOW: added at 9:53 pm SATURDAY

Brinks had a staggering 3.6 million ounce silver withdrawal (or 17% ) from its total REGISTERED INVENTORY on Friday. There was an additional 558,390 ounces withdrawn from HSBC.
There were two deposits on the same day. 456,057 ounces was deposited into the JP Morgan warehouse and 1,176,937 ounces went into the Scotia Mocatta vaults.

http://www.silverdoctors.com/massive-comex-silver-withdrawal-on-friday/

Who says silver is second best? Price streaks ahead 572% in the past decade - beating even gold as the top-performing commodity

2012-10-04T17:54:00.001-07:00

Who says silver is second best? Price streaks ahead 572% in the past decade - beating even gold as the top-performing commodity

Silver has zoomed up in value by 572 per cent over the past decade - outstripping the performance of all other top commodities, including gold.
Gold, which saw a 428 per cent price jump, was the second-best performer in a league table compiled by Lloyds TSB Private Banking.
The top duo were followed by tin (414 per cent), copper (406 per cent) and lead (344 per cent).

But there is a sting in the tail, because commodity prices have suffered an overall decline of 13 per cent in the past year due to fears of a global economic slump - and precious and base metals have fared worst with falls of 19 per cent in both sectors.

Some 15 of the 20 commodities tracked by Lloyds TSB have at least doubled in value since 2002, according to Lloyds TSB.
Silver proved the winner over 10 years because it is seen as a safe haven investment and is in high demand for industrial uses, it explained.

Commodity values in general soared due to the relatively weak U.S. dollar - in which most are priced - and strong economic growth in emerging markets as they become more industrialised and middle class.
The 161 per cent rise in overall commodity prices over 10 years dwarfs the 35 per cent return investors got from UK shares during the same period.
However, the sharp correction in commodity values in the past year highlights the challenges faced by those who invest in this volatile asset class.
Just six out of the commodities monitored by Lloyds TSB have posted an increase in value over the past 12 months.
The best performer over one year was soya with a 24 per cent rise. It only ranks around the middle of the 10-year league table, but supply problems in the U.S. have recently pushed up prices.
Wheat, corn and crude oil have also seen prices rise over one year - but coffee has almost halved in value due to changes in trading conditions.

Silver analysts' forecasts & commentary for 2012.

2012-09-22T12:14:00.005-07:00

Silver analysts' forecasts & commentary for 2012.

silver (All prices in USD's)

↓	high	low	average	range
YTD actual at 21-Sep-12	$37.23	$26.67	$30.53	$10.56
Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach - Degussa Goldhandel GmbH	$44.00	$25.00	$35.00	$19.00
William Adams - Fastmarkets	$53.00	$24.00	$32.15	$29.00
Tom Kendall - Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd	$42.60	$24.20	$32.80	$18.40
Thorsten Proettel - LBBW	$37.00	$22.00	$31.00	$15.00
Suki Cooper - Barclays Capital	$45.00	$22.00	$32.50	$23.00
Ross Norman - Sharps Pixley Ltd	$50.00	$20.00	$37.35	$30.00
Rohit Savant - CPM Group	$35.00	$20.00	$27.00	$15.00
René Hochreiter - Allan Hochreiter (Pty) Ltd	$48.00	$28.00	$38.00	$20.00
Philip Klapwijk - Thomson Reuters GFMS	$45.05	$26.85	$34.20	$18.20
Peter Fertig - QCR Quantitative Commodity Research Ltd	$45.00	$25.00	$33.90	$20.00
Michael Widmer - BAML	$40.00	$25.00	$34.00	$15.00
Michael Jansen - JPMorgan Securities	$36.00	$26.00	$34.00	$10.00
Matthew Turner - Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) Plc	$45.10	$24.15	$32.95	$20.95
Jeffrey Rhodes - INTL Commodities	$50.25	$22.25	$36.25	$28.00
James Steel - HSBC	$38.00	$27.00	$34.00	$11.00
Frederic Panizzutti - MKS Finance S.A.	$50.00	$27.00	$36.00	$23.00
Edel Tully - UBS	$50.00	$24.00	$35.00	$26.00
Eddie Nagao - Sumitomo Corporation	$33.00	$23.50	$28.00	$9.50
David Jollie - Mitsui & Co Precious Metals Inc	$44.60	$19.20	$30.95	$25.40
Daniel Smith - Standard Chartered	$48.00	$26.00	$39.20	$22.00
Daniel Brebner - Deutsche Bank	$45.00	$26.00	$37.00	$19.00
Carl Firman - VM Group	$42.50	$24.10	$31.40	$18.40
Bhargava Vaidya - B.N. Vaidya & Associates	$48.10	$21.25	$29.20	$26.85
Bayram Dincer - LGT Capital Management	$50.00	$25.00	$42.00	$25.00
Average forecasts -	$44.49	$24.06	$33.98	$20.43
Anne-Laure Tremblay - BNP Paribas	$47.00	$24.00	$35.75	$23.00

http://www.lbma.org.uk/pages/index.cfm?page_id=142

Cartel Dumped 2x Annual US Silver Production on Market in 15 Min to Smash Silver Under $35

2012-09-22T03:34:00.006-07:00

Cartel Dumped 2x Annual US Silver Production on Market in 15 Min to Smash Silver Under $35

After silver exploded through $35 on this today’s COMEX open, we wrote this morning that should silver hold $35 through today’s weekly close, the metal would quickly run to $37-$37.50 early next week as a massive short squeeze developed.

The cartel understood the predicament they were in, and responded with a massive paper dump on the market to stuff price back below $35.
Between 10:35 and 10:50am EST, an astonishing 62.5 million ounces of paper silver were indiscriminately dumped on the market to induce the sell-off- nearly twice US annual silver production of 36 million ounces!!

Must. Not. Allow. Silver. To. Close. Over. $35.
Perhaps there is something to those rumors of JP Morgan silver derivatives losses triggered with silver over $36?

Silver will be the first element in the periodic table to become extinct (shooting price per Oz. past Gold).

2012-09-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Besides Strontium (Sr), Silver (Ag) has the least amount of world reserves remaining. In a recent article on kitco commentaries, David Morgan put some highlights of what Adrian Douglas had stated in a recent interview about silver.
There’s very little left on the planet. The U.S. Geological Society said just a couple years ago that silver would be the first element in the periodic table that would become extinct. It’s incredibly bullish. The USGS said that would happen by 2020. So if we’re in the situation where we can run out of silver, the price clearly has to go up, because you can’t obviously run out of silver. What will happen is, the price will have to go to a price level where it’s economic to recycle it..
We have seen history in the making here. Normally whatever the government states, we know as of late is false. But here, we have some honesty from the USGS. Unfortunately, as energy becomes more expensive due to less net energy available due to a falling EROI ratio, even recycling will become expensive and prohibited. There will be plenty of challenges in the future for the modern technological society we live in as we transition to a world with less of everything right at the time when China and India are westernizing.

http://maxkeiser.com/2011/04/08/silver-will-be-the-first-element-in-the-periodic-table-to-become-extinct-shooting-price-per-oz-past-gold/

Harvey Organ: The Moment London is Out of Silver, the COMEX Will Be Out in a Nano-Second!

2012-08-27T13:16:00.002-07:00

Harvey Organ joins us again for an explosive interview discussing this week’s breakout in gold and silver, the developing ‘TREMENDOUS PHYSICAL SHORTAGE‘ in the silver market, and concerns with unallocated gold and silver accounts, which Harvey describes as nothing but paper notes and obligations.
Harvey also discussed recent reports that the LBMA is refusing to deliver silver outside of the LBMA system: They won’t deliver it outside of the system because there is no silver! That’s a real crisis! The moment London is out of metal, the COMEX will be out in a nano-second!

Harvey also discusses Romney’s threat to fire Bernanke and what it means to Fed monetary policy prior to the elections, the Republican party’s announcement of the development of a ‘gold commission‘ with the goal of returning the US to a gold standard will be official Republican policy and MUCH MORE.
The Doc’s FULL MUST LISTEN interview with Harvey Organ below:

When asked about this week’s big moves in gold and silver and whether we are witnessing the start of a historic rally in the metals Harvey responded:
No question. The key development that Ned Naylor-Leyland discovered is this big physical purchase of silver that had to be settled INSIDE of the LBMA. They won’t deliver it outside of the system because there is no silver! That’s a real crisis!   I’ve always advised the CFTC that the moment London is out of metal, the COMEX will be out in a nano-second! It will travel across the pond as quickly as possible and could cause a default of the COMEX.
This is why you’re seeing massive movements of silver in the vaults, all over the place.   Every day there’s been over a million ounces moving around. Whenever you start seeing that, then you know there’s trouble.   It’s Peter robbing Paul to pay somebody else.   It’s just going on, and on, and on, and it’s now coming home to roost.   And our friend the banks – JPM have their hands full!

Harvey goes on to discuss the physical shortage developing in the silver market:
Eric Sprott still hasn’t got his silver yet. I can’t remember exactly how much, but he’s still short on his order. He hasn’t completed it yet as of last week. I’m telling you, there’s a TREMENDOUS PHYSICAL SHORTAGE out there, and it’s reflected in the price rising. The price of silver has been closing at it’s highs at the COMEX close which is very positive.
Now I expect a little raid Friday. The bankers are trying to quell the HUGE DEMAND so I expect a raid to try to smash the price down, because the shortfall for Morgan is just annihilating them!
They have problems on their interest rate swaps which are killing them! They have $ Trillions of interest rate swaps and they’re short the 10 year T-bond.   That’s been hurting them because of the rate of movement of the yield caught them off guard. They lost on that, they lost on their IG9 London Whale trade, and now the rise in silver. That’s three whamo’s against them, and they’re sweating bullets!    It’s certainly reflecting now in the silver and gold price.

Harvey also discussed Ted Butler’s recent claims that the other commercial banks have turned on JP Morgan:
They’re all trying for their survival. Ted Butler calls them the Raptors. The two major guys in silver and gold are HSBC and JP Morgan. They’re the Kingpins. Now the other guys are saying ‘We’ve got to survive ourselves!’.    You can just see them going in themselves and purchasing! And you’ll notice that on the COMEX the open interest has been trending different than gold! The OI in gold is near it’s low for 3 years, yet the OI in silver is near it’s record high! This will explain why there’s certain guys in the know who are taking on our boys, the two big guys. It’s very exciting to watch!
The SLV went up for the first time in quite a while today, about a 1.5 million ounces! The GLD has been rising every day. I don’t think it’s real, it’s just paper going in, but that’s a different matter. I’ve always stated that the GLD and SLV are absolute frauds! If you open up their vaults, you’re going to see nothing but paper notes and obligations. The poor shareholders are going to end up with nothing when this thing implodes!

Harvey also discusses Romney’s threat to fire Bernanke and what it means to Fed monetary policy prior to the elections, the Republican party’s announcement that a ‘gold commission’ to return the US to a gold standard will be official Republican policy and much more.

http://www.silverdoctors.com/harvey-organ-the-moment-london-is-out-of-silver-the-comex-will-be-out-in-a-nano-second/

COMEX WAREHOUSE REGISTERED SILVER - AUGUST 2012

2012-08-14T00:15:00.004-07:00

COMEX WAREHOUSE REGISTERED SILVER - AUGUST 2012

Ted Butler - The war on Silver

2012-08-08T22:51:00.001-07:00

It has taken more than 25 years for me to fully comprehend a conclusion that I never wanted to reach, namely, that there is an organized war against the price of silver that has come to include the US Government. I think the US Government involvement came into being almost accidently, but even if it was an accident of sorts, that does not diminish the serious nature of what must be described as illegal activity at the highest levels. I am conflicted between feelings of sadness and outrage.

Starting around 1985, I became convinced that the price of silver was being manipulated by collusive and concentrated short selling by certain commercial entities on the world's leading precious metals commodity exchange, the COMEX. Having a background in futures trading going back to 1972, it dawned on me that the concentrated and orchestrated short selling was dominating and, therefore, manipulating the price of silver. The very first thing I did after this discovery was to petition the regulators at the CFTC and the COMEX to alert them to the existence of the most serious market crime possible. My petitions fell on deaf ears but I continued to petition them through the present. Since this was in the pre-Internet era, I was limited in convincing others of the silver manipulation due to distribution restrictions. Communication was very different 25 years ago.

Around 1996, I was exposed to the Internet for the first time and began to write in my spare time on that medium about the silver (and gold) manipulation. As a result, more observers came to appreciate the manipulation and took up the cause of exposing and terminating this serious market crime. Were it not for the Internet there would be no broad discussion of a silver or gold price manipulation, even to this day. Certainly, the discussion has led to multiple official inquiries into a silver manipulation by the CFTC over the past ten years. I am unaware of any investigation in any other market based upon wide public contacts to the agency. For sure, there are many who still reject the premise of a silver or gold manipulation; but at least there is a discussion about it now, thanks to the Internet.

So why did it take me so long to recognize a US government involvement in the decades-old silver manipulation? For one thing, I still don't believe that the silver manipulation (which began in 1983) was a government creation from the get go. I know many believe the motive for the silver and gold manipulation is as a means for the US Government to help keep the dollar strong in currency markets. I don't agree. Instead, I believe the origins of the manipulation can be traced to collusive and concentrated short selling for profit by large financial institutions, starting with Drexel Burnham, then on to AIG Trading, Bear Stearns and finally to JPMorgan. These were the firms at war with higher silver prices, which the US Government subsequently joined.

The war against silver is not between producers and consumers, as these vital market participants interact in every market, as they must. All commodity producers want strong and consistent demand for their products from financially-healthy consumers who will continue to buy. While all commodity producers desire the highest price possible for their production, no producer wishes harm to the buyers of that production. There is no war between the actual commodity producers and consumers; both interact continuously under the law of supply and demand.

The war has been waged against all silver market participants by a few well-connected financial firms and banks for the purpose of price control. This price control enables JPMorgan and others to capture profits on a variety of derivatives transactions, including COMEX futures and options contracts. This is exactly the same motive that caused Barclays to manipulate LIBOR; interest rates were manipulated for mostly short-term payoffs on derivatives contracts valued by the rates being manipulated. Likewise, JPMorgan and others manipulate the price of silver on the COMEX to capture short term profits on silver derivatives contracts.

An important characteristic of the war on silver is that it is centered in the world of derivatives, as opposed to the actual world of metal production and consumption. The main objective of JPMorgan and the other silver manipulators is to take as much money as possible away from those holding the counterparty and opposite derivatives positions. Nevertheless, all producers and holders of metal are harmed when derivatives manipulation causes silver prices to fall for no legitimate supply/demand explanation, as is a regular feature of the silver market. That's because the size and intensity of trading in COMEX derivatives has grown to be much larger than the actual market for metal. In a very real sense, actual producers and holders of metal are innocent bystanders and victims of a private gun battle between opposing silver derivatives traders. Real producers and holders are being terrorized by a few derivatives traders, led by JPMorgan.

I suppose some might say that this is the silver big league and that there will always be winners and losers. I can understand that, but that implies a level playing field and no cheating. Quite simply, the game is rigged and JPMorgan and the others do nothing but cheat. The proof lies in the hugely concentrated short position held by JPMorgan ever since its takeover of Bear Stearns in March 2008. Throw in the crooked High Frequency Trading encouraged by the CME Group and you have all the ingredients necessary to prove manipulation and end the war on silver.

Yet the war on silver has persisted, despite the clear evidence that this market is manipulated. The reason it has persisted is because the federal agency whose primary mission is to prevent manipulation has decided to look the other way. I know that my discussions of market structure and concentration can get complicated and confusing to many, as much as I try to simplify it. But what I allege that is happening in silver is not over the heads of the CFTC. I take pains to explain it to them in their own terms and legal perspective and by using their own data. Because of those explanations, the CFTC has said it has been investigating for a silver manipulation for almost 4 years, but with no conclusion reached. By any standard, that's way too long.

What finally convinced me that the CFTC is aligned with JPMorgan and the other silver manipulators on the COMEX rests on a few specific facts. One is that the agency has continued to ignore the glaring concentration on the short side of COMEX silver by JPMorgan and a few other traders. Concentration is not some term I dreamed up on a whim; it is the CFTC's most important frontline defense against manipulation. That is why the agency publishes and monitors highly detailed concentration data every week for every regulated market in the Commitment of Traders Report (COT). The Commission doesn't publish this data on my request; the concentration data are the most important feature of the COT. What the COT report has documented for years is that COMEX silver is the most concentrated major market of all on the short side. That the agency won't address this fact is beyond troubling.

The second fact is the two unusual silver price events of 2011. In the first week of May 2011, the price of silver fell more than 30% and later, over a three-day period in September 2011, the price fell 35%. For a world commodity to fall that much in price within days is beyond unusual. It may be unprecedented, as I don't recall many or any such price drops in my 40 year experience with markets. Certainly, for such a price decline to occur in the same commodity within six months is unthinkable. Further, all the circumstances surrounding these two price plunges in silver point to these being manipulative moves, as nothing occurred in the real world of silver supply and demand to account for them. These price drops were shocking in that world commodities don't move like that for no reason.

I had been waiting for the CFTC to file enforcement charges against JPMorgan and the CME Group for these deliberate silver price smashes; or at the very least, for the agency to make special reference to these two unprecedented price declines. It would be impossible for any other world commodity under the Commission's jurisdiction to fall 35% in days without the agency commenting on the price fall. Yet there has been no statement and no enforcement filing from the CFTC in silver. At some point, one must conclude that the CFTC does not intend to file charges or comment on what transpired in silver. By reaching that conclusion, one must also assign an alternative explanation for the agency's lack of action. The most plausible is that the agency has thrown in with the likes of JPMorgan, the CME and the other silver crooks.

As I indicated previously, my best guess is that the CFTC was compromised in dealing appropriately with the silver manipulation by interference from the US Treasury Secretary who oversaw the takeover of Bear Stearns (and its giant silver and gold short positions) by JPMorgan. It now appears clear that JPMorgan extracted guarantees of future immunity for manipulation as a condition of the takeover. The Bear Stearns takeover gave JPMorgan a free "get out of jail" card from the US Treasury Dept for the continued silver manipulation. In the political pecking order, the CFTC is many rungs below the Treasury Dept. It was a deal structured that was not in the best interest of the American investing public

To recap to this point, there is a war on silver being waged by JPMorgan, the CME and others on the COMEX. This war necessarily includes innocent casualties throughout the world of real silver producers and holders, even though US commodity law strictly forbids such artificial price setting. Worst of all, it is now apparent that the prime market regulator and public protector, the CFTC, has thrown in with the crooks. This is so bad, on so many levels, that one must carefully consider the future investment merits of silver. Having already done so, please allow me to share my thoughts, especially in light of the ongoing wave of almost daily revelations of impropriety and probable criminal behavior on the part of the big banks. We certainly live in an unusual time.

Perhaps perversely, because of the ongoing silver manipulation and evidence that the CFTC may be complicit in illegal behavior, I believe the future price prospects for silver never looked better. Huh? Please hear me out. The continuing flow of news pointing to widespread wrongdoing by the big banks, including interest rate manipulation, increases the chance that silver has been manipulated. It appears to me that the punishment for institutional wrongdoing is quickly moving towards a criminal phase, which will likely include jail time. It would not surprise me if some regulators or self regulators were included in future criminal findings. Certainly, those swearing an oath to protect the public are not above the law. But how can I be positive about the future price prospects for silver in such an environment?

The simple fact is that silver has been manipulated for decades and that has not prevented it from climbing, at times more than any other commodity. The war on silver rages on, but it does so in starts and fits, with notable price advances having been recorded along the way. The silver war cannot be considered to be in its infancy. After all, I've petitioned the CFTC about it for more than 25 years, which is an extraordinarily long period for such a thing to exist. Like all widespread financial frauds, they become undone when a critical number of observers recognize the scam and adjust accordingly. Therefore, since the silver manipulation has been in place for so many years and is now more widely discussed because of the Internet, the odds favor it ending sooner, rather than later. I know that it feels like these crooks can pull it off forever, but common sense and historical experience suggest otherwise.

More importantly, this war on silver will eventually be decided on the physical level. Even though it is the derivatives world dictating (false) prices to the actual world of silver presently, it is impossible for that circumstance to exist indefinitely. Paper can overwhelm physical only as long as there is enough physical silver to go around. The point at which the current tight supply situation in silver slips into the slightest shortage, additional paper short sales won't satisfy new buyers of physical silver. That's not a theoretical discussion for silver any longer, as it had been prior to April 2011. For years, it was thought there would always be a sufficient amount of silver available, given the large world supplies thought to exist. But shortages were starting to come into place last year, which accounted for the run to near $50. Yes, the deliberate price smash on May 1, 2011 broke both the silver price and the budding shortage; but it could have easily gone the other way and if it did, we would now be looking (way) down at the $50 price mark. My point is that having come so close to a genuine silver shortage last year only increases the odds that a shortage will reemerge. The conditions that existed in the spring of 2011 are more likely to appear again than not.

While it is unfortunate not to have the CFTC as an ally in the fight against the silver manipulation, there never was any previous support from the agency. Instead, time after time, the Commission always sided with the big short silver manipulators. Undoubtedly, those past denials of a silver manipulation would create embarrassing questions about the agency's historical competence if it were to admit to wrongdoing in silver now. Still, I admit to a particular disappointment in Chairman Gensler and Commissioner Chilton since they had offered so much hope through their public statements about manipulation, concentration, position limits and the need to protect the public.

The war on silver is real and ongoing. Because it has lasted so long, it may feel like a war without end. Because the war mongers appear so powerful and well-connected, it may feel like they are invincible. But feelings do not always project fact. The fact is that the silver manipulators have been in retreat. This can be seen in the overall rising price and the fact that previous silver short kingpins like Drexel, AIG and Bear Stearns have truly bit the dust. The recent news surrounding the current big silver short, JPMorgan, seems to project weakness and trouble, not invincibility. Since the CFTC never aided silver producers and investors in the past, there is no great loss in the agency continuing not to do its job.

If you are going to be in a war, I would think it is better to recognize that and react accordingly. That means immunizing yourself against the artificial pricing as much as possible. The best way to do that is by holding fully-paid silver positions and no margin. The worst way is by playing the very derivatives used to manipulate the price. This war is coming to an end and when it does, the wisdom of owning silver will become obvious. Lastly, it never hurts to let the regulators know what type of a job they are doing.

Ted Butler

July 18, 2012

ggensler@cftc.gov Chairman Gensler

bchilton@cftc.gov Commissioner Chilton

jsommers@cftc.gov Commissioner Sommers

somalia@cftc.gov Commissioner O'Malia

mwetjen@cftc.gov Commissioner Wetjen

dmeister@cftc.gov Enforcement Director Meister

For subscription info, please go to www.butlerresearch.com

www.butlerresearch.com
[/quote]

Max Keiser : Silver is my second largest holding, just behind gold. I am projecting that silver rises to about $100 per ounce over the next 18 months.

2012-04-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

“Silver is my second largest holding, just behind gold. I am projecting that silver rises to about $100 per ounce over the next 18 months.”

Gold: Ready, Set, Go!
Morris Hubbartt
Weekly Market Update Excerpt
posted Apr 13, 2012
UUP (US Dollar Proxy) Volume Chart
A strong dollar rally? Sorry, but that’s not likely to happen.
The latest unemployment report released last Friday was a complete disaster. The US now has 88 million people outside the workforce. This is about one quarter of the entire American population. It is a number that will continue to plague debt, deficits, and the value of the dollar.
Some private surveys suggest the permanent unemployment rate is now above 20%.

I continue to be a strong advocate of removing money from the banking system. Gold & silver bullion are the best vehicles to achieve this goal.
Note the enormous head & shoulders top pattern on this dollar proxy chart. When an h&s top is near completion, the volume can taper off significantly after a lot of distribution, and that is clearly happening now.
The UUP dollar proxy fund is sitting right on the neckline now and a breakdown appears imminent. Commercial traders have built a massive long position in the euro currency. They are also carrying a large short position in US dollar futures. The biggest traders are clearly very negative on the dollar.
I expect the dollar to begin a rapid decline within months, and the h&s top pattern suggests it could happen within days. A move down to $21.10 on the above chart is about 10%. I think this phase of the dollar bear market will see the dollar decline by 20% or more.
Gold 2012 Roadmap Chart
There has been a substantial battle going on in the gold market, and finally the bulls are starting to overpower the bears. Highly leveraged traders have been knocked out of their positions in recent weeks, as volatility has dominated the precious metals markets.
My technical analysis continues to indicate that the gold market is ready for an explosive rally. I am going to do another COT & gold stock video analysis this week-end for the general gold community. I expect that tonight’s COT report could be a complete game-changer for the gold market. If you’d like to receive the two-part video, please send me an email at trading@superforcesignals.com and I’ll send it to you. Thank-you.
There were two sharp moves to the upside this week, and it feels to me that the tone of the gold market has changed. If you look at the roadmap chart above, you can see that a clear pullback to the wedge pattern occurred.
The gold price is now rising up from that wedge. I believe a very powerful move has just begun. My projected rise to $1850 could happen very quickly if the dollar breaks down from the top pattern in the manner that I anticipate it will.
Also, please note the 3 bands of active commercial buying highlighted in blue. Historically, this type of relentless buying has been followed by much higher prices.
The statements made by William Dudley of the New York Federal Reserve yesterday came right on the heels of a terrible unemployment report, and he is clearly advocating more quantitative easing.
If it happens, QE3 could cause a huge surge in the gold price. The gold market is set up right now like a race car on the starting line, and it feels like the New York Fed is saying, “Ready, Set, Go!”.
GDX Set-Up Chart
I have issued a capitulation alert for gold stocks. A move by GDX to the small gap $48.35 was what I was looking for, and GDX rose to $48.33 yesterday. From here, there may be one sharp move lower, but the odds of that possibility are fading quickly.
Pieces continue to fall into place for a major advance in gold stocks. These quality money-making stocks are tremendously undervalued. Sentiment continues to indicate the bottom is very close, or already achieved. It may require one quick punch lower. The smartest way to play the current market is to be prepared for either outcome.
I will be offering a follow-up video in the next few days to assess the possibility of the capitulation alert.
GDXJ Double Bottom Chart
I have mentioned in recent weeks that GDXJ is my favorite asset class of the gold sector now, just as silver was late last year. At this point the gold juniors are down about 40% from the highs of last summer. I recently issued a trading buy signal at $22.82.
The washout day at $22.01 came on excellent volume. Yesterday was another high-volume day.
Note the gap in the $26-26.50 area. That’s my first price target, but I think that GDXJ will quickly rise to $30 and then to $38, quickly making the current price area nothing but an ancient memory.
Silver Flag Chart
Silver is my second largest holding, just behind gold. I am projecting that silver rises to about $100 per ounce over the next 18 months.
Note the MACD indicator at the bottom of the chart. My shorter term oscillators indicate that MACD is consolidating here near the zero line. It’s likely pausing before continuing what I believe is a powerful uptrend.
I see the action of the commercial traders in gold as very bullish, but even more bullish in silver.
The volume pattern that is developing is incredibly bullish. Note how the volume rose on the latest rally, after declining for most of the correction. The latest decline from about $37 comes on declining volume. I think the silver price is poised for an explosive move to the upside on rapidly expanding volume!

http://maxkeiser.com/2012/04/13/silver-is-my-second-largest-holding-just-behind-gold-i-am-projecting-that-silver-rises-to-about-100-per-ounce-over-the-next-18-months/

JP Morgan Silver Manipulation

2012-04-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

Allow me to bring you up to date on what you need to know about JP Morgan's manipulation of the silver market.
It is being exposed, and JP Morgan is failing, and losing money on their scheme.
On April 5th, we were given the gift of JP Morgan's Blythe Masters giving a TV interview on CNBC where she was trying to claim that JP Morgan does not hold any position in the silver market, but rather, is hedging client long positions in silver.
Blythe says, "We store significant amounts of commodities, for instance silver, on behalf of customers. We operate vaults in New York City, in Singapore and in London. Often when customers have that metal stored in our facilities they hedge it on a forward basis through JPMorgan, which in turn hedges in the commodities market," she said.
"If you see only the hedges and our activity in the futures market but you aren't aware of the underlying client position that we're hedging, then it would suggest inaccurately that we're running a large directional position," she added. "In fact that's not the case at all. We have offsetting positions. We have no stake in whether prices rise or decline."
The article and TV interview are here:
JPMorgan Not Speculating on Commodities: Blythe Masters
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46969993

Note the phrase: "the underlying client position that we're hedging."

Excuse me, my instinct tells me that clients don't want their long silver positions hedged, or sold short. Why would a client with a long silver position want the bank to create an offsetting short position for the client? If you buy stock or shares in a company, do you want your brokerage firm to short the company you just bought to "protect" you from upside gains? This explanation makes no sense. A client with such a long and short position would also have to pay storage fees on the long silver position, and then lose all of any upside gains due to the short position. It makes no sense, in the way that Blythe is trying to get us to understand the words she is using.
As I understand things, JP Morgan (and many other banks, but mostly JP Morgan) has many clients who want to be long silver, in the OTC or "Over The Counter" market and LBMA market, up to perhaps $100 billion to $200 billion worth of "silver" in "accounts". But JP Morgan (and other western banks) never went out and bought this silver in the first place, because there does not exist $100 billion to $200 billion worth of silver to buy in a world that produces and mines only about $6 billion (at $10/oz.) to $21 billion (at $30/oz) worth of silver per year. This puts JP Morgan (and other banks) in a natural short position, as they owe their clients 10-20 times more silver than the world produces annually. JP Morgan thus has this massive natural silver short exposure. To protect the bank from the silver short position, JP Morgan must cap silver prices, by shorting silver on the COMEX, where prices are set. Otherwise, as silver prices rise, the bank loses more and more on the silver they are supposedly holding for their clients. Only in that sense, does JP Morgan have "offsetting positions"; in other words, shorts on COMEX to back up or shore up JP Morgan's other losing short positions (client long positions)!
JP Morgan cannot offset such OTC positions in the OTC market. Except, in the sense I just explained, every single additional "sale" of silver in the OTC market protects and hedges every other sale, as all sales of "silver" in "accounts" to customers have the cumulative effect of preventing people from buying and taking delivery of real physical silver which would drive the silver price up.
The key reason why the London LBMA and OTC silver selling is so successful is that nobody ever asks for delivery of the silver, because there is a 20% tax on silver delivery in London. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_as_an_investment#Taxation
There were two good commentaries on JP Morgan's Blythe Masters TV appearance, here:
Mike Maloney breaks down Price Manipulation in the Gold and Silver Market
http://rt.com/programs/capital-account/maloney-manipulation-gold-silver/
The Russia Today TV show is 27 minutes long, and begins with Jeff Christians shocking admission at the CFTC hearings that the silver market trades 100 times as much silver as really exists to back up all the positions and trades.
JPM’s TV Appearance
http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/jpm%E2%80%99s-tv-appearance
JP Morgan first admitted having (or trying or wanting to cover) a short position in silver back in December 2010, about a year and 5 months ago. This was reported by the Financial times, and by Barron's, and others.
JPMorgan cuts back on US silver futures
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d699ca4-06ea-11e0-8c29-00144feabdc0.html#axzz182HTfhCl
Report: J.P. Morgan Cutting Back Big Bets Against Silver
http://blogs.barrons.com/focusonfunds/2010/12/14/report-jp-morgan-cutting-back-big-bets-against-silver/?mod=rss_BOLBlog
What's excellent today is the comparison of today's explanation to JP Morgan's lie from a year and 5 months ago. Back then, JP Morgan was trying to claim they were closing out, or had closed out, their short positions in silver. Today, a year and 5 months later, they supposedly have this rational excuse that their firm's short positions in silver exist to offset other client long positions. Both explanations are lies, obviously. What I like about the lie of "offsetting client long positions" is that it is a lie disguised by the truth. The truth is that they do have client long positions that would likely bankrupt the bank if they filled those positions and tried to buy silver that does not exist, and to hedge that exposure, they must manipulate the silver market's prices lower. Thus, the current lie is sort of like an admission of the truth, but they are being very deceptive and tricky about how they present it. The best kind of lie is simply a distorted version of the truth, of course.
The New York Post exposed JP Morgan's manipulation of the silver market back in May, 2010, when they exposed an ongoing investigation by the CFTC AND the US Department of Justice into JP Morgan's silver trading.
Feds probing JP Morgan trades in silver pit
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/feds_probing_jpmorgan_trades_in_gZzMvWBqOJpB55M7Rh9vwM
That article came out a month after my complaint to the US Justice Department in April, 2010, a month earlier.
http://silverstockreport.com/2010/doj.html
My readers told me they wrote to the US Department of Justice about silver manipulation, without mentioning any company names, and the US Department of Justice sent back form letters saying they were looking into JP Morgan's activities in silver, mentioning JP Morgan by name!
So, what about my claim of the size of those OTC silver positions being in the range of $100 billion to $200 billion, which are far larger than the silver that trades on the COMEX?
Well, those are not my claims, but rather, those are numbers produced by the BIS, the Bank of International Settlements. I have repeatedly reported on these figures here:
BIS Changed Silver Data
(From $203 to $93 Billion in Silver Liabilities?)
by Jason Hommel, July 6th, 2011
http://silverstockreport.com/2011/BIS-DATA.html
Silver News Explodes; JP Morgan Admits Guilt!
(JP Morgan admits they are short silver!)
by Jason Hommel, December 15th, 2010
http://silverstockreport.com/2010/jp-morgan-silver-short.html
BIS Admits $190 Billion Silver Fraud
(Almost, if you know where to look!)
by Jason Hommel, April 6th, 2009
http://silverstockreport.com/2009/OTC-silver-fraud.html

The discrepancy or change in the BIS data from $203 Billion of "Other Precious Metals" (in other words, silver) down to $93 billion is still being reported at the BIS website.
From the 2010, June report: $203 billion for the June, 2009 period.
http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qa1006.pdf
From the 2010, December report: $93 billion for the June, 2009 period.
http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qa1012.pdf
See Table 22a, Amounts outstanding of OTC equity-linked and commodity derivatives, in the category of "Other Precious Metals". Scroll down about 90% into the pdf documents.
This BIS data is the smoking gun of manipulation in the silver market.
There is no way that the big banks can increase OTC shorts by $100 billion in silver in 6 months, when the world barely produces $15 billion of silver per year, without the silver price going bananas to the upside, unless this kind of silver derivatives exposure is silver that is owed to clients, which is essentially a naked short position, or silver that was "bought" by the customers, but never purchased by the banks in the open market, purposefully and maliciously and with the specific intent to prevent the silver price from running away to the upside, and to keep the fraud of the paper dollar going as long as possible. This is really revealing the fraud of the multi trillion dollar paper money scam that the world has going.
There is no reason to disbelieve the BIS numbers when the banks accidentally reveal data that condemns them, and exposes the silver short selling fraud; and every reason to suspect bad faith and nefarious intent when they later edit the data at a key time, Dec. 2010, when JP Morgan is being investigated by two arms of the US Government.
JP Morgan first took on this silver short position when silver was about $20/oz. Later, the silver price was manipulated down to $9/oz. Today, with silver at about $32, we can see that the manipulation game is failing.
All frauds eventually fail completely. This one will, too. In the end, holding silver in accounts with large banks will not help you. You need real silver in your own real vault that you have personally lifted and stored away. Any other kind of silver that others hold for you is likely fraud, and will not protect you in the event of the collapse of the dollar or the collapse of the financial system or the collapse of your brokerage company.
By the time this fraud is exposed fully, and by the time a mere 1% of people or money in America starts buying silver, such as only about $180 billion in the banking system, the silver price will exceed $500/oz. and large firms such as JP Morgan will either be bankrupt, or they will be bailed out to the tune of trillions to keep the financial system together, which will create further inflation that will drive 2% of people into silver, and create the very runaway metals market that will just not stop until all paper money and paper accounts are destroyed for generations.

=====

I strongly advise you to take possession of real gold and silver, at anywhere near today's prices, while you still can. The fundamentals indicate rising prices for decades to come, and a major price spike can happen at any time.

http://silverstockreport.com/2012/morgan-silver-manipulation.html

http://silver-metal-investment.blogspot.co.uk/

Silver bullet for cancer: Metal can kill some tumours better than chemotherapy with fewer side effects

2012-02-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Silver bullet for cancer: Metal can kill some tumours better than chemotherapy with fewer side effects

Silver can kill some cancers as effectively as chemotherapy and with potentially fewer side effects, new research claims.
Scientists say that old wives tales about the precious metal being a ‘silver bullet’ to beat the Big C could be true.
The metal already has a wide range of medicinal uses and is a common antiseptic, antibiotic and means of purifying water in the third world.

And British researchers now say that silver compounds are as effective at killing certain cancer cells as a leading chemotherapy drug, but with potentially far fewer side-effects.
They compared it to Cisplatin, currently used to treat a wide variety of cancers, but known to have harsh side effects including nausea, vomiting and even kidney damage.
Silver is used already in everyday products such as deodorant with no known side-effects, and could make for a potentially cheaper alternative to platinum-based Cisplatin.

Researchers from the University of Leeds conducted lab tests which exposed breast and colon cancer cells to various silver-based chemicals over a six day period.
Results, published in journal Dalton Transactions, showed that these silver-compounds were ‘as effective as Cisplatin’ at killing cancer with potentially fewer side effects.
While the team are still unsure about how exactly silver battles cancer, they think its effectiveness may be caused by the structure surrounding silver atoms, known as its ligand.

They think this may help release the silver ion into cells when it enters the body, killing any cancer.
Study author Dr Charlotte Willans plans to spend the next year looking closely at what effect silver has on both cancerous and healthy cells, and whether it could be a safe and effective new anti-cancer drug.
She said: 'It’s certainly an exciting discovery, although I think we have a lot of work to do in the future. It opens the doors in terms of what we can do and investigate.
'Getting these results also gives us the opportunity we need to apply for funding to take the research further.
'This could lead to a cheaper, less toxic alternative to current treatments for cancer.'
Explaining the research in greater detail, Dr Willans added: 'As many are unfortunately aware, chemotherapy can be a very gruelling experience for the patient.
'Finding effective, yet non-toxic drugs is an ongoing problem, but these preliminary results are an important step in solving it.
'Our research has looked at the structure which surrounds a central silver atom. This "shrubbery" is what determines how reactive it is and what it will interact with.
'Our research has used different types of these ligands to see which is the most effective against cancer cells.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2095610/Silver-bullet-cancer-Metal-kill-tumours-better-chemotherapy-fewer-effects.html#ixzz1lRNqOxXk

Eastman Kodak says it bought $300 million of silver in 2011

2012-02-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

Eastman Kodak says it bought $300 million of silver in 2011

Eastman Kodak Co. bought about $300 million of silver last year.
The price of silver was 199 percent to 294 percent higher than in 2008, Rochester, New York-based Kodak said in its Chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Silver is used in the company’s film, photofinishing and entertainment group. The $300 million equals 8.49 million ounces of the metal at last year’s average price of $35.32 an ounce.

Silver prices doubled in the past two years as more investors bought the metal to hedge against declines in the dollar and other assets and demand from other industrial applications climbed. The metal’s industrial uses include solar panels, plasma screens and chemical catalysts.
Global silver use in photographic film fell to 72.7 million ounces last year, the lowest amount since at least 1990, as consumers worldwide moved to digital technology, according to the Washington-based Silver Institute’s annual world silver survey by Thomson Reuters GFMS. Photography accounted for less than 10 percent of manufactured applications for silver in 2010 compared with 30 percent in 1990, it said.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120119/business/701199886/

http://silver-metal-investment.blogspot.com/

Sprott to Buy $1.5B of Silver Bullion

2011-11-22T23:24:00.000-08:00

The silver price could explode higher in coming months.
As the silver and gold price predictably fade ahead of option expiration, JP Morgan’s bullion manipulation scheme could be headed for unprecedented problems, not from the record purchases of gold and silver from the Chinese, Indians or Russians, but from one Canadian billionaire.
Canadian-based Eric Sprott Management CEO Eric Sprott filed a follow up prospectus for the purchase of an additional $1.5 billion of silver bullion to cover expected demand for the company’s exchange traded fund, PSLV.
Combined with the recent decline in the PSLV premium to spot silver to 14 percent from the typical 20 percent, along with Sprott’s reported sale of some of its holdings of PSLV at the rich premium, it appears a familiar hallmark of a gigantic $580 million silver bullion purchase in December of last year emerges once again. Since demand for silver products at Sprott remain brisk, it should come as no surprise to the silver world that Sprott needs more silver.
Yet, only two Web sites mention the breaking news, The Globe and Mail and bullion market reporter Harvey Organ, HarveyOrgan.blogspot.com. Don’t expect Eric Sprott to herald the milestone purchase; he’s trying to avoid investors front running the purchase.

“Since Sprott filed its prospectus last Friday, PSLV units have come down 12 percent, while the price of silver has dropped only 6 percent,” stated Canada’s daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail, on Nov. 18. “Whether or not the new filing is the root cause of the difference doesn’t affect Mr. Sprott much. He has been selling his PSLV units for most of the year (as documented by kid dynamite.)”
Because Sprott today represents ½ the size of the Hunt brothers wallet and their attempt to corner the silver market in 1979-80, nimble investors have taken advantage of the bulky Sprott in the past by front running his purchases, as his size and legal entity requires him to file with Canadian regulators—an issue he laments of during his interviews.

Continued :

http://profitimes.com/free-articles/sprott-to-buy-1-5b-of-silver-bullion/

Silver eagle bullion sales in 2011 hit new record

2011-11-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

The correction in silver prices has not shaken investor confidence. In fact, bullion investors have stepped up their purchases this year. With just under two months still remaining in 2011, sales of the American Silver Eagle have already surpassed the record level of 2010 with sales of 36,375,500 ounces. If sales of the Silver Eagle for November and December match the levels of 2010, total sales for 2011 should total over 42 million ounces or more than 20% above the record breaking sales level of

Increasing Demand for Silver by the Solar Energy Industry

2011-09-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

http://silverprices.com/blog/?p=132

The US debt crisis and European economic woes has sent the silver trading industry into a turmoil as prices kept on declining through much of August. Traders and investors are grappled with fear since the current crisis could cause a decline in demand for industrial silver. Another interesting point that has come forward is the growing inflation rate in China, hindering a country’s growth that along with Brazil and other developing countries has until now ceased further recession dips.
Across global markets, Friday and Monday have shown renewed improvement suggesting investors nature to risk probabilities. Silver as an industrial metal is demonstrating a reestablished interest, helping to stabilize prices.
Silver’s role to buoy prices and act as a safe haven asset depends much on its role as an industrial metal. Silver investors need to look deep into this factor of the need of silver as a commodity in the industrial sector.
Despite anticipation of another recession, optimism still rules in favor of silver that there would be increasing demand from developing countries for silver intended for agricultural, industrial and energy-based goods.
In spite of the fact that investment markets eat a major part of pie share in silver demand, industrial use of silver is still the largest market, advancing from 349.7 million ounces in 2001 to 487.4 million ounces in 2010.
Presently, industrial demand for silver is 50% but is expected to increase to 70% by the next decade.
Silver’s role as an industrial commodity acts as an excellent reflector of light, heat transfer, conductor of electricity and a good lubricant, alloy and catalyst. Therefore, its make a great material in applications from the electrical and electronics industry which occupies the largest share of global silver industrial fabrication. Moreover, progressive techniques in the field of solar photovoltaics and its ability to effectively conduct electrical and thermal energy are making it an important raw material in solar power industry.
The demand for silver in the solar photovoltaics in both US and Asian markets will continue to grow in the coming decade with an increase of 12% in US and 11% in Asian markets by 2015.
The increasing use of solar power as an alternative energy has augmented demand for silver which could double from 50 million ounces consumed in 2010 to over 100 million ounces by 2015. In 2011, the demand is expected to grow to 70 million ounces, an increase of 40% from last year.
The increasing demand for traditional as well industrial silver will have positive medium to short term impact where it is expected that silver will break the $100 an ounce barrier by the year end.

COMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members Effective Thursday, August 25, 2011

2011-08-24T12:21:00.001-07:00

TO: Clearing Member Firms Floor Brokers/Floor Clerks
FROM: CME Clearing
DATE: August 24, 2011
RE: COMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members Effective Thursday, August 25, 2011
The expiration date for the September 2011 options contract for Copper Option (HX), Gold Option (OG), and Silver Option (SO) is Thursday, August 25, 2011.

GENERAL OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
All Clearing Members and Qualified Floor Traders that carried an options position as of the close of business day prior to the expiration day, or engaged in trading activity on Expiration Day in the expiring options contract will be required to have a knowledgeable, duly authorized representative present at the their normal work station promptly at 2:15 PM EST until released by the Exchange staff as specified below. All adjustments and/or corrections, must be accompanied by relevant supporting documentation prior to being incorporated into expiration processing, in essence making the expiration processing an extension of the afternoon trade resolution procedures.

CME Group NY Division Clearing (212-299-2120), COMEX Floor Trade Processing (212-299-2465 and 212-299-2044) personnel, as well as a representative of the Floor Committee will be available to assist with the processing of notices of Exercise and Abandonment, position transfers, trade corrections and other questions or problems you may have.

CLEARING DEPARTMENT OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
The Option Expiration process is a screen based process for which all information is provided in FEC (Front End Clearing) and the CME Position System. No Option Expiration Reports will be provided. The following screens will assist you through the Option Expiration process:

ALLOCATIONS AND CLAIMS DEADLINES Give-up orders entered by the executing Party must be allocated within 30 minutes from the time the trade was entered into FEC. The carrying Clearing Member must accept or reject trades within 60 minutes of allocation. Allocations may not be transferred following the last day of trading for the expiring option contracts.

MEMBER TRADE INQUIRY (FEC)
Contains real-time top day trade information, trade information for the previous 4 business days and trades adjusted for the previous 4 business days by adjustment date.

POSITION LIST (CME Positions)
Contains a real-time snapshot for each option series from the start of day position to the projected end of day position.

REVIEW TRANSFERS (FEC)
Contains all trade transfers “TO” and “FROM” your firm and the status of each transfer. Search Type: Transfer Sub Type: Normal

OPTION EXERCISE NOTICE SUBMISSION (CME Positions) (Option Instruction Entry)
Contains your available long position and an input field to enter the number of long positions you wish to exercise.

OPTION ABANDON SUBMISSION (CME Positions) (Option Instruction Entry)
Contains your available long position and an input field to enter the number of long positions you wish to abandon.

CONTRARY OPTION EXERCISE/ABANDON INSTRUCTIONS
These will disseminated via e-mail. They will also be available on the CME Group NY Division 24 Hour Information Service and on the web at http://www.cmegroup....ption-exercise- instructions.html .

POSITION CHANGE SUBMISSION (CME Positions) (PCS List)
PCS may be submitted either by manual input or by electronic transmission. To enter your firm’s final PCS manually, enter the Long PCS and check the lock button adjacent to the Long PCS. Checking the lock box will make the system ignore any further transmissions or edits from the firm for the day unless the lock checkbox is removed. This input may be made at any time prior to 6:45 PM EST.

ALL POSITIONS ARE DEEMED FINAL (CME Positions)
Upon completion of all PCS input, all positions will be deemed final.

EXERCISE/ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION (CME Positions) (Option Instruction Summary)
This will be available to you by contract series which contains all your Assignments on one window. You will be notified of its availability by E-Mail and by the CME Group NY Division Clearing 24 Hour Information Service. Exercise/Assignment information is also available in the POS650 report.
All Clearing Members are required to have an authorized representative(s) available for any communication during the expiration process.

CLEARING DEPARTMENT 24 HOUR INFORMATION SERVICE
Clearing Members should call the CME Group NY Division Clearing 24 Hour Information Service at (212) 299-2309, Option 1 (Clearing Report Status), Option 2 (Option Expiration Status) for messages advising Members of the event status.
E-MAIL
Clearing Member Representative should read their E-Mail messages immediately to be aware of each event status.
The standard event CME Group NY Division Clearing 24 Hour Information Service and/or E-Mail messages and the sequence in which they will be announced are:

CLEARING STANDARD EVENT MESSAGES
Option Exercise/Abandon Notice Submission Deadline
Announce Out-of-the Money Exercise and In-the-Money Abandon Submissions
All positions are deemed final
Announce Exercise/Assignment Information Availability in CME Positions and Expiration Report A vailability

APPROXIMATE TIME OF MESSAGE AVAILABILITY
N/A 4:45 PM EST
7:00 PM EST 8:30 PM EST
USUAL EVENT TIME
4:30 PM EST 4:45 PM EST
7:00 PM EST 8:30 PM EST
24 HOUR INFORMATION SERVICE (F) E-MAIL (E)
BOTH N/A B
F B
The times appearing in the Usual Event Time column are based on normal operational conditions and could vary.
If you have any questions concerning these procedures, please contact Melvin Garcia at (212) 299-2144 or Melvin.Garcia@cmegroup.com, Joe Fata at (212) 299-2165 or Joe.Fata@cmegroup.com, or Anthony Di Benedetto at (212) 299-2152 or Anthony.DiBenedetto@cmegroup.com, prior to the expiration process.

COMEX Registered Silver Bullion Inventories Fall Sharp 38.5% in Two Weeks – Risk of COMEX Silver Default Remains

2011-08-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

Spot gold and silver prices rose slightly again this morning after hitting a one-month high yesterday as equity markets internationally came under selling pressure. The Moody's downgrade of Greece and worryingly poor US economic data again pushed investors to seek the safe haven of bullion. Gold reached new record nominal highs in sterling yesterday (£945.62/oz) as the pound fell on concerns about the UK economy.

Silver Prices and Rates
Markets await key U.S. data on nonfarm payrolls Friday, while ongoing concerns over Greek sovereign debt and contagion in the Eurozone also affected market sentiment and supported the precious metals.

COMEX Silver Bullion Registered Inventories – January 1996 to May 31st 2011
Friday's U.S. payrolls is likely to show that the world's largest economy is weakening and may be on the verge of a double dip which will likely lead to further safe haven demand.
Seeing as the extent of the recovery was always exaggerated, this is not a surprise to us.
The supply situation in the silver market gets more interesting by the day.
Registered COMEX silver inventories have fallen to multiyear lows at 29,631,268 ounces. In the last 5 days they fell from 32,132,903 ounces to Tuesday’s holdings of 29,631,268 ounces. As can be seen in the table below registered silver inventories fell every single day last week leading to a sharp fall of 8.4% in 5 days.
Registered metals are those metals which meet the standards for delivery under the silver futures contracts and for which a receipt from an Exchange-approved depository or warehouse has been issued. Eligible metals are those which meet the delivery standards as stated in the rules for which no receipt from an Exchange-approved warehouse has been issued.
This is a long term trend that has been seen since the early 1990’s when total COMEX silver stockpiles were over 101.45 million ounces.

However, the scale of the drop in inventories since early 2008 is significant and the trend has accelerated in recent weeks.

Registered silver inventories are down a sharp 38.5% in just two weeks – from 41,044,280 to 29,631,268

COMEX Silver Bullion Registered Inventories – June 2009 to May 31st 2011
The record nominal highs near $50/oz, seen 31 years ago and again at the end of April, are likely to be seen again sooner rather than later due to the increasingly delicate supply demand balance.
The scale of current investment demand and industrial demand, especially from China and the rest of Asia, is such that it is important to keep monitoring COMEX warehouse stocks.
The Hunt Brothers were one of a few dozen billionaires in the world in the late 1970’s when they attempted to corner the market. Today there are thousands of billionaires in the world, any number of whom could again attempt to corner the silver market.
Also, today unlike in the 1970s, there are sovereign wealth funds and hundreds of hedge funds with access to billions in capital.

The possibility of an attempted cornering of the silver market through buying and taking delivery of physical bullion remains real. However it would be very difficult to corner the silver market due to the very small nature of the silver bullion market.
A COMEX default remains a risk as does a massive short squeeze which could see silver surge as it did in the 1970s and again recently leading to silver targeting the inflation adjusted record high of $140/oz.
As ever price predictions from gurus should be take with a pinch of salt and diversification remains of paramount importance.

http://www.businessinsider.com/comex-registered-silver-bullion-inventories-fall-sharp-385-in-two-weeks--risk-of-comex-silver-default-remains-2011-6

Silver Market Update

2011-07-18T00:44:00.000-07:00

originally published July 14th, 2011

Yesterday's high volume breakout above its 50-day moving average marked completion of the intermediate basing pattern and the start of the next major uptrend in silver. Everything in now in place for a substantial uptrend to develop in coming months that should take silver comfortably to new highs. Fundamentally yesterday's breakout was due to the realization in the markets that QE is set to continue, whether called QE or not, and in fact it must continue, as any attempt to apply the brakes at this late stage would result in a global systemic economic collapse. Hyperinflation will be the inevitable end result, as will prices for gold and silver at levels that many now would consider to belong solely in the realms of fantasy. We already had a foretaste of this coming ramp in Precious Metal prices earlier this year with the big runup in silver prices, before powerful interests decided the time was right to put the boot into the little guy by repeatedly hiking margin requirements over a short period. This served big money interests in 2 ways - first of all it crashed the silver price so that they can move in and scoop up more of it. Secondly big money is not all at concerned about margin requirements, since being wealthy in the first place they don't need to bother with margin at all, although it suits them to use it at times to maximise leverage. What the hiked margin requirements did do was to throw the little guy off the train, and like one of those old westerns big money is stood at the open end of the train carriage lighting up a cigar and grinning with satisfaction as the little guy rolls down the embankment and is left lying in the dust as the train chugs off into the distance without him.
Our 6-month chart for iShares, which is a good proxy for silver, shows the now extraordinarily bullish setup for silver. For some weeks it was not clear whether the C wave of the now completed A-B-C correction would take the silver price below the A wave low in May, which for iShares was exactly at $32, and had Greece not been bandaged up it would have, of course. The first sign of improvement was the breakout from the C wave downtrend channel about a week ago, after which the price was temporarily restrained by unfavorably aligned (falling) 50-day moving average, which forced a test of support at the top line of the channel, which we correctly anticipated. Then just yesterday the price blasted through the 50-day moving average on the highest volume for weeks, the importance of the resistance in the vicinity of this average being illustrated by the way the price gapped above it - a bullish "breakaway" gap. This is what we have been waiting for. This marks the end of the intermediate base building phase and the start of the next major uptrend.

Continued
LINK

Is The COMEX Manipulating Gold Margins To Mask Silver Supply Deficits?

2011-06-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

The COMEX has just dropped the minimum margin requirement for gold contracts to $6,075 from its former $6,751 minimum. This move does not make economic sense as the price of gold is now within 2% of its all-time high COMEX close.
The lower margin requirement also does not make sense when compared to the COMEX margin requirements for silver contracts. With the lower margin requirements it is now possible to control more than $25 worth of gold for every $1 of margin put down on a gold contract. In contrast, the silver contract minimum margin requirements are much higher. At today’s closing silver price, investors could only control up to $8.30 of silver for every $1 of margin put down on a silver contract.
You have to remember that common sense and consistency aren’t the only factors that the COMEX considers when setting these requirements. Could it be that the COMEX is trying to lure speculators and investors away from the silver market by offering them greater margin opportunities in the gold market?
Think about it for a minute. By the end of this month, the next round of COMEX silver options will expire and the first day of notice for delivery of July 2011 silver contracts will occur. Both of these events could trigger strong demand that could seriously deplete COMEX registered silver inventories.
On June 16, 2010, the COMEX had 119.5 million ounces of total silver in its bonded warehouses. Since then, there has been a steady outflow of silver from these warehouses, especially of the registered silver that is available to fulfill contract deliveries. Early this week, total COMEX silver inventories had fallen below 99 million ounces, a decline of more than 17% in the past year. Even more important, the quantity of inventories that were registered had fallen to record low levels below 30 million ounces! The remaining COMEX inventories are “eligible” which means that that they are owned by investors who are simply storing the silver in COMEX warehouses. Eligible inventories cannot be used to fulfill COMEX contracts unless the individual owners choose to make them available for that purpose.
When the March and May 2011 COMEX silver contracts matured, a significant percentage of them were settled for cash, as is permitted under COMEX rules. However, the cash prices that contract owners received were at levels reported to be as much as 30% higher than the prevailing spot prices! Looking back at when the December 2010 COMEX silver contracts matured, it appears there may have been a larger than normal percentage of contracts that were settled for cash.
The sellers of COMEX contracts obviously would not be willing to pay up to 30% above the spot price to settle their liability for cash if they had the alternative of simply delivering physical silver. The fact that comparatively little silver is being removed from COMEX registered inventories to fulfill maturing contracts is a significant indicator of a major physical supply shortage.
I don’t know if the COMEX reduced gold margin requirements in order to draw some leveraged investors away from holding maturing silver options and commodity contracts. The timing is definitely suspicious.
Today was not a good day for the US government on multiple fronts. The unofficial Misery index, which adds the Bureau of Labor Statistics official figures for unemployment and the rise in consumer prices stands at 12.7, which is the highest figure since 1983! From June 1993 through May 2008, the Misery index had been below 10. This index has been continuously above 10 since November 2009.
The news got worse from there. At the International Monetary Fund press conference in Sᾶo Paulo, Brazil the United States was lumped with Greece, Ireland, and Japan as being the countries most in need of restoring their public finances to reasonable debt levels.
In a recent Bloomberg interview, former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan warned that a default by the Greek government could push the US back into a recession. He further said that, “chances of Greece not defaulting are very small.” He further emphasized the risk by saying that the risk of a Greek default was now “so high that you almost have to say there’s no way out.”
Today, Germany and France put together another bailout package for the Greek government. There is widespread fear that Greece may default on its debt and start a domino effect of defaults much worse than experienced when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. In the commercial market, Greek companies are already paying 27% interest for 2-year loans, which is a rate so high that it almost assumes that a government default is inevitable. Today’s bailout package did not cure the problem of the Greek government spending beyond its means. Instead, dealing with the debt problem has been pushed a few months into the future.

Rest of article : LINK

COMEX WAREHOUSES REGISTERED SILVER - Exclusive Interactive Chart

2011-06-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

LINK

Throw out certainty when trying to predict silver's future

2011-05-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

Throw out certainty when trying to predict silver's future

By David Morrill
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 05/06/2011 02:42:01 PM PDT

Updated: 05/06/2011 05:14:01 PM PDT

http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_18010388?nclick_check=1

"Silver will reverse course anytime now." "... "It will go sideways for awhile before going back up." "... "It's just in a correction period, but a year from now we could see it close to $100 an ounce."

Ask three experts what's going to happen to the precious metal in the coming weeks and months, and you could get three different answers. The only certainty is that no one knows what will happen next.
"I think it has every reason to level off and eventually go back up again, but every idea needs to be taken with a grain of salt because no one knows for sure," said Barnaby Levin of financial firm HighTower Advisors in San Francisco. "It's going to be dicey to say what's going to happen next."
Coming off an 84 percent run-up in 2010 followed by the first four months of this year in which it out paced gold, the floor has given out on silver as it fell for five straight trading sessions, finishing its worst week Friday in 35 years. It's currently trading at $35.29 an ounce. The tumble came after CME Group, the Comex owner, nearly doubled the cash amount needed for margin buying of the metal.
"We can wake up tomorrow and it could be $40 or it could be $30," said Barry Stuppler, president of the California Coin and Bullion Merchants Association in Woodland Hills. "For the long term, I think silver is a good investment, but for the short term, if you're a person that has trouble sleeping at night if it goes down $5 all of a sudden, it might not be the best investment."
While not as popular to invest in as gold, silver's recent run-up has drawn more interest than in the past. Wealth managers say many of their clients are asking about silver more than usual.
"The scariest thing about gold and silver is when everyone is touting it," said Carlo Panaccione, a financial planner and president of the Navigation Group in Redwood City. "Typically, when everyone jumps on the same train is the time to get off."
Panaccione advises his clients to put no more than 5 to 10 percent of their total portfolio into commodities such as silver. Others who have clients who invest more aggressively might advise as high as 20 percent.
Often referred to as "the poor man's gold," silver is popular to those who want to own metal but don't want to pay the nearly $1,500-an-ounce premium that gold dictates.
"Buying silver versus gold is like buying stocks in General Electric versus Berkshire Hathaway, you get more for less," Levin said. "But you don't want to back up the truck and buy it today, because while silver has value right now, you should expect it to go down."
The one problem with buying physical silver is that it's heavy.
"If you want $10,000 worth of silver, it's much harder to store in your mattress than gold," Levin said.
For those who want to invest in silver, there are several ways. The two most popular are through an exchange traded fund such as SLV, or through buying physical silver such as an American Silver Eagle.
Those who are merely attaching the investment to the price of silver often get the ETF. However, others, who use the investment as a hedge against inflation and envision a financial catastrophe, are often advised to hold onto the physical silver.
"It's like if your house is on fire, would you rather have a fire extinguisher or a picture of a fire extinguisher?" said Nick Barisheff, president and CEO of Bullion Management Group in Toronto.
Unlike gold, which has little use outside of jewelry, there is a greater use for silver in many industrial sectors. Properties such as its high electrical conductivity, reflectance of light and ability to endure extreme temperature ranges make it valuable to industries. Thus the conclusion can be made that there will always be some demand for silver on some level.
Even though silver is in a struggle, Barisheff says it historically trades at a price ratio of about 16-to-1 that of gold. Given that, he believes eventually, "It should be twice the price that it currently is."