The Gold & Silver Manipulators Are At The End Of Their Rope

When silver breaks $18.50…it will then take out $50 and hit Eric Sprott’s number of $100-plus because since the last time it hit $50 they’ve gone through all that physical supply…this time they won’t be able to go to the physical supply well . – Bill Murphy on the Shadow of Truth

A “commercial signal failure” occurs in commodities futures trading when the open interest in futures contracts exceeds the amount of the underlying commodity that is available to deliver into those contracts should enough entities that are long decide to demand delivery per the terms of the contract. It is a rare event because the futures open interest in most commodities rarely exceeds more than 10-20% of the amount of the underlying available.

Except in the gold and silver markets, when the open interest in any other commodity wanders beyond that 120% level the Commodities Futures Trading Commission puts a halt to the entities which are responsible for what has been determined to be “attempted market manipulation.” This has occurred in the past in the energy markets.

Too be sure, allowing open interest of futures contracts which exceeds the underlying availability of the commodity enables a higher degree of liquidity in the futures market.

However, currently on the Comex the ratio of futures open interest to available gold for delivery is 174:1 – this is for the “registered,” or gold designated available for delivery.

In the silver market the ratio is 29:1.

Given those absurd ratios, it’s safe to assume the role of gold and silver futures trading is to enable the Fed and the U.S. Treasury, through their bullion bank emissaries (primarily JP Morgan, Scotia and HSBC) to use Comex futures as a tool for manipulating the market.

The Shadow of Truth hosted GATA/LeMetropole Cafe’s Bill “Midas” Murphy to discuss some recent events which have led Bill to conclude the ability of the bullion banks to manipulate the precious metals has likely reached its end-game: “eastern hemisphere demand for physical gold and silver is overwhelming the paper manipulators.”

The first event occurred the day that the HUI “gold bug” mining stock index was driven below 100 intra-day. It closed over 100 that day and then proceeded on an 18-day tear that took the index up 60%.
The second event was the blatantly fraudulent LBMA silver fix which “fixed” the price at $13.58 despite the fact that external Comex futures were trading at $14.40.

They know they have an end-game coming, and it’s begun and those two events were signatures of that.

World’s Largest Silver Producer Calls On The LBMA To Explain Last Week’s $13.58 Fraudulent Silver Fix

The longer they drag this out, the worse it will be when the market finally breaks beyond their ability to control the outcome. –Bill Murphy

The Sleuth Journal

One thing to remember – when these huge financial upheavals occur,

you find out “the day after” they’ve tried to patch things up.

A situation where more gold standing for delivery than is claimed to exist is NOT a “good” thing. This is a VERY dangerous situation of potential default and one where by hook or by crook has been avoided to this point.

The Comex is now operating on a ratio of 542 paper [counterfeit aka; derivative] ounces for every 1 ounce of registered [physical] gold

Is it this delivery month where delivery fails? I do not know. I do know we live in a world where China is importing every single gold ounce produced on the planet leaving nothing else leftover for the rest of the world.

This situation can only last or continue as long as vaults have gold and the owners are willing to fill the deficit between supply and demand.

I will say this, the global financial system will completely seize up and close for trading once gold delivery fails. This will only take 48 HOURS after a failure, and the ability to procure metal, sell stocks and bonds, or do anything else financial will “not” be an option. ~ Bill Holter

Dow Jones Industrial Etch A Sketch

The action in nearly all markets worldwide changed on a dime since January 1st.

I am not sure “what or why” the change coincided so closely with the calendar year but the rate hike by the Fed is the leading candidate. As for the real global economy, there is certainly evidence the weakness of late last year has deepened significantly. The pace of collapse has shifted gears as evidenced by trade, earnings and even central banks. Japan’s new policy of negative interest rates followed by new Fed trial balloons of same speak volumes about “stress”.

Another area of stress is change in the action on COMEX.

I have documented over the past year several delivery months where there were more contracts standing than registered gold available for delivery. The current Feb. contract has gone past first notice day with 13.3 tons of gold standing for 4.5 tons of registered gold. A very good synopsis of this was done yesterday by Craig Hemke at TF Metals Connecting The Comex Dots I encourage you to read this as Craig documents the recent shell game with inventory.

It is important to understand there are huge changes going on at COMEX.

First I need to correct something I wrote last week. I said;

“it doesn’t make sense for the shorts to not deliver on the first or second day of the delivery period and wait until the end of the month”.

This is absolutely correct, but I wrote this in late Jan. … so the deliveries we saw were some FIFTY PLUS days after the delivery period began on Dec. 1st!

Are they really allowed to wait 55 days to make a delivery?

Just to make it clear, it make no sense whatsoever to not make a delivery on day one or two because the storage costs must be paid. I absolutely stand by the most obvious reason not to deliver is because the gold was not available.

“Waiting”

~ to deliver earns NOTHING and costs money, Wall Street does not work this way!

We are also seeing another VERY BIG change in this delivery month.

While we saw very few “serves” early in delivery months in the last couple of years, this has changed. We saw 58 on Monday, 546 Tues., and 158 on Wednesday.

It is my opinion we are now seeing serious rebellion in the queue!

It has been contended which I firmly agree with, “cash settlement” with premium has been prevalent on the COMEX for quite some time. I now believe there are some standing and DEMANDING delivery and refusing cash. [demanding now the delivery of the real physical gold/silver]

This I believe is evidenced by gold in backwardation all the way out to October. I won’t spend the time to explain again why here, but backwardation CANNOT exist in gold in a correctly functioning market and one where the rule of law actually exists.

No matter how big of an apologist you are, it cannot be argued that a situation where more gold standing for delivery than is claimed to exist is a “good” thing.

This is a VERY dangerous situation of potential default and one where by hook or by crook has been avoided to this point. Is it this delivery month where delivery fails? I do not know.

I do know we live in a world where China is importing every single gold ounce produced on the planet leaving nothing else leftover for the rest of the world. This situation can only last or continue as long as vaults have gold and the owners are willing to fill the deficit between supply and demand. I will say this, the global financial system will completely seize up and close for trading once gold delivery fails.

This will only take 48 hours after a failure, and the ability to procure metal, sell stocks and bonds, or do anything else financial will not be an option.

Liquidity is drying up and no Ponzi scheme can survive without “new juice”!

A very basic and core problem with no solution other than resetting, rebooting and revamping the system itself!

We are living a global margin call that cannot be met.

The system is clearly broken and you do not need to be a rocket scientist or even have higher than an 8th grade education to understand this. No matter what you look at, it is clear something is very very wrong.

I have written I believed a force majeure will occur within the gold and silver complexes.

I have written of “truth bombs” being dropped by Mr. Putin The Ultimate “Truth Bomb” – The East Knows The West Is Bankrupt and

The Chinese holding a silver “Kill Switch” in China

A financial failure larger than any and all past crashes will end in social unrest all over the world.
When credit ceases and breaks down, it will be felt first and foremost in “distribution”.
The distribution of everyday and necessary goods will be interrupted.
Empty stomachs will fan the flames of angry mobs.
Those who have lost the fruit from their life’s work will be more interested in their next meal versus wealth.
I stand by everything I have written on these topics. The greatest credit unwind of all time is unfolding right now before your very eyes!

I am sure this article will fan the flames in “troll town”!
Please attack the logic, do not say “it will never happen because it has not”.
Do not point at the prices of gold and silver and say “see, you are wrong”.
The manipulation of markets, all markets is so obvious even an idiot can see it with very dark sunglasses on!
I expect we will see “gap” openings in nearly everything very shortly …
Please do something, anything, to protect yourself and loved ones!

Standing watch,

Bill Holter
Holter-Sinclair collaboration
Comments welcome, bholter@hotmail.com

Silver Doctors