Secret IMF report: Hide gold loans and swaps for market manipulation

http://www.gata.org/node/12016

Market Manipulation of the Gold Market: US Resorts to Illegality to Protect Failed Financial Policies

http://www.globalresearch.ca/market-manipulation-of-the-gold-market-us-resorts-to-illegality-to-protect-failed-financial-policies/5417444

CFTC Seeks Admission Of Market Manipulation From JPM; Jamie Balks

Jamie Dimon and Blythe Masters of JPMorgan will burn in hell.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-18/cftc-seeks-admission-market-manipulation-jpm-jamies-balks

Interview of Chris Powell (GATA) About Precious Metals Market Manipulation

https://www.goldbroker.com/news/interview-chris-powell-gata-about-precious-metals-market-manipulation-257.html

Secret IMF report: Hide gold loans and swaps for market manipulation

http://www.gata.org/node/12016

Confidential IMF report:
http://www.gata.org/files/IMFGoldDataMemo--3-10-1999.pdf

Wall Street Journal notices currency market manipulation

My money is on Jim Rickards' forecast.  Currency wars never end well.

http://www.gata.org/node/12204

Secret IMF report: Hide gold loans and swaps for market manipulation

This is a truly shocking, ground-breaking, meant-to-be confidental admission by the IMF that central banks worldwide are selling, leasing, and swapping gold into the marketplace in order to manipulate prices.  Of course, the average person on the street, or the mainstream media will ignore it or dismiss it.  They will regret this a few years from now when the price of physical gold will soar.  The emperors have no gold.

http://www.gata.org/node/12016

Speak Up and Be Heard

http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1298557244.php

Grand Unified Theory of market manipulation

http://www.precisioncapmgt.com/wp-content/uploads/PCM-A_G.U.T._of_Market_Manipulation.pdf

There is much speculation and anecdotal information regarding the rally that began March 6 2009, which have suggested the gains are the result of massive manipulation on the part of the Federal Reserve (FR) and the large institutions that dominate Treasury securities dealing, program trading and the derivatives markets. Traders have reported that traditional indicators and metrics used for market analysis stopped working for periods of time or altogether, and that correlations among markets have been erratic and quick to change. Record program trading by Goldman Sachs as reported by the NYSE, heightened focus on high frequency trading (HFT), outsized profits by the large and well-connected banks, along with unprecedented intervention by the FR in the markets only fuel the manipulation speculation.

The POMO Effect
The theory for which we have the greatest supporting evidence of manipulation surrounds the fact that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRNY) began conducting permanent open market operations (POMO) on March 25, 2009 and has conducted 42 to date. Thanks to Thanassis Stathopoulos and Billy O’Nair for alerting us to the POMO Effect discovery and the development of associated trading edges. These auctions are conducted from about 10:30 am to 11:00 am on pre-announced days. In such auctions, the FRNY permanently purchases Treasury securities from selected dealers, with the total purchase amount for a day ranging from about $1.5 B to $7.5 B. These days are highly correlated with strong paint-the-tape closes, with the theory being that the large institutions that receive the capital injections are able to leverage this money by 100 to 500 times and then use it to ramp equities.

A Tale of Two Cities (part 2)

Here's the bad news for equities. This graph (click to enlarge) charts the DJIA relative to the price of 1 ounce of gold. At the height of the internet bubble, the DJIA/gold ratio was 44--and clearly unsustainable. At the depths of previous bear markets, the ratio was unity (1:1).

Currently, the ratio is around 10:1, and trending downward in the short- and mid-term. In order for the ratio to reach unity, the Dow Jones index has to either decline by a significant amount, or the price of gold per ounce has to increase by a significant amount--or both have to occur simultaneously. Simply put, the numerator (DJIA) has to match the denominator (gold price per ounce).

The take away message from the disaggregation of both charts is that while financial asset values may increase appreciably in nominal terms, in real terms (i.e. inflation-adjusted or indexed against gold), the returns for equities do not appreciate nearly as much when measured over a long period of time. In other words, the rate of return for equities is impaired due to the devaluation of the USDollar.

No one has a crystal ball, but the short US equities / long gold trade seems like the logical play going forward. Of course, with governments and central bankers wreaking havoc by manipulating markets worldwide, logic doesn't always win out initially. Fundamentals become distorted beyond recognition as bubbles are created and burst, causing investors to lose money, despite making correct market calls. Timing becomes the enemy, not the ally. So tread carefully. Read the disclaimers in the sidebar. Perform your own due diligence.

Disclosure: long biotech and energy sector equities, long gold and silver mining shares.

COMEX and LBMA default?

Thanks to Dick for another gem.

Could a default, or "failure to deliver" in the COMEX or London Bullion Market Association be imminent? It probably has occurred already. There is a widening gap between the prices of paper gold contracts and physical gold bullion, due to price suppression schemes by the bullion banks and central bankers. Jim Willie believes the bifurcation of futures contracts and physical gold prices will occur when the physical shortage of gold is exposed.

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/willie/2010/0203.html

The paper gold market and the physical gold bullion market have finally separated in a practical manner, meaning actual gold has almost no role anymore in London paper contract settlement. The absence of gold in London requires extraordinary tactics to settle contracts and to obtain gold bullion. Red tape procedures delay delivery for individuals, and bribes accompany gold delivery demands as standard practice. The London Bullion Market Assn has almost zero gold, its supply having been drained in high volumes since early December, a process currently in acceleration.

The public is unaware of government and central bank intervention in markets. They are also unaware of the pipeline between Wall Street and Washington, DC. The populist anger expressed by Congress and the Obama Administration is manufactured, armed with public opinion polls. You know the best way to eliminate taxpayer-funded banker bonuses? Don't bail out the banks in the first place. The media is complicit, cheerleading green shoots, while ignoring accurate data.

The financial press is critically important precisely now, for not spilling the facts on the current gold market breakdown and divergence. Much of the pressures are hidden though, since the financial press networks report only the official paper-based prices. Do not expect to read in Reuters or Bloomberg or the Associated Press or Wall Street Journal or the New York Times or Investors Business Daily or Barrons that a grotesque gold shortage exists in the London metals exchange or at the COMEX in New York and Chicago. They will not report that London is virtually drained of gold, yet still sells gold contracts. Accurate news reporting would accelerate the breakdown and remove the possibility for time extension. The press will not report that billionaires are emptying their gold bullion accounts at rapidfire pace, out of gross distrust of the bankers, since gold leasing has illegally been standard practice for many years. Imagine selling lumber contracts without wood delivered. Imagine selling mortgages without home titles delivered. Actually, Wall Street did precisely that from 2003 to 2007.

If the government can manipulate markets up...

they can certainly manipulate markets down with intervention in the derivatives markets, whether the underlying asset classes are equities or commodities (precious metals and energy).

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/01/06/120796/trimtabs-on-that-%E2%80%98us-government-rigged-stock-market/

Rigged markets force investors to become speculators--trying to front run big players, especially if the 800-pound elephant is Uncle Sam himself. Deciphering financial statements is no longer enough. There is no such thing as a free market anymore, and participants should understand that before venturing down into the deep end of the pool.

IT infrastructure investments

Information technology (IT) infrastructure investments by Wall Street investment firms are approaching $3.6 billion annually. By contrast, the U.S. Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) has an annual IT budget of $23 million--which makes it difficult for them to monitor and regulate derivatives trading. Their servers, bandwidth pipes, storage, and overall IT infrastructures are slow, old, inadequate, and obsolete.

It's analogous to highway patrol squad cars having a top speed of 160 mph, rendering them impotent to catch speeders averaging 1000 mph. The software algorithms and quantitative analysis investment firms perform are fast enough (and getting faster) to stay ahead of the watchdogs.

Financial derivatives are useful in hedging strategies and increasing potential returns on investment, but they can also be weapons of massive financial destruction when leverage is abused. And algorithms can spin out of control when asset bubbles burst. The race to be ahead of everyone else sometimes causes the mutual destruction of algorithms gone bad, as self-fulfilling negative outcomes beget other larger losses.

The regulatory path has become increasingly futile as Wall Street computing capabilities increase geometrically with Moore's Law.

Free market proponents epouse minimum regulation, with a mantra of caveat emptor, but cases of fraud and market manipulation should be regulated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Rigged markets and lack of transparency hurt markets long-term, as investor distrust of manipulated markets cause participants to stop trading. Without investors, markets disappear.

Gold and silver price suppression

It's becoming clear as day that the commercial bullion banks are throwing the kitchen sink at trying to suppress the precious metals market, even if transparency in the COMEX is a pipe dream propagated by the CFTC. So long as the CFTC, the regulatory body in charge of monitoring the commodities futures exchanges, is captured by the commercials, market manipulation will continue to run rampant in the pits, as retail investors continue to get burned. The CFTC has more at stake and chooses to look the other way. Investor protection is merely lip service, in other words.

Ed Steer spells it out for the gold and silver market at the COMEX:

Now for the open interest numbers. I said yesterday that Wednesday's gold o.i. (ed. open interest) numbers would be "u-g-l-y". In actual fact, they were beyond u-g-l-y. Gold o.i. rose by one of the largest amounts that I've ever seen in the ten years that I've been involved in the precious metals market...26,051 contracts. Total open interest is now 410,754 contracts, and yesterday's volume was a very large 165,302 contracts. Silver was better, with o.i. rising 'only' 1,629 contracts to 108,300 contracts of total open interest... on volume of 33,296... which is a lot.

It should be obvious to anyone that this price rally in gold is being met with ferocious resistance from the bullion banks, who are going short against every long placed. Without a doubt, they piled on the short positions again on Thursday... and I won't be going too far out on a limb to say that we are very near to having the largest net short position in gold in the history of the Comex. That's about 265,000 Comex contracts, or 26.5 million ounces of gold... more than one third of 2009 gold production held short by a handful of bullion banks. And two U.S. bullion banks are short about 18 million ounces of that total. Where the hell is the CFTC???

Which begs the question: how can JP Morgan and HSBC have this much gold and silver in their vaults? The obvious answer is that they don't. In other words, these are naked short sales, which is illegal as it defines market manipulation. Laws have been passed to ban naked short selling (market makers in equities are exempt from naked short sales bans, with the logic being they need that waiver to keep markets liquid) and margin limits increased in the stock market to curb market manipulation, yet the COMEX is full of "Naked Shorties Gone Wild".

To the average layman, your typical response is: "So what? Who cares if a few gold bugs get their heads handed to them by a couple crooked banks?"

Here is your answer: so long as the prices of gold and silver are suppressed, the gold and silver markets will remain distorted. When prices of these commodities are pegged at artificially low prices, there are no incentives for miners to explore and drill these metals. Mines end up closing down, instead of increasing production. Which would be disastrous for our world economy and catalyze hyperinflation at the same time.

Why? Because silver, in addition to being a long-standing store of value like gold, is also an industrial metal used in a wide variety of applications. In fact, 97% of silver is used in industries as diverse as electronics (silver is a good conductor), solar panels, electric car batteries, batteries for hand-held devices, biomedical devices, disinfectants, antibiotics, stained glass, clothing, nuclear reactors, mirrors, and electrical contacts. In other words, if supply is constrained, silver prices will soar--and so will wholesale and consumer prices on many items we depend on every day--including "green" technologies. Couple high prices with unmet demand for items like an IPhone, and you have the worst of two worlds: lower gross domestic demand (GDP) and high inflation.

Because gold and silver are "crisis" indicators, the bullion banks--in conjunction with the government--specifically the Fed and US Treasury, continue to suppress the prices of these precious metals. A soaring gold price exposes a lack of confidence in the world financial system--which depends on confidence, as currencies are unpegged to the price of gold. A systemic breakdown would occur.

Their suppression scheme is short-sighted, as it only defers and exacerbates the problem. In fact, ANY market manipulation is a short-term fix--with gargantuan unintended consequences down the road. When free markets are rife with manipulation and intervention, distortions inevitably occur as a result. Witness the subprime mortgage meltdown precursed by suppression of interest rates, which caused an unsustainable real estate bubble that ultimately imploded.

Instead of applying fiscal discipline, curbing astronomical spending and reining in the printing presses, the government is resorting to these secretive price suppression schemes. But as stated before, this price manipulation will eventually fail, because the fundamentals of a shortage will eventually supercede any corrupt price suppression. It is a coiled spring waiting to explode.

How to play this? Expect artificially low interest rates to eventually cause high inflation as an unintended consequence. It's telling that the same critics who derided former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's easy money policies are hailing Ben Bernanke's same strategies today. It didn't work then, and it won't work today. This deflationary environment won't last.

Taking delivery on at least a small portion of your portfolio in physical gold and silver would be prudent--coins from a reputable coin dealer. The gold and silver ETF's GLD and SLV, respectively, are good hedges against inflation as they track the prices of the metals themselves, although extreme survivalists are uncomfortable with "paper" gold certificates. They question whether the vaults of these ETF's are independently audited, and whether they can gain access to their gold in the event of a financial catastrophe. As long as you don't believe in financial Armageddon, you should be okay.

For those more adventurous, another option is dabbling in major gold producers. These stocks are extremely volatile, as they are a leveraged play on the price of gold and silver. And for the speculators among us, there are also junior gold producers and prospect generators. For every ten-bagger, there may be dozens of losers. Tread carefully.

These are not specific recommendations, and investors should perform their own due diligence.

Disclosure: Long shares in ABX, SLW, FRG, PZG, RBY.

ARNA Press Release tomorrow at 5:30 am Pacific time

Now that the press release is issued, I can mention the name of the company I've been raving about. I didn't want to invite scrutiny from regulators about pumping and dumping. Some of my friends and family have known about this speculative play for several weeks and months. I'm glad to say a few acted upon it. It was entirely their decision and they performed their own due diligence.

The timing of the conference call, 5:30 am Pacific time, is significant. It is pre-market opening, which suggests good results from their Phase III clinical trials. A positive announcement post-market close, leaves market manipulators plenty of time that evening and the next morning to manipulate the stock price, punishing shareholders in after hours training. Regarding the timing of announcements of pivotal trials: negative announcements are usually scheduled after market close, while positive announcements usually occur before market opening.

In fact, market manipulation is why this stock stayed at $4 for many days in March. The shorts drove the share prices down, making a profit on the share price decline. Shorting also benefited institutions betting on the share price rising, as they get to buy shares at a lower price. That's why it's common to see analysts downgrade stocks before an important announcement, which is exactly what happened with Arena. Market manipulation is nefarious and illegal, and these individuals and institutions should be bird-dogged and reported to the SEC. However, as an individual investor, and as one who acknowledge sometimes the system is rigged, one should adjust one's investment strategies accordingly. In my case, it allowed me multiple entry points to accumulate shares, because investor sentiment was negative, and I had conviction that Arena was on to something big--I had confidence that Lorcaserin is a game-changer.

Friday's close was $4.50. After positive results, I expect the market to gap up before tomorrow's market opening in the teens, with high volatility throughout the week, amid price spikes for the next few days. I will avoid trading as orders will be difficult to fill--I will just monitor it and watch the shorts scramble, while the share price soars.

Investing is risky and investing in biotech stocks even riskier. Do your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor, altho 99% of them are behind the learning curve. Proceed with caution, and good luck to all.

Disclosure: I own shares in ARNA underlying shares and ARNA call options.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Arena-Pharmaceuticals-to-Host-prnews-14777035.html

SAN DIEGO, March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA - News) today announced it will hold a conference call and webcast on Monday, March 30, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (5:30 a.m. Pacific Time) to discuss top-line results from BLOOM (Behavioral modification and Lorcaserin for Overweight and Obesity Management), the first of two pivotal trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of lorcaserin for weight management. Jack Lief, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dominic P. Behan, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, William R. Shanahan, M.D., Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, and Christen M. Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President, Clinical Development, will host the conference call.

The conference call may be accessed by dialing 877.874.1565 for domestic callers and 719.325.4758 for international callers. Please specify to the operator that you would like to join the "Lorcaserin BLOOM Trial Results" conference call. The conference call will be webcast live under the investor relations section of Arena's website at www.arenapharm.com, and will be archived there for 30 days following the call. Please connect to Arena's website several minutes prior to the start of the broadcast to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be necessary.

About Arena Pharmaceuticals

Arena is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral drugs in four major therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, central nervous system, inflammatory and metabolic diseases. Arena's most advanced drug candidate, lorcaserin, is being investigated in a Phase 3 clinical trial program for weight management. Arena's broad pipeline of novel compounds target G protein-coupled receptors, an important class of validated drug targets, and includes compounds being evaluated independently and with partners, including Merck & Co., Inc., and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.