So Much for Position Limits on COMEX Gold

http://www.gotgoldreport.com/2013/05/so-much-for-position-limits-on-comex-gold.html

Judge throws out CFTC's position limits rule

The status quo continues:  the foxes are guarding the hen house.  Price manipulation will continue unabated.  The rigging of markets is now officially institutionalized.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/28/us-cftc-positionlimits-idUSBRE88R1C120120928

Dramatic Federal Court Ruling Vacates CFTC Positions Limit Rule

Those familiar with or participate in commodities markets and derivatives will understand the plaintiff and defendant are both corrupt entities.  This should be fascinating theater.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/09/28/dramatic-federal-court-ruling-vacates-cftc-positions-limit-rule/

Silver, Gorillas, Madoff and Financial Regulators –Will they ever learn?

Not only are markets rigged, but the regulators who are mandated to monitor and enforce laws are not only looking the other way, they are enabling illegal price manipulation.  The markets are completely distorted due to the corruption, and everybody will pay when the COMEX defaults, whether it's the farmer who wishes to hedge his crops, the airline which wants to lock in fuel prices, or the consumer who puts food on the table and drives to work.  And market experts will declare "no one saw it coming."  Bull$hit.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/67350783/Silver-Gorillas-CFTC-Etc-1

Speak Up and Be Heard

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

New Gold, Silver Rules, Little Change

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=17219

The CFTC is at best, toothless, and at worst, corrupt.  Nothing here folks.  Forget about market transparency and fair price discovery mechanisms.  The markets are rigged, and will remain so, to the benefit of big bullion banks--and to the detriment of investors and industrial consumers.  The proposed position limits for commodities futures contracts in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act are a smoke screen.  Investors will exit while the predators on Wall Street will feed upon each other.

JP Morgan Wins: CFTC Position Limits Do Not Apply (To Them)

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-jp-morgan-wins-cftc-position-limits-do-not-apply-them

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton on financial regulation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/07/29/VI2010072902523.html

In this interview, he sounds serious in implementing regulation of the derivatives markets. What's also encouraging is his enthusiasm for eliminating fraud and manipulation in the commodities exchanges, including removal of exemptions from position limits for speculators. Hopefully, this will level the playing field and promote efficient markets and price discovery.

CFTC and financial regulation reform

If CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton is correct, position limits will be imposed and enforced for derivatives trading on commodities in the COMEX Exchange. Let's see if they enforce these new laws in the precious metals pits, forcing the big bullion banks (JPMorgan Chase and HSBC) to unwind their huge naked short positions.

I'm still wary of Commissioner Chilton's enthusiasm because CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has talked a good game, but has been slow to respond to complaints of price manipulation. He's also a former executive at Goldman Sachs. Having said that, his predecessors were asleep at the wheel for decades--probably complicit in the price suppression schemes of gold and silver, so at least his acknowledgment that futures markets need more scrutiny against price manipulation is somewhat encouraging.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1_q88rlUkw

Public comments on CFTC precious metals meeting

Most comments urge the CFTC to establish and enforce position limits in the precious metals COMEX exchanges.

http://www.cftc.gov/LawRegulation/PublicComments/10-005.html

Ted Butler continues to urge the CFTC to regulate price suppression in the silver pits.

http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1273856683.php

Adrian Douglas pre-CFTC hearing

https://marketforceanalysis.com/index_assets/CFTC%20HEARING%20ON%20METALS%20MARKETS.pdf

SUMMARY
1) Comex data show that the price of gold and silver are suppressed
2) There is a direct correlation of price suppression and the positions of two US
banks
3) The Bank Derivatives Reports from Treasury Dept. Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency (OCC) indicates these two banks are JPMorgan Chase and
HSBC
4) Appropriate enforcement action is required

Bart Chilton on position limits

https://research.tdwaterhouse.ca/research/public/Markets/CommoditiesNews?documentKey=1314-N23256396-1

The rhetoric from Bart Chilton is positive, but we'll see if CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler concurs.

CFTC and position limits this Thursday

Thursday, March 25 could be a historic date for precious metals investors, as the CFTC will hold a hearing on position limits and exemptions.

http://agoracom.com/ir/Crystallex/forums/discussion/topics/409676-is-pog-s-manipulated/messages/1350508#message

Let's hope CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler takes the proper path. I have my doubts, because the bullion banks have had free reign to manipulate the precious metals pits forever, and Gensler's history at Goldman Sachs leads me to believe it will be business as usual at the CRIMEX-er, COMEX.

CFTC and position limits

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B10OV20100114

"The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that the agency's planned meeting in early March to discuss possible position limits on metal futures and options contracts will focus on gold and silver contracts."

Let's see if CFTC Chairman Gensler is serious this time.

This Reuters article does a decent job of capturing the CFTC's comments on concentrated position limits in the COMEX, but then lays an egg with this wrong conclusion:

"A review of possible position limits on the COMEX gold and silver market should not affect prices because of the vast physical spot gold market outside of the United States, traders said."

Um...reducing and enforcing position limits in the silver and gold market exchanges will cause prices on said precious metals to rise, as the bullion banks will no longer be able to execute their price suppression schemes. Regulating abusive price manipulation will expose the shortage of physical silver and gold bullion, as true market price transparency is achieved.

Open letter to the CFTC

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is holding an open hearing this Thursday, January 14 to deliberate and possibly vote on position limits for commodity futures markets, specifically the COMEX. Enforcing hard position limits prevents a few powerful entities from cornering the market on a commodity, and reduces the effectiveness of price suppression schemes. In other words, large commercial traders like bullion banks and hedge funds won't be able to rig markets, as the playing field is kept even. Rigged markets are destructive because market participants eventually exit and never return.

In an apt analogy, if investors in 401K savings accounts knew the mutual fund markets were rigged and investors were losing money due to surreptitious gaming by insiders, those retail investors would no longer invest their savings in said mutual funds. Likewise, Ponzi scheme fraudsters like Bernie Madoff discourage all investors due to lack of transparency and oversight by regulatory bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The CFTC has a similar role--only they monitor the futures and derivatives markets. It's time they stopped turning a blind eye to the price manipulation endemic in the precious metals and energy exchanges.

Dear Sirs,

It is outrageous that JPMorgan is allowed to be short 40% of the COMEX silver market and 30% of world production. There should be hard position limits in the precious metals markets, just like position limits should be enforced in other commodities, including the energy complex. This prevents price manipulation by a few concentrated positions, and sheds transparency in markets. Exemptions should be closely scrutinized, and naked shorting outlawed.

If we are to have free markets with true price discovery, we need to enforce position limits in all markets. Otherwise, the market is rigged to the benefit of a few, and destruction of the majority. In that scenario, eventually the market shrinks, as participants exit.

The current Administration gained office with a message of change and transparency...and the end of corruption and deceit. Please do your part in enforcing position limits in all commodity exchanges--including precious metals.

It is much better to choose to do the right thing, then to have it forced upon you. The price manipulation of certain commodities has temporary effect, but the true supply/demand dynamics of any commodity will eventually come to fruition. It will be by stampede if the market-rigging tactics are allowed to continue. Naked short sellers will be exposed when demand for physical delivery is unmet.

The ball is firmly in your court. Thank you.

Gary Gensler on CFTC reform

With all due respect to Gary Gensler for being a bright, intelligent, and nice man, he's speaking out of both sides of this mouth. He seems like an ethical, reasonable person, but let's read between the lines. He's worked on Wall Street for 18 years with Goldman Sachs, an investment firm (and now commercial holding bank) with some of the smartest traders and arbitrageurs on the Street. They can influence, if not manipulate markets.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-06/u-s-should-regulate-dealers-cftc-s-gensler-says-update2-.html

His rhetoric of enforcing concentrated position limits in the energy pits (and commodities markets, in general) is shallow, because manipulation of markets with outsized positions is exactly how the big commercial banks profit. The gold and silver COMEX exchange is home to some of the most grotesque short positions in a price suppression scheme obvious to everyone except the blind or captured. In other words, I'll believe the enforcement of CFTC position limits when I see it. Until then, see my disclosure.

Disclosure: long gold and silver mining shares.

COMEX December gold and silver options

COMEX December gold and silver options expire tomorrow, Monday, November 23, which usually means the commercial shorts will go into overdrive to manipulate the price down. However, given the physical shortage, gold has been gapping up in anticipation of this date. Combined with the backwardation of gold as I blogged last Friday here, the price of gold is increasing this evening (in Asian Monday morning trading).

Should rumors of COMEX defaults on gold and silver actually occur, the exchange may just retroactively invalidate all delivery contracts, and merely slap a fine on short sellers who settle via cash. Physical buyers will be stiffed, despite receiving a cash premium.

To those who believe a COMEX default will never occur, refer to the London Metals Exchange default on nickel in 2006. Buyers did NOT receive the physical inventory, and short sellers merely had to pay a 10% fine above spot price.

http://www.lme.com/4670.asp

Should such a default occur with gold or silver, the price of physical gold and silver will soar, as will paper certificates allegedly backed by the precious metals. There will be huge dislocations in financial markets worldwide should such a default on COMEX occur. Gold bugs ridiculed for their conspiracy theories will have the last laugh.

The CFTC is also reviewing enforcement of position size limits in the energy and precious metals pits, which would force bullion banks to drastically reduce their concentrated permanent short positions. This will also catalyze gold and silver price spikes.