Dear CIGAs,

Here are two Jims and a Dan on the same page!

Comex gold trading is a paper game: Jim Rogers
2009-03-15 23:00:00

Commodity Online 
Even as gold spot and futures prices surge globally and bullion analysts continue to predict that the yellow metal prices will zoom to astronomical levels ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, there is more opposition coming to the paper gold at Comex.

Renowned global commodities investor and analyst Jim Rogers says gold trading at Comex, a division of Nymex, is a paper game and not a physical game.

”If you can take 50% of the gold away from the Comex then the price will be closer to what you are paying for physical today. If you take 50% of anything away, you know take 50% of IBM away the prices are going to go up,” said Rogers, a vocal critic of America and Britain, who left the United States to settle down Singapore.

"It should be obvious that these two very large banks could exert a disproportionate share of influence on the small silver futures market if they were so inclined. When just two traders are allowed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) to accumulate so massive a position that it constitutes an overwhelmingly large percentage of the action; when the authorities allow just two banks to literally dominate a market with the weight of their own trading, traders are left to speculate on what the largest traders are going to do instead of concentrating on the supply/demand fundamentals and legitimate price discovery. "

In an interview to Warren Bevan of Gold Seek, Rogers, author of such famous books like Hot Commodities and A Bull in China, who recently launched an agricultural commodities index focused on food consumption in China, said: “If somebody removes 50% of gold from the market, or 50% of anything from the market it’s going to have an effect on the price. A guy who does it, has his own situation. He’s got to come up with a place to store it, insure it and everything else. And if and when he comes back to the market he may have a huge problem because the market will be sitting there waiting for him. Again remove 50% of anything from any market, it has an effect. Burn down half the houses in Phoenix I assure you it would have an effect in the housing market in Phoenix.”

Rogers said that now many things have been used as money. Silver, copper, ivory, many, many, many things. “In fact silver has been used through history much more than gold as a monetary medium of exchange,” he said.

Is silver being artificially held down? “No, I don’t buy that. I know the conspiracy theorists say that but if it were true over the past thirty years there would have to have been hundreds of thousands of people who would know about it and be part of the conspiracy,” said Rogers, who along with billionaire investor George Soros founded the successful Quantum Fund.

It is not just Rogers alone who is upset at the way Comex gold is going. Bevan points out that there is something going on in gold. “The Comex stocks have hardly changed since December and demand and deliveries have been substantial. Also the ETF’s have added over $3 billion just this January. I don’t know where they get their gold but certainly not the Comex.”

Now, do you know that some large American banks are dominating the gold market in the world? Or some of the same banks that helped spawn the current global financial crisis, have the largest positioning in gold and silver futures at Comex, a division of Nymex?

Here is an excerpt from an interesting story that Commodity Online carried sometime back:

”Noted gold market analyst Gene Arensberg, has reviewed the latest gold and silver market data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from a trading standpoint and observes that the largest traders are positioning themselves for a fall in gold but not so much for a fall in silver.

The very largest traders for gold and silver are, wouldn’t you know it, big U.S. banks. It looks like a few big banks, some of the same ones whose brilliant management helped spawn a global financial crisis, have the largest positioning in gold and silver futures. As of February 3, their positioning in gold and silver futures was big all right – big and short the market for gold, somewhat less short silver comparatively speaking.

A short position means the trader profits if prices fall.

According to the monthly CFTC Bank Participation in Futures and Options Market report released Friday, February 6, two large reporting U.S. banks held zero long and 27,189 short futures positions in COMEX silver futures as of February 3. All commercial traders as a group held a net short silver position of 33,173 contracts that same day; so just two banks held 81.96% of all the COMEX commercial net short positioning for silver.

It should be obvious that these two very large banks could exert a disproportionate share of influence on the small silver futures market if they were so inclined. When just two traders are allowed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) to accumulate so massive a position that it constitutes an overwhelmingly large percentage of the action; when the authorities allow just two banks to literally dominate a market with the weight of their own trading, traders are left to speculate on what the largest traders are going to do instead of concentrating on the supply/demand fundamentals and legitimate price discovery.

Isn’t that the equivalent of subjects wondering what price the King will decree rather than citizens all haggling in their own self interest to determine a market price? Or, as one trader put it recently, is the COMEX silver market waiting on JP Morgan Chase to show its hand or make a move?