Gold World News Flash |
- Who's really undermining the currency, economic stability, and democracy?
- Silver Shortages (Again!)
- Silver Liberation Army: Venice Beach locals speak about recession and economic downturn
- Stocks, Gold and Oil Markets Weekend Report
- South Florida becomes center for dishonest gold sellers
- END GAME
- Making Money on Miners, Part I
- How to Save Yourself from Fed Money Creation
- Prices Raised for US Mint Silver Proof Sets
- GFMS chief belatedly acknowledges that official gold data is no good
- GATA’s Murphy, GoldMoney’s Turk speak at Munich conference April 11
- New York Sun: Von NotHaus is guilty but Bernanke is innocent?
- COT Silver Report – March 18, 2011
- Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Fall Slightly on the Week
- Goldman: Expecting gold price to peak near $1700 in 2012
- GATA's Murphy, GoldMoney's Turk speak at Munich conference April 29
- Secret Iran Gold Holdings Leaked: Tehran Holds Same Amount Of Gold As United Kingdom, And Is Buying More
- Japanese Yen: G7 Intervention vs Laissez-faire
- The bill, which awaits Gov. Gary Herbert’s signature, would require the state to recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal tender.
- COMEX Other Reportable Traders Net Short Gold
- Goldman's FX Recommendation Recap In A Post BOJ-Intervention World
- Beinki's Silver Liberation Army Sees Action
- Jim?s Mailbox
- When Theory and Real Life Collide–Thoughts On The Yen
- Jim's Mailbox
- A Dollar Crisis Has Arrived
- The Contrarian View 21st-25th March
- Q1 2011 Earnings Preview
- $71 with 1 hr. to go
| Who's really undermining the currency, economic stability, and democracy? Posted: 20 Mar 2011 06:05 PM PDT Here's hoping that yesterday's conviction of Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus in federal court in North Carolina won't discourage the advocates of free markets in gold and silver and competitive currencies.
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 04:58 PM PDT (It's like March, 2008, all over again!) Silver Stock Report by Jason Hommel, March 19, 2011 RE: [B]Silver Market Structure: Shortages And Sources March 25, 2008 Silver Shortage gets Worse, Price Drops Again! March 20, 2008 Silver Shortage: 19 dealers reported "Sold Out" March 19, 2008 [/B] Several of our suppliers are short of silver now, due to overwhelming customer demand. We also, at the JH MINT, had a record week last week. Two of our best Silver Eagle suppliers have been sold out for a week. One might have them in again in about two weeks, but that's not guaranteed. Our 10 oz. bar supplier is backordered now, with a two week delivery time. Our 100 oz. bar supplier has raised prices. We can still buy 90% junk bags and 1 oz. rounds and get them in a few days, but prices to manufacture 1 oz. rounds just increased. All of our silver is availabl...
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| Silver Liberation Army: Venice Beach locals speak about recession and economic downturn Posted: 20 Mar 2011 03:34 PM PDT Share this:
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| Stocks, Gold and Oil Markets Weekend Report Posted: 20 Mar 2011 03:17 PM PDT Overview On Friday, the indices had an opportunity to demonstrate that they had ended their correction and had reversed. They failed to do so. The SPX could not break out of its secondary channel, and the lack of readiness was particularly evident in the QQQQ.
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| South Florida becomes center for dishonest gold sellers Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:23 PM PDT Little Regulation, Lots of Risk South Florida Becomes a National Center By Jon Burstein http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-leveraged-gold-industry-20110303,0,633554... With the price of gold at near or all-time highs, South Florida has become a national hotbed for companies operating in a largely unregulated niche of the precious metals industry, where some customers have reported losses in the tens of millions of dollars, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found. In Broward and Palm Beach counties alone, more than 45 firms have opened since 2007, offering clients the chance to buy gold and other precious metals via heavily financed transactions. In an environment devoid of federal licensing or reporting requirements, convicted felons and people with checkered regulatory pasts have been among those setting up shop. "They took every dime I had," said Richard Ray, a Georgia man who lost $46,300 with Spyker Consulting, a Deerfield Beach-based precious metals firm supervised by two convicted felons. No criminal charges have been filed against Spyker officials over investors' losses, but one of the company's founders is now facing prison time after a FBI sting revealed he lied to his probation officer about his role in Spyker and two other metals firms. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT The Gold Standard Now: It Can Work Today a dollar is worth 80 percent less than it was 40 years ago, and less than 5 percent of its value a hundred years ago. We deserve a dollar that is as good as gold, a dollar that will hold its value from year to year so we can be financially secure and our economy can generate more and better jobs. For most of America's history, our dollar was literally as good as gold. But on August 15, 1971, our politicians destroyed the link between gold and the dollar. They destroyed the foundations of our economic system. A new Internet site, TheGoldStandardNow.org, provides news and cutting-edge analysis about this most important issue and explains how the gold standard worked in the past and how it can work in the future. Visit us today: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/about/137-welcome-newsmax The Florida Office of Financial Regulation has ongoing investigations into at least 23 area companies marketing opportunities to buy bullion and have it stored at a secure location. Hundreds -- if not thousands -- of Americans have entrusted their money to South Florida precious metals companies. In the past 18 months, clients and creditors of seven local precious metals businesses have claimed losses of more than $54 million, a Sun Sentinel review of more than 2,000 pages of court documents shows. Among the developments cited: The collapse of Lake Worth-based Global Bullion Exchange with 1,400 investors losing more than $29.5 million. Owner Jamie Campany has admitted in a sworn statement that money "distributed to customers came from funds provided by other customers," and metals weren't purchased as promised. Campany is being sued by the company's receiver for fraud. He has not been criminally charged. A Broward judge froze the bank account of Pompano Beach-based JDC United Metals Inc. after a 70-year-old California retiree filed a lawsuit accusing the company of defrauding him of more than $627,500 in six months. The bankruptcy of three related Miami companies -- Certified Inc., Global Bullion Trading Group Inc. and WJS Funding -- with more than $22 million in claims filed against them, court records show. ... Industry defended Defenders of this segment of the precious metals industry maintain it offers the public a chance to buy gold and silver as tangible hedges against uncertain economic times and a deflating dollar. "We have a terrific program and, like anything else, it depends on who you are doing business with," said Robert Acocella, president of Monolith Bullion, a Boca Raton-based precious metals firm. "I personally will speak to every client that comes on board and we custom tailor a strategy to meet their needs." Jeffrey Schuler, co-founder of Liberty International Financial Services of Fort Lauderdale, said his clients receive full explanations about how the metals are purchased. He said he prefers that clients have the bullion delivered to their homes. "All of the firms that don't have complaints, no one hears about them," he said. Monolith Bullion and Liberty International Financial Services are not being investigated by the Office of Financial Regulation. Acocella and Schuler were the only two industry executives who agreed to be interviewed after the Sun Sentinel contacted 20 South Florida firms selling precious metals through financed transactions. Other companies declined comment or did not return phone calls. ... How firms work The metals firms have been opening at a rate of nearly one per month, setting up in office suites from Hollywood to Jupiter and relying on websites and telemarketing to draw in customers. Many of the firms operate this way: Clients are offered a chance to buy precious metals and have them delivered to their homes or stored in a secure location. Most choose storage. Customers are also told they can buy "on leverage" -- meaning they can obtain financing so they can purchase more metal. For example, a customer could put down $1,000 to buy $5,000 worth of gold. The financing comes from separate businesses called "clearing firms" or "clearing houses," that have pre-existing relationships with the precious metals firms. Under such leveraged arrangements, if metal prices fall by a certain amount, clients are subject to a "margin call," meaning they must pony up more cash -- or risk losing their money. A Federal Trade Commission official testified before Congress last year that the agency has seen a rise in unscrupulous telemarketers pitching highly leveraged precious metals sales to consumers who don't understand how the deals work or the risks involved. "The telemarketers charge hefty commissions and other fees that significantly reduce or completely eliminate the value of the consumers' initial investments," Lois Greisman, an associate director in the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. Frank Widmann, director of securities for Florida's Office of Financial Regulation, told the Sun Sentinel that the volatility of this market can make it treacherous territory for inexperienced gold buyers. "This is an area where it's real easy to mess with investors," he said. ... Minimal regulations Customers of some South Florida companies question whether their money was ever even used to buy precious metals. Campany, head of Global Bullion Exchange, acknowledged in his sworn statement that not only were metals never bought, but that the "clearing firm" being used -- Diversified Investment Group -- was a shell company that he created himself. Four men who worked for The Bullion Trading Group, which had offices in West Palm Beach and Stuart, were indicted last year on federal charges of defrauding clients out of about $1 million by allegedly forging documents that falsely showed money was being invested in metals. Two of the defendants have each pleaded guilty to a fraud charge, while the other two have pleaded not guilty. Since these gold companies advertise they buy and sell actual bullion -- rather than do paper transactions -- they have fallen outside the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that oversees the commodity and financial futures market. The metals firms don't need to register with any federal agency to do business and employees don't require licensing other than state approval to engage in telemarketing. That means someone with no financial background or training can start soliciting customers to buy gold and silver. (A conviction for a financial crime can bar a felon from getting a telemarketing license.) Within the last year, seven precious metals businesses in South Florida have been forced by the state to apply for telemarketing licenses after inspectors issued cease-and-desist orders to end unregistered phone solicitations, said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. One of the companies that was registered to engage in telemarketing was Spyker Consulting, which was founded by two men who met in federal prison while serving time in separate white-collar criminal cases, court records show. Luis Ferreira and Eugene Cabrera ran the firm with Ferreira's mother listed on state documents as the president, court records show. Ferreira admitted in court papers that he used a variety of aliases in dealing with customers at Spyker and two other precious metals firms he helped start. Ferreira pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit witness tampering, acknowledging he lied about his role in the companies to his probation officer. He likely faces no more than three years in prison when he is sentenced May 20. More federal oversight of the gold firms appears to be on the horizon when a new law takes effect in July. Companies that sell precious metals in leveraged deals will have to deliver the gold within 28 days to the customer or a location where the metals are easily accessible so the buyer can verify that they actually exist. If the gold isn't physically delivered, the transactions will fall under CFTC jurisdiction, and companies and their brokers will need to be federally licensed to work in commodities. Daniel Roth, president of the National Futures Association, a self-regulating trade organization for the U.S. futures industry, said he hopes the new law will close loopholes that have allowed metals companies offering leveraged purchases to operate without strong oversight. "We've been advocating this for a long time," he said. Schuler, of Liberty International Financial Services, said he also welcomes greater regulation. "If there is leverage involved, the CFTC should be involved," he said. ... Retirees hit hard The court documents obtained by the Sun Sentinel show senior citizens have suffered some of the biggest losses when it comes to area precious metals firms. In the case of Global Bullion Exchange, of the 20 clients who reported losses greater than $225,000, 10 are older than 60 and three others have died. James Haston, a 70-year-old California retiree, confided more than $627,500 to JDC United Metals, believing he was capitalizing on the rising price of gold, said his attorney, Heather Rutecki. JDC United Metals chief executive officer Danny Reynolds repeatedly visited Haston, even staying at his house and calling him "Dad," according to a Broward Circuit Court lawsuit filed by Haston in December. When Haston sought to pull money out, the lawsuit claims, Reynolds disconnected his phone and couldn't be found. A person responding to the email address posted on JDC United Metals' website wrote the Sun Sentinel that Haston's lawsuit was frivolous and misleading. Broward Circuit Judge Victor Tobin ordered a JDC United bank account frozen in December, but the company has not filed a legal response to Haston's suit. Two other retirees, Esther MacDonald-Gurl and Brian Gurl of North Carolina, sued Deerfield Beach-based American Precious Metals in February, alleging they lost more than $105,000 in a month with the company. One of the company's founders previously was sanctioned by the National Futures Association for running an investment business where employees made misleading sales pitches, according to the Gurls' lawsuit. Attempts by the Sun Sentinel to speak to a representative from American Precious Metals were unsuccessful. The company reports on its Website that "85 percent of our business is repeat business and referrals." Gurl, 74, said he and his wife have been in shock since losing so much money. "This was our nest egg," he said. Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon: Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16 ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture: Company Press Release, January 18, 2011 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy. PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding. Following the transaction: -- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC. -- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis. -- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp. -- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings. Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000. For the complete announcement, please visit: http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:17 PM PDT By Toby Connor, Gold Scents On Friday the last confirmation occurred to signal the final collapse is now underway. On Friday the November yearly cycle low was violated. Cyclically this event is a major catastrophe.  We are now going to see the dollar get absolutely hammered for the next couple of months. The viability of the dollar as a currency will be questioned. There is a decent chance it may start to lose its status as the world's reserve currency. (Coincidentally about the time everyone becomes convinced the dollar is going to hyper inflate that will be the point where the three year cycle low will bottom and we will see an explosive rally, along the same lines as what happened in the latter half `08.) This is what all the top pickers in gold and silver fail to understand. They are all trying to call a top based on charts without any understanding of what is happening to the currency. In a currency collapse the market will flee into assets that will retain their purchasing power. Four weeks ago we went past the point of the stock market being able to protect one from Ben's printing press any longer. So buying stocks as protection is no longer a viable solution. Four weeks ago spiking inflation rose to the point where profit margins are now being hit. Ben will no longer be able to prop up the stock market by further debasing of the currency. Stocks have now decoupled from their inverse correlation with the dollar and will now follow the dollar down.  The more Ben prints and the faster the dollar collapses, the faster the stock market is going to fall…and the quicker the economy is going to roll over into the next recession. What will happen is that liquidity will rush into the commodity markets as the only true protection against the accelerating currency crisis. This is why one has to ignore the top pickers and chartists. Overbought oscillators and stretched conditions are meaningless in a currency collapse. This is all about fundamentals. It's about protecting your purchasing power. You can't do that by exiting the one sector fundamentally best suited to protect you during this storm, which are the precious metals. Now isn't the time to be selling your gold, silver or mining stocks, it's time to be buying more. 6 months should be long enough to get investors through the currency crisis, allow you to ride the final parabolic spike in gold and silver (C-wave finale), avoid the inevitable crash (D-wave correction) that always follows a parabolic move, and then get long again at the bottom in preparation for the next major wave up in gold. Click here to access the premium website, then scroll down and click on the subscribe link. Enter '6monthspecial' in the promotional code box and then click 'continue'. You will be linked to a page with the special offer.        Toby Connor A financial blog primarily focused on the analysis of the secular gold bull market. If you would like to be added to the email list that receives notice of new posts to GoldScents, or have questions, email Toby.
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| Making Money on Miners, Part I Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:16 PM PDT By Jeff Nielson, Bullion Bulls Canada At Bullion Bulls Canada, we have made it one of our "missions" to provide a complete learning resource for precious metals miners. Our goal is to offer investors a tool which will allow even complete novices to this sector to learn to invest on their own with these companies. We consider our Mining Company database and "Education Vault" already superior to any other package of information available at other sites. The former provides extensive data on many of the most-promising miners, while the latter offers a complete teaching tool regarding all of the principle fundamentals for both precious metals miners, and precious metals themselves. There is, however, still plenty of room to build upon this. In this piece I will seek to simplify and connect-the-dots on various concepts which we have introduced to readers in previous articles. It is imperative that readers (and especially novice investors) familiarize themselves with all of our previous material on this subject, rather than seeking to use this piece as some simplistic "formula" which they can blindly rely upon in order to (supposedly) reap huge gains. With all mining companies, there is a specific evolution that takes place with any/every project which eventually becomes a mine (subject to only rare exceptions). This progression is as follows: early exploration-> extensive drilling-> resource estimate-> economic assessment-> major financing-> construction of mine-> commercial production There are two important observations which can made about this mining cycle. First, most but not all of these phases imply developments in a particular project which should increase the share price. This in turn implies that each phase of operations is executed competently by management, and (in the case of earlier phases) that the company experiences a certain degree of "luck" in that the mineral resource which they expect to find through their exploration and drilling is actually proven through subsequent drilling results and technical modeling. The second (and perhaps more important) observation to be made is that within each phase, we can attempt to "time the market" to a certain extent. This can be either through looking to buy when certain clues present themselves, or conversely choosing to sell all or part of our positions when we see other pieces of data emerge. Note that understanding and interpreting these clues properly requires not only having a thorough understanding of current market conditions, but also detailed knowledge on each phase of a miner's operations. Those lacking this level of understanding need to refer to our earlier work in order to familiarize themselves with this information. The other important caveat here is that this analysis implies (at least) stable, if not favorable market conditions. As is true with any investment, sudden swings in sentiment (either to a positive or negative extreme) will overwhelm the individual fundamentals of these companies, and render this analysis invalid. Assuming an adequate understanding of this sector and stable market conditions, astute investors should be able to utilize the following guidance in order to make more profitable "entrances" and "exits" in their investing. Early exploration: With this first phase of mining obviously representing the most-speculative period of the mining cycle, this makes the task of the investor in timing their investment decisions both easier and more difficult. It's "easier" in the sense that there are less types of activity to monitor, and success or failure is relatively straightforward to assess (again, assuming a detailed understanding of mining fundamentals). It is "more difficult" for investors precisely because of the absence of large quantities of data. There may be historical drilling results to look at, if a particular land-package has been previously explored. Note that most such "historic" work, is entirely unofficial in that it doesn't meet more stringent modern standards for mining data, designed to reduce the possibility of some sort of data-fraud being perpetrated against investors. The only other data which investors may have at their disposal is information from neighbouring mines, if this particular project is situated in an existing mining "camp" (i.e. district). All other data for investors to ponder is generated by the miner itself, (more or less) in "real time". More articles from Bullion Bulls Canada….
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| How to Save Yourself from Fed Money Creation Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:15 PM PDT Roger Wiegand of Trader Tracks Newsletter ominously notes that "With no fiat money to spread around and no takers for their specious bonds, bills and other paper, stock and credit markets as we know them now are finished. Then we'll see some real, old-fashioned goods trading, black markets, expanding regional gangs and unbelievable backlash against the instigators. If you thought the 1850-1890 USA era was the Wild West, watch what comes next." Part of "what comes next" he gets from the book When Money Dies by Adam Fergesson, which is that "over 400 politicians were assassinated in the 1920-1921 Austrian-Weimar Germany hyperinflation. This is what happens when things go very desperate," and that "history books tell us, have proven time and time again, this is what lies ahead under these circumstances." He calls it The New Abnormal, which seems perfectly appropriate to me because I know that things are going to get weird from here on out, as the Old Normal is dead, making the Old Abnormal the New Normal, which is just a hint of How Freaking Bizarre (HFB) things are going to get when things are weird enough right now! In fact, to use an analogy, the economy is like a group of overpaid people, milking the government for every dollar and benefit they can get, on a chartered airplane that has been certified as "unsafe," where one minute everybody is having fun, drunk as skunks, laughing and telling dirty jokes, and the next minute the plane is plunging out of the sky, out of fuel, one wing is in flames, the engines are dead, the entire electrical system is kaput, and, worst of all, the beverage cart is completely empty of cold beer and those little bottles of different kinds of tasty liquors. Uh-oh! Naturally, everyone is shouting, "Help! Help! What can we do to save ourselves? Can we save ourselves, like the banks saved themselves, by having the Federal Reserve create enough new money, which increases the misery of the poor by making prices rise, and rise, and rise with every new dollar created by the foul Federal Reserve, so that we can make a huge, huge, HUGE pile of money on the ground to cushion our crash landing, thus saving ourselves?" Well, I admit it's not the best analogy I ever saw, and I anticipate a deluge of hate-mail over it, and I am sorry that I used it, and I only did it because I cannot suppress – Hahaha! – the Laugh Of Mogambo Scorn (LOMS) at any idiots who actually believe in the long-term possibility of a dysfunctional, government-centric economic system, based on a constantly-rising money supply based on a fiat currency and insane levels of fractional-reserve banking, especially one where total local, state and federal government spending has grown to – literally! – half of all spending in the Whole Freaking Country (WFD)! Half! This dismal fact is made possible, remember, only by the evil Federal Reserve creating more and more and more money and credit to finance it all, and thus creating the resultant inflation in prices that literally destroys – piece by piece, bit by bit – those who cannot pay higher prices for food and energy, and more-or-less figuratively destroys everyone else. Except, that is, those who happily own gold and silver, of course, as these wonderful metals have always reigned triumphant over all other investments when things get to this metastasized end-stage, which is the part where the rise in consumer prices goes exponential along with the creation of new money by the Federal Reserve going exponential as the deficit-spending needs of the federal government go, likewise, exponential, and everything gets, predictably, exponentially worse. Well, Mr. Weigand, who has been watching all of this, apparently realized that it was foolish to get into a conversation with a paranoid whack-job like me, and offers that "It appears we are mostly safe until May or June when the 'Sell In May And Go Away' bell rings," which I take to mean that we have a couple of months in which to accumulate as much gold, silver, oil, guns and ammo as we can. And with a nice lead-time like that, what can you say except, "Whee! This investing stuff is easy!" The Mogambo Guru How to Save Yourself from Fed Money Creation originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning now provides over half a million subscribers with literary economic perspective, global market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas.
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| Prices Raised for US Mint Silver Proof Sets Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:15 PM PDT The United States Mint on Friday raised the prices on three of its silver proof set products, two that have already been issued and one that is scheduled for release later this month.
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| GFMS chief belatedly acknowledges that official gold data is no good Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:15 PM PDT 9:34p ET Sunday, March 20, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: From the Financial Times today, appended here, is confirmation from a gold establishment source of what GATA, the organization of supposedly radical loonies, has been saying for a long time: The official data about central bank gold reserves is bogus and often simply disinformation. (See http://www.gata.org/node/9545.) The Financial Times reviewed diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks and discovered that quite a few central banks lately have been interested in getting gold quietly. The newspaper quotes a leading respectable, the executive chairman of the precious metals consultancy GFMS, Philip Klapwijk, as acknowledging: "The totality of central bank reserves is not what is reported to the International Monetary Fund. There's probably another 10 per cent on top of that." Klapwijk must hope that the totality is only 10 percent. Why didn't he tell his clients and the world before now that the official gold data wasn't any good? CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer * * * Iran Bought Gold to Cut Dollar Exposure By Jack Farchy http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc350008-5325-11e0-86e6-00144feab49a.html Iran has bought large amounts of gold in the international market, according to a senior Bank of England official, in a sign of how growing political pressure has driven Tehran to reduce its exposure to the US dollar. Andrew Bailey, head of banking at the Bank of England, told an American official that the central bank had observed "significant moves by Iran to purchase gold," according to a US diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks and seen by the Financial Times. Mr. Bailey said the gold buying "was an attempt by Iran to protect its reserves from risk of seizure." Market observers believe Tehran has been one of the biggest buyers of bullion over the past decade after China, Russia, and India, and is among the 20 largest holders of gold reserves. They estimate that it holds more than 300 tonnes of gold, up from 168.4 tonnes in 1996, the date of the most recent International Monetary Fund data.
The cable, dated June 2006, is the first official confirmation of Tehran's buying. Last year central banks became net buyers of bullion after 22 years of large sales, helping drive gold prices to all-time nominal highs. Trades by central banks are often kept secret. Bankers said other Middle Eastern countries had also been quietly adding to gold holdings to diversify away from the dollar amid political tensions and volatility in currency markets. "The totality of central bank reserves is not what is reported to the IMF," said Philip Klapwijk, executive chairman of GFMS, a precious metals consultancy. "There's probably another 10 per cent on top of that." Cables obtained by WikiLeaks cite Jordan's prime minister as saying the central bank was "instructed to increase its holdings" of gold, and a Qatar Investment Authority official as saying the QIA was interested in buying gold and silver. "There is no question some Middle Eastern countries are very interested in buying gold," said George Milling-Stanley, head of government affairs at the mining industry-backed World Gold Council. In the past two months, the political unrest in the Middle East has helped propel gold to a record price of $1,444.40 a troy ounce. The Bank of England declined to comment on the cables but did not dispute their contents. The central banks of Iran and Jordan and the QIA did not respond to requests for comment. —– Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran. Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16
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| GATA’s Murphy, GoldMoney’s Turk speak at Munich conference April 11 Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:15 PM PDT 8:46p ET Sunday, March 20, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and GATA consultant James Turk, founder of GoldMoney and publisher of the Free Gold and Money Report, will be the speakers at a precious metals conference at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany, on Friday evening, April 29. The conference is sponsored by the German precious metals society, Deutsche Edelmetall-Gesellschaft. It will be conducted in English and moderated by DEG's Peter Boehringer. Food and drink will be available. You can learn more about the conference at GoldMoney's Internet site here: http://www.goldmoney.com/munich-2011-april-29.html CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16
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| New York Sun: Von NotHaus is guilty but Bernanke is innocent? Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:15 PM PDT 8:15p ET Sunday, March 20, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver): The New York Sun today editorializes brilliantly about the ironies in the conviction of Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus. The editorial begins: "Here is a thought experiment concerning two men who have issued money. One issued gold and silver coins that will today bring more in dollars than he charged for them. The other issued paper notes that are today worth but a fraction the gold or silver they were worth at the time they were issued. One man is facing the possibility of years in prison after a federal jury found his issuing of money to have been a crime. The other man is walking around free and being treated by the authorities with great deference. Which is which?" The editorial, most likely written by Sun editor Seth Lipsky, is headlined "A 'Unique' Form of Terrorism" and can be found here: http://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-unique-form-of-terrorism/87269/ CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16
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| COT Silver Report – March 18, 2011 Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:12 PM PDT | ||
| Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Fall Slightly on the Week Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:12 PM PDT Gold rose almost $20 to as high as $1423.83 at the open of trade in New York before it fell back off a bit into the close, but it still ended with a gain of 0.87%. Silver climbed to as high as $35.405 before it also fell back off, but it still ended with a gain of 2.25%.
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| Goldman: Expecting gold price to peak near $1700 in 2012 Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:12 PM PDT Top US investmernt bank, Goldman Sachs, sees gold at $1,480 in 3 months and hit $1,690 in 12 months ahead of a rise in U.S. interest rates it expects to see at around that time
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| GATA's Murphy, GoldMoney's Turk speak at Munich conference April 29 Posted: 20 Mar 2011 12:49 PM PDT 8:46p ET Sunday, March 20, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and GATA consultant James Turk, founder of GoldMoney and publisher of the Free Gold and Money Report, will be the speakers at a precious metals conference at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany, on Friday evening, April 29. The conference is sponsored by the German precious metals society, Deutsche Edelmetall-Gesellschaft. It will be conducted in English and moderated by DEG's Peter Boehringer. Food and drink will be available. You can learn more about the conference at GoldMoney's Internet site here: http://www.goldmoney.com/munich-2011-april-29.html CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture: Company Press Release, January 18, 2011 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy. PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding. Following the transaction: -- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC. -- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis. -- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp. -- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings. Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000. For the complete announcement, please visit: http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon: Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16 ADVERTISEMENT Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit, Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property Company Press Release, October 27, 2010 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include: -- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres. -- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres. -- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre. Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface. "The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest." For the company's full press release, please visit: http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 12:41 PM PDT
While it will not come as a major surprise to most, according to senior BOE individuals and Wikileaks, Iran, as well as Qatar and Jordan have been actively purchasing gold well over the amount reported to and by the IMF, in an accelerated attempt to diversify their holdings away from the US dollar. "Iran has bought large amounts of gold in the international market, according to a senior Bank of England official, in a sign of how growing political pressure has driven Tehran to reduce its exposure to the US dollar. Andrew Bailey, head of banking at the Bank of England, told an American official that the central bank had observed “significant moves by Iran to purchase gold”, according to a US diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks and seen by the Financial Times." The reason for Tehran's scramble into gold: "an attempt by Iran to protect its reserves from risk of seizure”. The misrepresentation of Iran's holdings could be so vast that Iran could possibly be one of the largest holders of goldin the world. "Market observers believe Tehran has been one of the biggest buyers of bullion over the past decade after China, Russia and India, and is among the 20 largest holders of gold reserves... with an alleged 300 tons, big enough to challenge the UK at 310 tons, and more than Spain! " As a reminder according to the WGC, Iran is not even disclosed as an official holder of gold. Also, Iran is not the only one: "Cables obtained by WikiLeaks cite Jordan’s prime minister as saying the central bank was “instructed to increase its holdings” of gold, and a Qatar Investment Authority official as saying the QIA was interested in buying gold and silver." Which means that there is far more marginal demand by countries supposedly friendly to the dollar, as many more than previously expected are actively dumping linen and buying bullion. What all this means for the future price of gold, especially with geopolitical tension in the region, and QE3 imminent, is rather self-evident. From the FT:
Ummm, according to the WGC the UK (thank you Gordon Brown) has 310 tons of gold... Iran has the same amount of gold in storage as the (formerly) biggest colonial power in the history of the world. And this is not breaking news?
Secret undisclosed purchases of physical gold... What next: secret undisclosed selling of paper gold by such unusual suspects as JPM? Unpossible.
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| Japanese Yen: G7 Intervention vs Laissez-faire Posted: 20 Mar 2011 12:31 PM PDT
By Dian L. Chu, EconMatters 
A Strong Yen – Bad News Japan
And the two charts (above and below) from Financial Times illustrates that efforts from the ‘G7 joint task force’ sent yen tumbling to around Y81, along with a calmer global equity markets. 
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 12:00 PM PDT Fearing inflation, Utahns turning to gold, silver Share this:
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| COMEX Other Reportable Traders Net Short Gold Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:54 AM PDT One class of traders net short gold for first time in our records. HOUSTON – On this "off weekend" for the Got Gold Report, we have spent much of the time studying the news, data, charts, ratios getting ready for the upcoming trading week. We have also been preparing full-sized linkable charts of all of our Vulture Bargain companies (for subscribers). We are pleased to report that all of the linkable charts (18 of them to start) have been posted to the password-protected subscriber pages. Just below is a sample of what one of the charts looks like. ...
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| Goldman's FX Recommendation Recap In A Post BOJ-Intervention World Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:46 AM PDT
Some required reading for all FX traders, as Goldman's Thomas Stolper breaks down his team's view on where the USDJPY is headed (no surprise there - can't stray from the party line), and summarizes his latest outlook on the EURUSD, which as we noted previously, is now expected to rise as high as 1.50 shortly. The poor dollar remains the most hated currency in the world... just as the chaircreature ordered. From Goldman Sachs 1. G7 intervention in the JPY: Immediately after last week’s earthquake in Japan we warned about a possible increase in volatility, which in turn could push the JPY to new record levels. We also highlighted that in such a scenario the likelihood of intervention would be high. The events pretty much followed this script. During the most illiquid FX markets last Wednesday night after the NY close and before the Asia open $/JPY dropped to new record lows below 79.75, which then triggered stops and option barriers all the way to sub 77 levels. Strong verbal intervention by the Japanese authorities followed on Thursday and was ultimately backed by coordinated G7 intervention Friday. $/JPY closed about 1.5% below the pre-quake level and 6.5% higher than the new record lows marked on Wednesday night.
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| Beinki's Silver Liberation Army Sees Action Posted: 20 Mar 2011 09:33 AM PDT Stacy Summary: Stay tuned for the hardcore frontline action in the last few seconds . . . Share this:
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 08:50 AM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... March 20, 2011 12:19 PM Hi Jim, Needless to say, in addition to the huge toll in human suffering, the economic impact of the disaster in Japan is catastrophic and widespread. It seems that Mother Nature is creating as much havoc and destruction as the derivative manufacturers. Makes you wonder if there's going to be anything left of civilization in another ten years! Best regards, CIGA Cavedweller Economic hit from Japan quake seen up to $200 billion By Leika Kihara Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:22pm EDT TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s devastating earthquake and deepening nuclear crisis could result in losses of up to $200 billion for the world’s third largest economy but the global impact remains hard to gauge five days after a massive tsunami battered the northeast coast. As Japanese officials scrambled to avert a catastrophic meltdown at a nuclear plant 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Tokyo, economists took st...
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| When Theory and Real Life Collide–Thoughts On The Yen Posted: 20 Mar 2011 08:26 AM PDT For further market analysis and commentary, please see Trader Dan's website at www.traderdan.net Dear CIGAs, In response to some private emails as well as a couple of comments from my recent articles on the Yen intervention, I thought it worthwhile to deal with what I believe is a clash between theory and the real world. What I am referring to are articles written by two men, both of whom I greatly respect, who argue that the Yen should be permitted to rally instead of being undercut by a coordinated G7 intervention effort. The claim is that a strengthening Yen would be beneficial to the Japanese since they are going to require massive amounts of raw materials with which to rebuild their battered nation. This strength would outweigh any competitive advantage gained through a weakening of the Yen which would aid the heavily export-dependent Japanese economy or so they claim. Let me first of all state that I believe that a nation's long term economic strength can only be maintained if it possesses a strong currency. The idea of deliberately short-circuiting one's own currency in an attempt to ramp up exports is harmful in the longer term as it tends to increase the price of all imported goods coming into that nation and as such is normally inflationary, all things being equal. That eventually works to undercut the quality of life in that nation and weakens it in the long run. That being said, the real world functions not on theory but on practice. We do not yet live in a perfect world, where every nation lets its currency move to a natural rate of equilibrium. Instead of we have nations such as China which work to keep their currency artificially lower than would be the case where it left to float freely. We have the US engaging in Quantitative Easing so that it can weaken its own currency and thus perform an ipso facto default on the massive amount of debt it now owes. We have Brazil intervening in the currency markets regularly attemping to undercut the strength in the Real to aid them in retaining their share of the export markets. We have South Korea doing the same in regards to their Won, and thus the list goes on and on. In such a fictitious world, one could make the argument that the Japanese Yen should be allowed to strengthen to aid Japan in its rebuilding efforts by making the cost of raw materials much cheaper. The reality however is that Japan must deal with the world as it now is, and not as we would like to see it. This is the reason that I must dismiss the idea that the Japanese should stand idly by and allow a massive unwinding of a leveraged carry trade take their currency to levels that would crush their export markets and render them unable to compete. Let's begin therefore by admitting that I am complete agreement with those who claim that the Yen should be allowed to strengthen on this one condition – That the events of the last week had occured back in 2007 or 2008 when the Yen was at a significantly LOWER level on the crosses than it was this past week. Please examine the long term chart of the Yen that I posted earlier here on my site (I am once again posting it here for your convenience). If you are to come away with only one point in this discussion, let it be this: THE JAPANESE YEN IS AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL AGAINST THE US DOLLAR IN MORE THAN 35 YEARS. It might be an even longer period; I simply do not have the chart data going back beyond the early 1970′s. My answer to those who insist that the Yen should be allowed to further strengthen, no matter what that will do to Japan's export-related industries, is that their argument has ALREADY taken effect. The YEN is not a weak currency under any method of looking at it when it is compared to the US Dollar. How could it be stated that the Japanese monetary authorities should let it rise even further and turn a blind eye to the actions of a runamok speculative short squeeze? If you note the chart carefully, you can see that since the Yen carry trade began being unwound in mid 2008, the Yen has increased in value against the Dollar by nearly 40%! That is an astonishing rate of increase.
Now consider the following – The Dollar is still the world's reserve currency and as such most commodities are generally priced on the global market in terms of US Dollars. In effect that means if commodity prices had remained flat and gone nowhere in price since the fall of 2008, the Japanese would be able to purchase 40% more cotton, corn, copper, wheat, etc today for the same amount of Yen than they had been able to buy back in 2008. Here is exactly what those who are advocating for a stronger Yen are arguing. The problem however for Japan is that the same goods that the Japanese are attempting to sell to the US consumer market have now increased 40% if prices were to have remained at the same level that they were back in 2008. That puts the Japanese at a serious competitive disadvantage when dealing with other nations looking to sell their products to the US. Consider also that while China has loosened its currency band to the point where the yuan has been able to strengthen some against the Dollar, it still maintains a sort of quasi-peg to the Dollar meaning that this gives Chinese manufacturers a decided advantage against Japanese exporters for US market share. I realize that there are other nations and blocks out there such as the EU and the rising Latin American economies, but for the sake of simplicity I am only dealing with the China/Japan/US relation. Given this current level of the Yen therefore, and the loss of Japanese export competitiveness with China, I do not understand how some can assert that the Yen should be allowed to strengthen even further from current levels, especially given the fact that the Yen strength is not due to normal reasons but is instead the product of a speculative unwind of leveraged trades and in that case is abnormal. Now let's take a look at a chart that many of you are now familiar with as I have been referring to it quite often over the last few years, namely the Continuous Commodity Index or CCI. Note the massive selloff in the CCI after it peaked in mid 2008 as the credit crisis erupted and the carry trade was unwound. That move towards risk aversion resulted in wholesale selling of commodities across the board.
As you can see the plunge in commodity prices did not stop until the Federal Reserve announced that it would soon commence a program known as Quantitative Easing. That had the immediate effect of launching a multi-year rally in commodity prices which took the index past the all time peak it had previously reached in the summer of 2008. As of the close of trading this Friday, March 18, the CCI is currently 7.8% higher than its peak of 2008. It is apparent that the Fed's efforts at staving off deflationary pressures has indeed been successful if you call a soaring of food prices and metal and energy prices "successful". Now let's take a look at this same exact index although this time around let's view it through the prism of the Japanese Yen. In other words, we are going to adjust the chart to see the performance of the commodity sector when priced in terms of the Japanese Yen. Keep in mind that this speaks directly to the point of the fact that world commodity prices are quoted in terms of the US Dollar because it is the global reserve currency.
As you can see this chart looks vastly dissimiliar to the CCI chart above. While Dollar priced commodities are trading 7.8% higher than their peak level in 2008, Yen priced commodities are currently trading at a DISCOUNT of 18% to that same peak. In other words, because of the strength in the Yen, the Japanese economy has been somewhat inoculated from the soaring cost of commodities worldwide. They are actually buying commodities at a discount to what they were paying for them in 2008 even though the entire sector has been soaring into new highs ever since the Fed began its QE policies. I point this out to say that the Yen is already trading at levels which are high enough to allow it purchase all the commodities it needs without having to suffer an inflationary impact on its own population. Furthering strengthening of the Yen would of course bring prices for commodities down even further if nothing else changed but any gains from that would be more than offset by a further weakening of the competitiveness of the Japanse exporters. I would argue that the Japanese authorities could actually allow the Yen to weaken from its current levels without affecting them excessively when it comes to purchasing the raw materials and foods required for the rebuilding process. Many nations across the Pacific Rim are grappling with huge inflationary problems; Japan is not and that is mainly because its yen is already so overvalued. What Japan is going to require more than anything right now is growth in its economy. If that segment of their economy which is so vital, namely their export related segment, is to remain competitive on the global markets, the Yen is too richly valued in my view to permit this. It will need to weaken to give their manufacturers a fighting chance agains the Dragon China and some of the other powerhouses of the region. There is plenty of room for the Yen to weaken and come down in value without feeding into the inflationary type spiral that one normally sees in a country whose currency is moving lower. If those who are advocating for a rising Yen had made this argument back in 2007 or even in early 2008, I would be squarely on their side. The fact that the Yen has risen 40% and higher since then makes their argument unconvincing especially in light of the current facts. One last thing, a move by China to let the Yuan seeks its own level, free of any attempts to check its rise, would also work to help Japanese competitiveness not only with direct trade between those two nations but between Japan and the US. Such an event might make this entire discussion whether or not it was appropriate to intervene on the behalf of the surging Yen moot.
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 08:19 AM PDT Hi Jim, Needless to say, in addition to the huge toll in human suffering, the economic impact of the disaster in Japan is catastrophic and widespread. It seems that Mother Nature is creating as much havoc and destruction as the derivative manufacturers. Makes you wonder if there's going to be anything left of civilization in another ten years! Best regards, Economic hit from Japan quake seen up to $200 billion TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's devastating earthquake and deepening nuclear crisis could result in losses of up to $200 billion for the world's third largest economy but the global impact remains hard to gauge five days after a massive tsunami battered the northeast coast. As Japanese officials scrambled to avert a catastrophic meltdown at a nuclear plant 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Tokyo, economists took stock of the damage to buildings, production and consumer activity. The disaster is expected to hit Japanese output sharply over the coming months, but economists warned it could result in a deeper slowdown if power shortages prove significant and prolonged, delaying or even scotching the "v-shaped" recovery that followed the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Most believe the direct economic hit will total between 10-16 trillion yen ($125-$200 billion), resulting in a contraction in second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) but a sharp rebound in the latter half of 2011 as reconstruction investment boosts growth. "The economic cost of the disaster will be large," economists at JP Morgan said. "There has been substantial loss to economic resources, and economic activity will be impeded by infrastructure damages (like power outages) in the weeks or months ahead." AIG Says Catastrophes to Cost Insurer $1 Billion in Quarter American International Group Inc. (AIG), the insurer bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, said first-quarter catastrophes including the earthquake in Japan will cost the company about $1 billion. The Japan quake is responsible for about $700 million of the sum, the New York-based insurer said yesterday in a statement. The total also includes claims from a temblor in New Zealand, floods in Australia and winter storms in the U.S. It excludes losses from participation in the Japanese Earthquake Reinsurance Co. which handles policies on residential dwellings. AIG is increasingly reliant on property-casualty operations after selling its biggest non-U.S. life businesses to help repay a $182.3 billion bailout. The company is adding to investments in Japan with the planned purchase of the 45 percent of Fuji Fire & Marine Insurance Co. that it doesn't already own. "Our preliminary loss estimate will change as the industry losses from JERC for earthquake damage to personal dwellings become known," Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said in the statement.
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 07:30 AM PDT To say that financial markets have experienced a bit of turmoil since my last public piece back in late February would be an understatement. Middle East revolts as well as a devastating natural disaster have kept traders' heads spinning. Read More...
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| The Contrarian View 21st-25th March Posted: 20 Mar 2011 06:27 AM PDT
#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">So why bother with a contrarian outlook? Click me to get some background on these reports This weeks COT Index Review
S&P 500: In last weeks report we talked about the strengthening bearish set up developing with the S&P COT. In the most recent COT release the positioning in this setup has strengthened further. The Commercial reading is now 8.56, only 8 points away from a 0 reading which would mean that commercial positioning is very close to the weakest it has been in over 6 months. However this is only one side of the coin, Large trader readings are very bullish reading 100.00 the highest reading in 6 months. This Divergence presents a strong short bias setup, (Commercial traders lead this COT Report.) Bias: Very Bearish
EURUSD: Although weakening slightly from last weeks positioning C#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">OT positioning in the EURUSD remains strong on the long side with the Large traders acting as the leading group with a reading of 85.13, Commercial traders on the opposite end of the scale reading 8.62 (Large traders lead this COT report) Bias: Bullish
GBPUSD: Although still neutral in terms of the overall readings large traders have made a dramatic shift in positioning from a bullish 72 to a much more bearish 20.85. Commercial traders have made a similar switch. Whilst overall we are still neutral GBPUSD see#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">ms to be deve#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">loping a bearish set up. (Large traders lead this COT report) Bias: Neutral
USDJPY: The COT report for USDJPY is not yet able to reflect the effects of the earthquake and nuclear fears in Japan. Next weeks report will be the one to watch to see the effects of these events on this pair. At present we are seeing bearish positioning however only a few po#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">ints are required to tip USDJPY into the neutral zone. (Large traders lead this COT report) Bias: Bearish
GOLD: After a week or 2 of neutral positioning, Gold traders are now showing us their hand. We’re seeing large traders push to a weaker level in the COT Index with Commercials increasing their positioning strength. By no means is this strong bearish positioning, but the bears do seem to be gathering pace. What’s interesting to note is that S&P positioning has also become bearsh (La#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">rge trader lead this COT report) Bias: Bearish
CRUDE OIL: Crude Oil positioning remains very much close to extremes with a bullish fundamental outlook, the only way to calm this bullishness would be some calm in the Middle East, this doesn’t seem to be on the cards anytime soon. (Large traders lead this COT report) Bias: Bullish FX Retail Trader Position Analysis This report describes a contrarian view on current retail trade#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; ">r positioning in FX Click me to get some background on these reports
USDJPY: 74.64% of retail traders remain long USDJPY, we have seen over the last year how incorrect this positioning has been. The recent events in Japan have really#222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; "> throw things up in the air, with the BOJ and other central banks intervening last week to increase the money supply. Based upon retail positioning we maintain our bearish bias but this is a pair that will have continuing volatility in the weeks ahead. Bias: Bearish
EURUSD: This week we saw EURUSD retail positioning reach a one year high of 69.33% shorts, this is the strongest short positioning we have seen in the Euro in a long while. What’s interesting to note is that it is happening as EURUSD reaches 5 month highs. Bias: Strong Bullish
GBPUSD: Contrary to what we are seeing in the COT report for the GBPUSD which was neutral/slightly bearish. We are seeing more decisive direction in the retail trader positioning report, with 63.73% of traders short our bias right now is very much to the long side. Bias: Bullish Provided by Pivotfarm via the Technical Analysis blog
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 06:04 AM PDT An interesting thing happened last week, garnering no coverage in the face of a global meltdown, literally and figuratively. Nike reported horrible earnings. A rare miss by the industry all star ... Read More...
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| Posted: 20 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PDT Silver .999 Pure, Max Keiser – High Demand MK: Silver Keisers will not only kill fiat fantasies but will also kill Zynga. Zynga is a bigger threat to the U.S. economy (and global economy) than the Fed. We shut down Cantor Exchange now we must shut down Zynga. Share this:
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