Interesting read. Ted Butler is saying that all of the big long contract holders of silver have been intentionally squeezed out.

COT Extremes

By: Theodore Butler

– Posted 2 December, 2008

It’s been a while since I have commented in detail about the Commitment of Traders Report (COT), since there have been other issues to be discussed. Plus, I know many find the topic confusing. However, there have been some recent developments that should be reviewed.

Long-time readers know that I have studied and written about the COTs for years. I find the report invaluable. This weekly report from the CFTC tells us who has been buying or selling in all U.S. futures and options on futures. The reports don’t tell us the “who” by name, but offer three broad trader categories - large commercial, large non-commercial, and non-reportable. The two large categories must report their positions to the CFTC on essentially a daily basis,

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Like many people, I have been looking at the price disparity between the market prices of gold and silver bullion (averaging about $1,000 an ounce for gold and $16.50 an ounce for silver) versus the prices of gold and silver futures (about $730 and $8.90 respectively).

I am thinking to myself that I would love to get a piece of that luscious arbitrage action where I buy the gold and/or silver futures at a low price while simultaneously selling the same gold and/or silver bullion at a higher price, telling the buyers that they must pay in advance and then wait up to a few months for me deliver their gold and silver, pocketing a hell of a lot of money on the buy-sell spread and the interest the money earns until the futures contract matures so that I can take delivery and settle up, and then spend the rest of

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The top for the gold price, in early morning Far East trading on Tuesday, was shortly after midnight last night…Eastern time…which is lunch time in Hong Kong. From there, it followed its usual path from upper left to lower right…with the low being at the close of regular business on the Comex in New York yesterday.

Silver was an entirely different animal, with a mind all its own. It took off right from the Globex open in the Far East on Tuesday. Its top was in at the Hong Kong open…which is 8:30 a.m. over there. Then, it too, was taken down…particularly at the Comex open. But then it rallied smartly, and the price had to be restrained a couple of times, as it went either parabolic…or vertical…on more than one occasion. However, it was not allowed to close on its highs. Volume was mediocre in both metals yesterday…but a little

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You are an investor in physical metal and like Marty of “Back to the Future II” you have stumbled into a nightmare world of $10.00 and whatever cents silver (you may have bought back when it was $15-$20 and thought you were doing well) wondering how can you change this distorted world to a peaceful “Hill valley” of the movie and a reality of honest pricing.

Biff / Griff Tannen aka the SEC/CFTC (Securities exchange commission and Commodity Futures Trade Commission) should look like this picture of a nice old chap that cleans your car and keeps the house in order. Not unreasonable given its position of watchdog to the markets.

Instead its accusers of late charge it with sitting in a Jacuzzi laughing at all of us who have invested in

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Before sending me an e-mail telling me I am wrong, let me admit it!! I am WRONG -- silver is not the only asset that is not someone else's liability. But some of the staunchest "Gold Bugs" have it wrong and insist that gold is the only asset. In fact, fully-owned lumber or land or even an apple orchard are assets, and again, if owned outright would be an asset without a liability. Before moving on, I must digress and point out that silver is the ONLY asset that reflects light better than any other element the ONLY asset that conducts heat better than any other element the ONE asset, more than even gold, used as money -- for longer periods of time and by more people throughout world history The real rub is how silver will do in times of financial stress. Certainly we can look to history ...

Is gold demand soaring or plunging?

Submitted by cpowell on 12:39PM ET Tuesday, August 19, 2008. Section: Daily Dispatches 3:30p ET Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Richard Smith, proprietor of Coin and Stamp Gallery Inc. in Phoenix and its Internet site, Only Gold, has written an essay purporting to dispute GATA’s interpretation of the U.S. Mint’s suspension of sales of gold eagle coins. GATA construed this as more evidence that the futures price of gold on the commodities exchanges does not represent the price of the real metal. (See http://www.gata.org/node/6489.) Smith’s response is headlined “Remember GATA? Another Gold Conspiracy Unveiled,” and you can find it here:

http://www.onlygold.com/ArchivesPages/HomePageArticleFound.asp

But even Smith observes that the Mint cannot keep up with demand for gold eagles, even as the futures price of gold has been plunging, which ordinarily would indicate a collapse in demand. In any case, GATA’s complaint, to which Smith objects, was

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