By Ted Butler

A number of different factors have converged, creating what could be a lift-off point for the price of silver (and gold). This confluence of readily verifiable factors shows the silver market to be in a low risk and high reward situation. The factors involve both the paper and physical silver markets. The only question, as always, is if the manipulators, led by JPMorgan and protected by the CFTC, can thwart the set up once prices rally.

The structure in the paper markets, as defined by the CFTC’s latest Commitment of Traders (COT) and Bank Participation Reports, as well as the year-end OTC Derivatives Report by The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are extremely bullish on any objective historical basis. This means that the commercials, as a whole, have a greatly reduced total net short silver position after the recent engineered sharp sell-off. Normally, when the commercials have

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Anatomy of a panic? The collapse of Morgan Stanley

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/11/25/18667/anatomy-of-a-panic-the-collapse-of-morgan-stanley/

Anatomy of a panic? The collapse of Morgan Stanley

From the WSJ:

It turns out that some of the biggest names on Wall Street — Merrill Lynch & Co., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank and UBS AG — were placing large bets against Morgan Stanley, the records indicate. They did so using complicated financial instruments called credit-default swaps, a form of insurance against losses on loans and bonds…

…during those tumultuous few days in mid-September, the swaps market turned on Morgan Stanley like a financial Frankenstein.

Disclaimer: No evidence has emerged publicly that any firm trading in Morgan Stanley stock or credit-default swaps did anything wrong. Most of the firms say they purchased the credit-default swaps simply to protect themselves against potential losses on various types of business they were doing with Morgan Stanley.

Indeed it would be madness for Merrill, Citigroup, DB et al to actually

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Paulson & Co.PositionsJohn Paulson Hedge Fund PositionsThe following piece on Highbridge Capital Management LLC (co-founder Henry Swieca pictured left) is being published as part of our daily effort to track hedge fund events in the industry. To review other hedge fund related announcements please see our Hedge Fund Tracker Tool.One hedge fund we're seeing some short positions from is John Paulson's Paulson & Co. Paulson is famous for the fortune he made by betting against subprime at the beginning of the crisis. And, now, it looks as if he's ready to turn his focus to some UK financials. Taken from StreetInsider, we get a solid breakdown of what Paulson is shorting: "Paulson & Co. yesterday disclosed ...