"He who sells what isn't his'n, must buy it back or go to prison."Daniel Drew
Daniel Drew's famous maxim about naked short selling appears quaint now in these days of no fault market rigging, at least for the well-connected insiders and the too big to fail institutions.
For platinum and palladium Nick at Sharelynx.com spreads the open interest over all the stocks, and not with a split between 'eligible' and 'deliverable' as in the case of gold and silver, in case you were wondering.
Although paper claims vs. deliverable gold is by far the highest at 94:1, the trend recently on the Comex has been for more paper trading and less bullion available to cover at current prices. Silver is at about 16:1, palladium at 26:1, and platinum at 31:1.
This creates a condition of potential volatility at the Comex, although I do not think that a 'default' is on the table, but perhaps a short squeeze, that could be dramatic given a certain set of global events.
And of course, no one could have ever seen anything like this coming.
