As you know Nick Laird of goldchartsrus.com tracks and charts quite a few of the more interesting aspects of the precious metals markets.
One thing he does track is the amount of gold and silver held in funds and trusts that publicly disclose the amount of bullion that they are holding.
Nick calls this 'transparent' holdings, which some have rightly contended that they are not all that transparent, because you are taking them at their unaudited word. Comex, for example, releases its bullion numbers with a strong disclosure as to their accuracy.
And as we have seen in some unfortunate circumstances, even allocated bullion can be subject to multiple, competing claims.
So I am calling this the 'published' holdings. For that is what they are.
And they have been rising sharply, led initially by gold but with some recent activity by silver.
