Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - JP Morgan Metals Desk a 'Criminal Enterprise' - FOMC This Wednesday

"U.S. prosecutors took an unusually aggressive turn in their investigation of price fixing at JPMorgan Chase & Co., describing its precious metals trading desk as a criminal enterprise operating inside the bank for nearly a decade.

The prosecutors charged the head of JPMorgan’s global precious metals trading operation and two others on Monday, accusing them of “conspiracy to conduct the affairs of an enterprise involved in interstate or foreign commerce through a pattern of racketeering activity.”

Tom Schoenberg and David Voreacos, JPMorgan’s Metals Desk Was a Criminal Enterprise


"From the very beginning of the year to the last two days of 2013, JPMorgan has dominated and controlled the price of silver and gold.

JPMorgan’s short market corners at the start of 2013 amounted to a 21% net share of the entire COMEX gold futures market (minus spreads) and an astounding (but typical) 35% of the entire COMEX silver market.  No single entity had ever held such outsized and anti-competitive shares of any important regulated futures market.  It is unreasonable not to associate such extreme market corners with what followed in price."

Ted Butler, 3 January 2014


"Holder doubtless seriously believed at first that in a time of financial crisis, he was doing the right thing in constructing new forms of justice for banks, where nobody but the shareholders actually had to pay for crime.  You've heard of victimless crimes; Holder created the victimless punishment.

But in the end, it was pretty convenient, wasn't it, that 'the right thing' also happened to be the strategy that preserved Democratic Party relationships with big-dollar donors, kept the client base at Holder's old firm nice and fat, made the influential rich immeasurably richer and allowed Eric Holder himself to crash-land into a giant pile of money upon resignation.  What a coincidence!"

Matt Taibbi, Eric Holder, Wall Street Double Agent


"Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne
und die trägt er im Gesicht
und Macheath, der hat ein Messer
doch das Messer sieht man nicht."

Berthold Brecht, Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, 1928

Today was more 'risk off' than the major stock indices might have demonstrated.

Both the Dollar the the precious metals rose.

Oil was substantially higher on the attack on the Saudi oil fields that is being blamed on the Yemen Houthi, and by association and supply of weapons, Iran.

The US announced that three traders at JPM were being charged with criminal manipulation of the precious metals markets.

Indeed, the prosecutors used racketeering and criminal enterprise language that suggested the possible application of RICO statute to the Bank.

Let's see if anything genuine comes of this. It has not done so in the past.

And the usual stiffs and hacks will say that this is just a few traders gaming some deals. Nothing to see here. Move along. We like things the way they are.

After all we have seen in so many markets, how anyone can just dismiss this as just a few bad apples seems to be almost incredible.  

They have no good judgement and no shame.  They have blinded themselves with their egos, their greed, and the love of the familiar favor of corruption.  It is best to see things as they are and judge accordingly.

It is important to note that this criminal activity occurred over a long period of time, during the Obama Administration.

Eric Holder and Gary Gensler had an awful, chronically negligent, and inexcusable track record of upholding the law when it came to the Banks, and with their friends and donors on Wall Street.

The Fed, that other chronically negligent and shockingly conflicted and compromised regulatory body will announce their rate decision on Wednesday. The Fed is expected to cut 25 bps.

We will see the September stock market option expiration on Friday.

The revelations are just beginning. There is so much more.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silver Takes the 19 Handle - Markets On Edge Before Payrolls and Powell

The Gathering Tweetstorm

"U.S. factory activity unexpectedly contracted in August for the first time in three years as shrinking orders, production and hiring pushed a widely followed measure of manufacturing to its lowest level since January 2016. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index fell to 49.1 in August, weaker than all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists, data released Tuesday showed.

Figures below 50 signal the manufacturing economy is generally contracting. The group’s gauge of new orders dropped to a more than seven-year low, while the production index shrank to the weakest level since the end of 2015. Faltering manufacturing could complicate President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign as recent data undermines one of his signature promises for a strong economy.

Stocks extended declines and the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell sharply Tuesday after the data was released. The dollar weakened."

Bloomberg, U.S. Manufacturing Contracts for First Time in Three Years


“Because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself, they have first this privilege, that the value of them cannot be altered by the power of one, nor of a few commonwealths, as being a common measure of the commodities of all places. But base money may easily be enhanced or abased.”

Thomas Hobbes

Gold and silver are the antithesis of the primacy of the power of the state to arbitrarily and sustainably mandate value and create wealth as it wishes at will.

Anyone who has personally witnessed the collapse of artificially managed maintained exchange rates into black markets knows this.

Tariffs and a marathon tweetstorm had US equities reeling a bit over the weekend.

Even an effort to turn it around during the quiet futures overnight trading hours couldn't help, and so stocks finished lower after the three day weekend.

The Manufacturing ISM missed this morning, and at 49.1 actually showed a slight contraction.

Risk off was the big story, with the Dollar and Gold higher.

But the real mover and shaker was once again silver, which took out the $19 handle in the morning with some authority, and then held it during the afternoon and into the close.

Wow.

Jay Powell will be speaking in Zurich near the end of the week.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday, which may play backup to Fed Chair Powell's remarks.

It is fairly obvious that a market crash and a recession would have seriously negative effect on Trumpolini's 2020 election ambitions.

Let's see how the bulls respond to this. And who may decide to give them a helping hand.

And oh by the way, Insiders Are Selling Stock Like It's 2007

Have a pleasant evening.

COMEX Silver 'Owners Per Ounce' and the Great JPM Silver Hoard

The 'owners per ounce' for silver is trending a bit higher, thanks to the enormous open interest.

 

The most impressive hoard accumulated in recent times is the silver bullion held in the JP Morgan warehouse for 'someone.'

CNT is the big dealer in silver, using the COMEX warehouses to stage is silver wholesale business to the US government mint among others. 

 

Look at the mass of registered (deliverable) silver which they hold.  They are almost an anomaly in the paper markets of New York.  And it is CNT that is boosting the deliverable silver that keeps the 'owners per ounce' down in the face of the increasing open interest.

Ted Butler: J. P. Morgan And Precious Metal Price Manipulation On the Comex

I am no legal expert, and therefore have no idea of the merits of this as a prospective case.  The law involves things like intent, opportunity, evidentiary proof, and so forth. Apparently one can sue another entity for just about anything, but that does not mean that the case has any merit.   And I certainly could not advance such a case based on even industry knowledge. That strikes to the heart of my own issue.

My primary concern is a lack of transparency. And that lack of transparency in these markets is not conducive to market efficiency.  It allows for gaming the system, either occasionally or, as we have seen, systematically.

I cannot tell if these markets are manipulated because so much of what is being done is hidden.  And it does not help that the CFTC conducted a five year long study into the subject, and then quietly killed it without ever having issued any information about their findings.

Some have shown evidence they say that proves that it is the tech funds that set price, and that JPM is just 'making a market.' If this is true, then additional transparency on the part of JPM and the other market makers would be perfectly reasonable to allay any doubts about the honesty and fairness of the markets for precious metals.  This is why the people have established, and paid for, regulators.  So they do not have to resort to lawsuits in order to achieve justice and equity in their transactions.

Considering the widespread rigging of key benchmarks and prices, I think to just dismiss these concerns with a sneer and a snigger is unreasonable, requiring people to maintain an almost slavish belief in the integrity of the Banks, trading desks, and the system.  Given the amount of abuse that has been exposed already along these same lines, that does not seem to be a thing that a thinking person would ask.

The major objection to transparency, by the way, is that it would diminish the profits of those in the position of market makers.  Well, market making is intended to be a utility function, with a small but regular return.  It is not appropriate for market making to be in the hands of those who are also major market players.  It is a certain invitation to corruption.

One of the more general things that struck home in this commentary by Ted is the concern that the Comex is becoming like a bucket shop, a betting parlor that is at arms length from the markets for which they are presumably setting prices.   The lack of delivery and the ability to create large amounts of contracts to receive or deliver on the fly, and then to transact them at whatever price you wish without seeming constraint if you are big enough, with deep enough pockets and enough advantageous information, is tantamount to setting up a con game, and then trusting in men to be angels.

Relying on self-regulation, under the discipline of private lawsuits, merely reinforces our increasingly bifurcated society, in which a small minority have ease and rights and freedom and even justice, because they can afford it.  And those many who rely on the justice provided by government will be faced with an upward facing and unresponsive bureaucracy, and with that, hard times.  Like quality Healthcare, there will be Justice, for some.

As you know I am no longer hopeful of change in the short term, given the nature of the credibility trap that has encompassed the political party process and the mainstream media. To paraphrase the discouragement pessimism of Czech author and political figure Václav Havel:

“No attempt at reform could ever hope to set up even a minimum of resonance in the rest of society, because that society is ‘soporific,’ submerged in a consumer rat race... Even if reform were possible, however, it would remain the solitary gesture of a few isolated individuals, and they would be opposed not only by a gigantic apparatus of national (and supranational) power, but also by the very society in whose name they were mounting their reform in the first place.”

It is no accident that the nascent movements for financial reform were either ruthlessly crushed, as in the case of the almost rudderless Occupy Wall Street, or co-opted by money and politics, as unfortunately happened with the Tea Party. Co-opt if you can, crush if you must.

Ted presents some of the facts in the contrary case, and I found them to be interesting.  It is hard to believe that the London Fix is so corrupt, but the Comex, which is the major pricing platform, is pristine, since the players are playing across all global markets.

Suing JPMorgan and the COMEX
Theodore Butler|
March 21, 2014

I’ve had some recent conversations with attorneys who were considering class-action lawsuits regarding a gold price manipulation stemming from reports about the London Gold Fix. I told them that while there is no doubt that gold and, particularly, silver are manipulated in price, I didn’t see how the manipulation stemmed from the London Fix. I wished them well and hoped that they may prevail (the enemy of my enemy is my friend), because you never know – if the lawyers dig deep enough they might find the real source of the gold and silver manipulation, namely, the COMEX (owned by the CME Group) and JPMorgan.

So I thought it might be constructive to lay out what I thought a successful lawsuit might look like, although I’m speaking as a precious metals analyst and not as a lawyer. I’ll try to put the whole thing into proper perspective, including the premise and scope of the manipulation as well as the parties involved...

Read the entire article for free here.

Margin Call: Ted Butler Wonders About the Real Cause of Bear Stearns' Collapse

Ted Butler has put one of his newsletters into the public domain.

It raises some interesting points.  As you may recall Bear was suffering losses in a number of financial instruments at the time.  But there has not been serious discussion about their precious metal positions.

At the time of the MF Global collapse it appeared that JPM had their fingerprints all over the squeeze and margin call that put them down.   JPM, In the City of London, With a Margin Call.

But I had never thought about it happening in the case of Bear Stearns.

Goldman may be the vampire squid, but JPM may be Mack the Knife.

And is MF Global Jenny Towler, and Bear Stearns Schmul Meier?   And if so, who then is Tiger Brown?

Mackie, what price did you pay?

Times may change, but the song remains the same.

What Really Happened To Bear Stearns?
By Theodore Butler
February 17, 2014

Six years ago the well-known investment bank Bear Stearns imploded. In February 2008, Bear Stearns stock traded as high as $93; by mid-March the insolvent company agreed to be taken over by JPMorgan for $2 a share (later raised to $10 after class-action lawsuits). In the annals of Wall Street, there was hardly a more sudden demise than the fall of Bear Stearns. The cause was said to be a run on the bank as nervous investors pulled assets from the firm. Bear Stearns was said to be levered by 35 times, meaning it had equity of $11 billion and total assets of $395 billion. This is a very small cushion if something negative suddenly appears.

Something negative did hit Bear Stearns in the first quarter of 2008; although there are remarkably few details of what went wrong. Since Bear had a significant presence in sub-prime mortgages and that market was in distress, it is assumed the fall of the firm was mortgage related. That may be true, but there was no general stress in the stock market through mid-March 2008 reflecting a credit crisis. Was there instead some specific trigger behind the company’s sudden collapse?

I believe that sudden and massive losses and margin calls of more than $2.5 billion on tens of thousands of short COMEX gold and silver contracts were the specific triggers that killed Bear Stearns. Let’s face it – Bear was so leveraged that a sudden demand of more than $2.5 billion in immediate payment for any reason could have put them under. Bear Stearns’ excessive gold and silver shorts on the COMEX are the most plausible reason for the sudden demise.

Bear Stearns did fail and due to a sudden cash crunch was acquired by JPMorgan for a fraction of what it was worth two months earlier. Bear Stearns was the largest short in COMEX gold and silver at the time. The day of Bear Stearns’ demise coincides precisely with the day of the historic high price points in gold and silver. That is also the same day the biggest COMEX gold and silver short would experience maximum loss and a cumulative demand for upwards of $2.5 billion in cash deposits for margin. It was no coincidence the music stopped for Bear Stearns that same day...

Read the entire article here.

How the Gold Market Was Crashed - But Most Importantly, Why? Leveraged Default? And Silver?

Many are still sorting through the data to try and figure out what happened, but it is hard to look at the available data and the market action and conclude that the recent 'flash crash' in gold was anything but a calculated takedown.

Some big players had been trying to work the market price of bullion down in stair step fashion for some time.  Their tracks on the tape were big enough to be hard to miss, and any number of people who watch the market structure as it develops were seeing them, and a few were reporting what they saw.

But it just wasn't enough.  The pressures were building, and something had to be done. 

A plan for a market operation to relieve the pressure was made, and then executed ahead of the upcoming option expiration on the Comex on April 25th.  The word was quietly spread so the important monied interests would not make a fuss about losses when the time came, as in the case of MF Global and Cyprus.

And then Goldman gave the signal to the market with their 'short gold' call.

As I said at the time, I was not sure if this was done to try and avert a disaster, or to cover up some longer term corruption. Or perhaps a bit of both.  Motives are never easy to discern where leverage and opaque trading pools are involved.

This could be in advance of a major announcement out of Europe with regard to the Eurozone and also their monetary policy following along the lines of Japan.  Perhaps it is even something regarding US policy.  Obviously one has to have an open mind about that.

But there were persistent rumours of a potential default situation at both the LBMA and the Comex. Well, one has to take those with a skeptical eye.  But there are some data that point to the LBMA in particular, although the drawdown of bullion from the two exchanges could have been more general. 

Linked just below is a report that includes more data and it well worth reading. It tends to concentrate on the Comex.

How the Gold Market Was Crashed.

It seems that the word has gone out to the media and the stories are being spun to protect the system.   And the parrots dutifully pick up the chatter, without knowing why.

The story being spun that there was a speculative excess in gold being held by pension funds that panicked.   Foolish people, outsiders really, got over their heads and caused this regrettable incident.

There is probably a grain of truth in that, but I think it is more likely that they were forced out of their positions by a market operation designed to do just that.  And market insider knew exactly what they were holding.

Price declines caused by legitimate selling and panicked longs are not marked by increasing open interest. That is the hallmark of short selling with a purpose.

This is a big deal, and it was writ large across the media.  And that suggests that there is an equally big problem that had to be dealt with quickly and brutally.  Ordinarily market operations are more adept and protracted.

Something was close to breaking, and it most likely still is. 

And if it broke, it would prove to be embarrassing to quite a few very important people.  At least, that is what this situation suggests to me. 

Even the endlessly levitating stock markets seem a bit 'edgy' with a tension on the tape.

I cannot possibly know what is at the root of this.  Can't find Germany's gold, and can't buy enough at the LBMA to deliver it, because the market is leveraged 100 to 1?

Maybe not that but something of that magnitude.  A major TBTF tottering on the brink of a derivatives domino collapse? There are rumours out of Switzerland about Italy and France.

Most eyes are on the States, but how quickly we forget that ABN/Amro declared a force majeure and stopped all physical delivery of bullion, forcing settlement in cash.  The soft default of a major bullion bank is no joke, especially when it appears they could not obtain suitable goods at any price. 

This tends to point towards problems in Europe and the LBMA.  And one of the big sources of LBMA 400 oz. qualified gold is the big SPDR Gold ETF, GLD which is stored by HSBC in London.  I have included a chart of who tends to use 400 oz. bars below.  The COMEX does not.

As you may recall, Andrew Maguire reported early on that there were indications of problems on the LBMA with regard to gold inventory.  It is said to be leveraged 100 to 1.

“Entities went to the LBMA and said, ‘We don’t trust anybody anymore. We want our physical metal.’ They were told they would be cash settled instead by a bullion bank. The Western governments have been trying to plug holes, and the reason for it has to do with the default that was taking place at the LBMA.

This is why this smash has been orchestrated because of the run that has been taking place on physical metal. So Western governments had to do this because of an imminent run on the unallocated LBMA system. The LBMA bullion banks had become so mismatched at one point on their trading positions vs real world demand that they had to orchestrate this smash."

The 'entities' in question are again just rumour, but they are most likely to be from the Mideast or Asia.    They could be a central bank, or even an ETF for that matter.  But the size was said to have been substantial, and untenable for withdrawal without a severe market disruption given the leverage on which the LBMA operates.  100 to 1 leverage is no joke when the drawdown is physical and available supplies are tight.

If you have not picked it up, the implication in this theory is that the big price declines allowed some non-allocated repositories, like GLD for example, to disgorge delivery ready bullion to the LBMA for delivery to the entity that had demanded delivery.

And something like this might not be a singular event.  People talk, and if one entity got nervous and took delivery that information cannot be kept from other sizable players in the same circles.  And so others step up and ask, and there is the threat of a run.  And it could be happening in more than one place, ie not just the LBMA.  Hence the decline in inventories at the Comex referenced above.

JP Morgan holds enormous derivatives positions in the precious metals not reported anywhere in detail except occasionally in the OCC report.  If something were to perturb the markets, it would almost certainly affect them. 

And recall that the outrageous excesses of the 'London Whale' were not uncovered by regulators, but rather by market participants who reported JPM to be distorting the market because of the size of their position.  And the OCC is having a bit of recent notoriety from overlooking irregularities (some say crimes) to protect the banks.  So keep that in mind.

Changing the subject, if you wish to get a bit more baroque, gold may have been a necessary misdirection with the real target being silver, which hardly anyone is talking about, even the house economists and spokesmodels for the status quo. 

Keep an eye on stocks and the markets.  The big money always moves first, because they get to know what is happening first.

But I have to remind you, your guess is as good as mine.   It is an opaque market, and it has gotten worse and not better, despite all the show of 'reform.'

When the tide goes out, you not only get to see who is naked, you see who they are naked with.  And so the smokescreens go up.

I suspect that this is going to get ugly.

Related: Update to the Update: The Attack On Gold - Paul Craig Roberts (this gets more into the general government-business-as-usual theory rather than something that was incidentally related, ie a major impending default.  As I pointed out I think those sort of antics tend to be a more elegantly executed and gradual.  The recent gold/silver smack down was sheer brute force.  Could have been shock and awe but it really was over the top and probably called far too much attention to itself to have been a 'policy thing.')

Marshall Auerback: Central Banks Will Need to Recover Their Gold

Although I have heard this line of reasoning before, it was interesting to see it coming from the economist Marshall Auerback.

There is not much doubt in my mind that the markets are being 'managed' here. By whom, for what reasons, and for how long is another question. But the trades and the tape are telling their tale.

I am wondering if this is a new phase of the Fed's interference in the markets in lieu of genuine economic reform. They have used indirect means to pump equities as a means of wealth transmission before. This was a favorite ploy of Robert Rubin when he was Treasury Secretary.

It would not surprise me if the gold price was being held around 1600 in order to give the banks an opportunity to redeem their leased gold IOU's to avoid embarrassment before things get 'messy' in Europe. The people in Germany, Italy, Spain, England, and Portugal will be angry enough, and to find out that their irresponsible banks had sold off their gold to their cronies in the bullion banks on the cheap might be a bit much. As for the US, that is a murky situation indeed.

I tend to view this as a long term trend. So whether it comes to light next week, next month, or next year is of less consequence than the continual leaking of information that confirms the great changes that are occurring.

If one is looking for quick hot money there are plenty of places and ways to chase that rainbow. And plenty of carnival barkers and tricksters to tell you how easy it is to do it.

Get Ready for the Gold Rebound Before It Is Too Late: Marshall Auerback
by Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report
August 8, 2012

The Gold Report: Marshall, in a July 12, 2012, post on the Pinetree website, you suggest that some central banks may have forward-sold their gold against their initial positions, thereby eliminating them altogether. Can you tell us more?

Marshall Auerback: I have seen these central banks in action and have met with people from several of them. They would contend it was their obligation to maximize the yield on any of the assets they had in their reserves, including gold.

Back when gold was in the low $300s/ounce (oz), the Bundesbank considered gold nuclear waste from the old gold-standard era. There are some suggestions, based on Roger Lowenstein's work, that the Bank of Italy lent out some of its gold to Long Term Capital Management as a funding source. The point is that these banks have been a major source of flows into the market. These flows have had the same impact as de facto sales, in that they make available gold to the forward market and help fill the gap between supply and demand.

This is significant that the Bank for International Settlements has talked about reclassifying gold for commercial banks from a Tier 3 to a Tier 1 asset, which effectively means that gold will have 100% weighting, as opposed to 50%. This reflects a change in how the official sector views gold.

The second phenomenon is what has been happening in the Eurozone. A fiat currency is vaporizing before our eyes. A number of central banks hold a substantial amount of euros in their foreign exchange reserves that may be worth nothing. Some central banks may have gold holdings, but not as much as they claim, because of forward sales. There is most likely a structural short in the market from the central banks.

A decade ago, the mining companies would have been selling forward production, and the private sector would have had the structural short position. Today, nobody is selling forward gold because companies are much more optimistic about the price, and nobody wants to borrow it right now. As usual, the central banks are on the wrong side of the trade.

TGR: Are you willing to speculate about which central banks are shorting gold?

MA: From what I have heard, it would not surprise me if the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Italy have done it. The Bank of Spain and the Bank of Portugal have sold a lot of their gold and may be lending the rest; also the Bundesbank.

A lot of these sales took place many years ago when the price of gold was $500–1,000/oz. My point is that the actual holdings these banks retain are much smaller than what appears on their balance sheets. Of course, they would want to get that gold back to spare the embarrassment if the euro blows up. This is why I have suggested that even if there is one more selloff in gold, the declines will be cushioned because the central banks will be bidding to buy back what they sold forward.

TGR: Could this information create a spike in the gold price?

MA: Many thoughtful people would see the demise of the euro as very bullish for gold, along with the possibility of higher inflation in China and all of the qualitative easing introduced by the Federal Reserve lately. Yet, gold has gone nowhere.

If one measures the position of traders reports on the Comex and then factor in that the Over the Counter market (OTC) is about 5–10 times the size, the net long position of speculative interest in gold is huge. That said, net positions have been reduced substantially in the past several months—several hundred tonnes would be my guess—and yet the price hasn't declined that much, which suggests that there is a bid in the market. The official sector, perhaps?

I would say there could be another 400–500 tons liquidated, which would easily be absorbed by the central banks. Ultimately, this slow, ticking time bomb will resolve itself with a much higher gold price.

Source: Auerback at The Gold Report

James Koutoulas Says JP Morgan Is Still Hiding Large Amount of MF Global Customer Money

I do not agree with Rick Santelli's throwaway line in the beginning that there was probably no illegality involved in JPM's trades in London, and certainly not with regard to Facebook where it appears that there was blatantly selective leaking of undisclosed negative financial information ahead of the IPO. And the corollary suggestion that any investigations there are a waste of time.

The trades themselves *may not* have been illegal, but as in most things, the felony is in the coverup and the deception for actions that may or may not themselves have broken but merely bent the law. After all, Watergate was all about 'a third rate burglary.'

Although I have been critical of Louis Freeh in the past for his stonewalling of financial information from MF Global claiming attorney client privilege, withholding it even from Federal investigators and regulators, I thought it was a bit unfair to criticize him for his $25 million in fees for managing the Chapter 11, without mentioning that James Giddens is also billing substantial fees for the MF Global bankruptcy for the brokerage portion of it.

Mr. Giddens billed $170 million for Lehman's bankruptcy for example. His fees for MF Global are not yet disclosed because he asked for an extension for filing them with the court to June 8. Bankruptcies, tort claims, and divorces are often rewarding ventures for the lawyers.

Interviews with Mr. Koutoulas are so rare that any deserve to be shared, even if the interviewer steps all over the interview with selective outrage. The extended corporate infomercial is what passes for financial journalism in the States these days, and in much of the 'straight news' as well unfortunately.

I enjoyed the suggestion that almost $800 million in customer money was transferred late in the game to JPM in London to satisfy margin calls. This was the personal conclusion I put forward about two weeks after the incident.

I also believe that JPM had deep knowledge of MF Global's finanical leverage, condition, and exposure as their banker, which they used before and after the fact.

And I agree that Obama's track record on Wall Street reform is shameful, and a continuation of the Bush policies without real reform. But the idea that Romney will somehow change that is, alas, a terrible fantasy. The torch of corruption is being passed from administration to administration now without regard to party affiliation. That is how bad it has become.

How about JPM's positions in the silver market Rick? Think we need an independent investigator there too in the face of four years of stone-walling by the CFTC? Or do we demand justice only where it might be embarrassing to the Democrats without really hurting Wall Street?

But as I have said before, my goal is to just get the MF Global customer money back for them. I have given up any hopes that justice will be done. So I am grateful for Mr. Santelli's attention. There is far too little of it being given to these gross injustices and violations of trust.

It seems as though ordinary people have few friends or champions these days, just various packs of vultures picking over their bones with fees, scams, and snares.

Comex Silver Inventory Watch - Heading Into May-July Delivery Period

The long term decline in deliverable supply at this price level could become quite interesting.

The only ways to obtain more deliverable inventory to meet a bulge in demand is to game the rules on the ability to take physical delivery or let the price rise by buying on the open market.    

The push by the CFTC for position limits may tighten the ability to take delivery from 1,500 to 1,000 contracts, but hedgers will be exempt from position limits on the short side.  And the big silver short JPM claims to be a hedger.

I keep hearing stories of negotiated prices above the public quotes to buy off large delivery claims.  I would be interested to know if anyone has proof of this.  We know there are large agreements being conducted around the publicly quoted prices all the time. The FX pit traders walked out in protest over a recent occurrence.  It does not take an economist to understand what this does to price discovery and market efficiency.

The estimates I have seen of how much silver is real and how much is conflicting paper claims (leverage of unallocated claims) is up to 100:1.   Some of those claims are reported to be covered by 'inventory in the ground' which is not readily available for delivery.

One can only wonder how well confidence in the Comex would receive another 'stolen assets' scandal like the confiscation of gold and silver that happened to customers of MF Global.

The central banks have long ago dispersed their caches of silver to the market, so they are not available to supply ready inventory at leased rates.   One might look to SLV and wonder who audits its custodial integrity of unencumbered physical bars and how often.  

As I recall the sponsor of the ETF is Blackrock, but the custodian and keeper of the vault holding the physical silver backing the ETF is JP Morgan.  As you may recall, JPM is holding a massive short position on the silver futures, as best we can determine. 

JPM claims they are a hedge on behalf of other parties.   If they are using the SLV inventory as collateral in any way, then someone needs to be paid a visit by the SEC and CFTC because the owners of the shares have a superior claim to the metal.   That smells like 'hypothecation' in the manner of MF Global.  But I suspect that rather than blaming Edith O'Brien one might blame Bear Stearns.

I am not saying this is 'illegal' but it certainly warrants disclosure if it is occurring.  And if the CFTC knows this and is sitting on the information in their four year old and still unreleased silver manipulation report, then Gary Gensler needs to appear before the Congress and answer some very tough questions about conflicts of interest and withholding of key market information.

Of course the prudential time to ask those questions and obtain the answers is now, and not after the carnage of a commercial failure devastates investors, global industry, and market confidence.

Will anyone listen to this?   Did anyone listen to Harry Markopolos before Madoff's fund blew up?

These days it seems like the US financial markets are a train wreck happening in slow motion.  Or almost like watching a B horror movie.  You hear the music and you know what's coming, but there is no way to warn the campers.

'Our rivals are scared shitless of us.'   Blythe Masters

How Jason P. Morgan sees itself in the markets  lol

JP Morgan's Blythe Masters Is the 2011 Queen of Commodities - Sharkboy and LavaGirl

Blythe Masters is the chief of commodity trading at JPM, and the apparent mastermind behind their gargantuan short position in silver.

Previously, Ms. Masters attained fame for having helped to create credit default swaps.

Their fierce performance in crushing Goldman Sachs in the commodity pits has earned Jamie Dimon and Blythe Masters the fearsome nicknames, "Sharkboy and Lava Girl."

"Isabelle can't cope with our superior platform and industry connections," a certain dark Mistress of the Universe has been heard to say.  If you are the Queen you don't make markets; you own the markets. And everyone, including  Goldman, pays.

The Independent
JPMorgan's British commodities chief notches up $2.8bn
By Jim Armitage
03 March 2012

Blythe Masters, the British woman who runs JPMorgan's commodities division, has steered the department to record turnover exceeding $2.8bn (£1.8bn) in 2011, more than long-time industry leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Reuters research shows that Cambridge-educated Ms Masters beat her arch-rival, Isabelle Ealet at Goldman Sachs in London, whose commodities division's revenues stagnated at $1.6bn. JPMorgan's performance, a threefold leap in revenues, is a huge bounceback for one of the most powerful women on Wall Street.


In 2010 there had been serious concerns about staff defections and sluggish growth, but Ms Masters, who started at the bank aged 18 as an intern in London, had the firm backing of the chief executive, Jamie Dimon, and investment banking head, Jes Staley. He praised her for being "one tough kid" and stuck with her.

Ms Masters gained notoriety for pioneering credit default swaps, blamed by many for the financial crisis. She acknowledged in a 2008 speech that she had been branded "the woman who created weapons of mass destruction", although she defends the products, saying the people using them were at fault.

Ms Masters built the bank's commodities business through acquisitions including the takeover in 2010 of Royal Bank of Scotland's Sempra Commodities, a large trader of natural gas.

By contrast, rivals have stumbled lately, with Morgan Stanley's revenues shrinking for a third consecutive year, the worst streak since at least 1995, and Goldman Sachs' commodity unit nursing a large drop in revenues since raking in more than $4.5bn in 2009.

The blunt-speaking Ms Masters told staff in 2010 rivals were "scared shitless of us", adding: "They'd better be. This is a platform that's going to win."

Dramatic re-enactment of JPM's Pan European Commodity Victory Tour from Zurich to London

Silver Market Hit Hard With Bear Raid - The Infamous Dr. Evil Strategy

Yesterday I said:

"Today was the option expiration on the Comex, and those options which are 'in the money' and have not been settled for cash are now converted to March futures positions.

Depending on the size and distribution of those conversions we may see some 'action' in the front month because they are sometimes notoriously weak hands and will receive at least one 'gut check.'"

And a gut check to run the stops was very obviously delivered in the afternoon trading session at the Comex and across the monthly contracts.

This is remniscent of the 'Dr. Evil' strategy that got Citi warned and fined in Europe a few years ago. Memories of Citi's Eurobond Manipulation At the time one of the defenses offered by an ex-pat trader was 'in the US everybody does it.' Has JPM taken up the trading strategy that Citi once made infamous? And why would banks be trading for themselves in markets with players they help to finance, and with public money?

Large players can come into a relatively small market and drive the price by selling in size, running the stop loss orders which they often can 'see' through probing orders and positional advantage, and essentially bomb the market, manipulating the price in the short term to their advantage. The profit is made through derivative and correlated bets that depend on the price of the metal, index, or bond such as shorts on mining stocks, currencies, bonds, etc.

This is why the 'uptick rule' in stocks served a purpose, and why regulators are in place to keep an eye on big players with deep pockets and a far reach. In a properly regulated market the CFTC would immediatly pull the trading records for today and track the big sellers, and inquire as to the reasons for their sudden selling in a quiet market.

It *could* have been a hedge fund margin call. It could even have been a margin call provoked by a bank tightening credit lines with one hand while playing the market with their other hand. There were rumours being spread all week keying in on the day after expiration.  I do not have any inside information, no special knowledge, only the advantage of experience and a watchful eye on the markets.

And so there it all is. I was ready for it. I may or may not make money from it, but at least I had flattened my positions as I had said earlier this week and did not lose from it. But it sickens me to the heart nonetheless, to see a once great government fallen so low.

New COMEX Related Silver Manipulation Lawsuit Includes Charges of 'Racketeering'

Self-regulation and efficient markets hypothesis. Feh!

It will be interesting to see if this makes it into the discovery process and if any government officials will assist in the investigation process. This looks like a job for hairy knuckled prosecutors armed with subpoenas and wiretaps.

The mainstream media will most likely ignore this and the usual suspects from the demimonde of the financial media will dismiss it as nonsense.

One has to wonder if this is what CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton was alluding to in his recent statement.

NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and HSBC Securities Inc. (NYSE: HBC) face charges of manipulating the market for silver futures and options in violation of federal commodities and racketeering laws, according to a new lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

The suit – which alleges violation of the Commmodity Exchange Act and the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act – alleges that the two banks colluded to manipulate thhe market for silver futures starting in the first half of 2008 by amassing huge short positions in silver futures contracts they had no intent to fill, but did so to force silver prices down to their benefit.

The suit was filed on behalf of Carl Loeb, an independent investor in silver futures and options, by Seattle-based Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a class-action and complex litigation firm. "The practice of naked short selling has long been a serious issue on Wall Street," said Steve Berman, co-counsel and managing partner at Hagens Berman. "What we know about the scope and intent of JP Morgan and HSBC's actions in this short-selling scheme dwarfs any other similar attempt to manipulate a commodities market."

According to the complaint, JP Morgan amassed a sizeable short position in silver futures and options in part through its March 2008 acquisition of investment bank Bear Stearns. By August 2008, JP Morgan and London-based HSBC controlled more than 85 percent of the commercial net short position in silver futures contracts.

The suit alleges that, starting in early 2008, the two banks began manipulating the silver futures market by accumulating unusually large "short" positions and then secretly coordinating enormous sales of silver futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange, which is known as "COMEX" and is part of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

According to the lawsuit, JP Morgan and HSBC used a variety of methods to coordinate their manipulation of the market for silver futures contracts, signaling when to flood the COMEX market with short positions, which caused the price of silver futures and options contracts to crash.

The suit describes two "crash" events that were set in motion by JP Morgan and HSBC, one in March 2008, and the other in February 2010, after defendants had amassed large short positions. In the wake of both events, the suit alleges, COMEX silver futures prices collapsed.

"We believe that JP Morgan and HSBC's scheme was carefully conceived and coordinated to maximize their profits at the expense of innocent investors who believed that they were trading in a market free from manipulation," Berman said.

The complaint also contains allegations that in September 2008, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched an investigation that would eventually consider allegations made by a London-based independent metals trader named Andrew Maguire that the silver futures market was being manipulated.

The complaint alleges that Maguire disclosed to the CFTC on Feb. 3, 2010 that he received a signal from the two banks of their intent to drive down the prices of silver futures two days later, on Feb. 5, 2010. Maguire's information was correct and the price of silver dropped dramatically between Feb. 3, 2010 and Feb. 5, 2010.

In addition, the lawsuit states that both JP Morgan and HSBC still maintain highly concentrated holdings in short positions in silver futures and options, giving both banks the ability to continue manipulating the price of silver.

Plaintiffs' attorneys have asked the court to certify the case as a class action and enjoin JP Morgan and HSBC from continuing their alleged conspiracy and manipulation of the silver futures and options contracts market.

Attorneys also ask the court to award damages and attorneys' fees to the class.

Just remember that Blythe said Don't Panic. She's got your backs. Or is busy cutting a deal. You will have to decide which is more likely.

I also hear that high flyer Steve Black, who was promoted up at the beginning of the year, will be leaving JP Morgan.

CFTC Probes JP Morgan's Silver Trading

The spectacular silver rally and current price is no bubble. HSBC and JPM stopped shorting the market so vigorously and began to actually cover some of their positions as a result of CFTC investigations.

Since the CFTC had previously investigated the market and done nothing, one might speculate that the publicity had provoked some behind the scenes discussions. JPM recently shut down its proprietary trading unit under Blythe Masters.

I will be absolutely stunned if anything except for a wristslap with no admission of wrongdoing is the result. However behind the scenes we might see a less oppressive domination of the silver market by these TBTF banks. But the profiteering will continue here and elsewhere. This is no reform administration and the Republicans were the primary authors of much of the crony capitalism so there is little relief to be found there.

What the masters of the universe seem to have not quite figured out yet is that you cannot keep skimming about 8 percent of M1 off each year as Wall Street bonuses, gimmicking and distorting the financial system to enable their control frauds, and maintain robust real economic activity. There were quiet coup d'etats in the UK and US, but the people do not yet realize it. At some point they will see the necessity of reform, and then we might have a sustained recovery. Until then, welcome to Zombieland.

CFTC scans JP Morgan's silver trading business
By Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore
Wed Oct 27, 2010 2:13am EDT

(Reuters) - The U.S. commodity futures regulator is looking into claims by a trader in London that JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) was involved in manipulative silver trading, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person close to the situation.

In recent months, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) lawyers have interviewed employees of JPMorgan in its metals trading business, the newspaper said, citing a person familiar with the situation.

Along with JPMorgan, CFTC lawyers have also interviewed industry traders, commodity executives, experts and employees of other metals trading firms, WSJ said.

JPMorgan declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal on any aspect of the investigation. The firm could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

On Tuesday, Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the U.S. CFTC said there had been repeated attempts to influence prices in silver markets.

The Journal said JPMorgan and HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) have usually been the big players in the silver market.

However, in recent months the banks with large futures positions have sharply reduced the size of their holdings, the paper said.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Bye Bye Blythe: JPM Shutting Down Their Proprietary Commodity Trading Operation

Breaking news from Bloomberg...

J. P. Morgan said today that they will be shutting down their proprietary commodity trading operations in reponse to the Volcker Rule in the Financial Reform legislation.

The JPM proprietary commodity trading group is headquartered in London with a few traders located in New York.

Within the past month trading head Blythe Masters had reassured her traders that things in the unit would continue on as they had been despite losses and layoffs.

Employees are being told that they may apply for other positions now.

Speculation is that this is also in response to position limits and other reforms in the Commodity Markets spearheaded by Commissioner Bart Chilton which will make it more difficult for large players to dominate the short term markets through sheer position size.

It is not clear if JPM will be exiting all markets at the same time including gold and silver in addition to other commodities.

We will look for clarification from their official statement which has not yet been issued.

According to a person who has been briefed, JPM will eventually be shutting down ALL proprietary trading in all markets in response to financial reform. This will include fixed income and equities which are much larger departments at the bank.

JPM recently suffered heavy losses in their proprietary commodity trading provoking a high level review by top executives.

JPM may continue to deal in these markets for commercial and private customers. They will cease trading for their own book.

It will be interesting to see what JPM does with RBS Sempra, a commodities company which they acquired earlier this year.


Bloomberg
JPMorgan Said to End Proprietary Trading to Meet Volcker Rule
By Dawn Kopecki and Chanyaporn Chanjaroen
Aug 31, 2010 4:45 PM ET

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. lender by assets, told traders who bet on commodities for the firm’s account that their unit will be closed as the company begins to shut down all of its proprietary trading, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The bank eventually will end all proprietary trading to comply with new U.S. curbs on investment banks, said the person, who asked not to be identified because JPMorgan’s decision isn’t public. The New York-based bank will shut proprietary trading in fixed-income and equities later, the person said.

Closing the proprietary trading desk for commodities affects fewer than 20 traders, including one in the U.S. and the rest in the U.K., the person said. The unit is based in London, and traders there were given notice on Aug. 27 that their jobs may be in jeopardy as required by U.K. law, according to the person.

Congress passed restrictions on financial firms this year designed to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 credit crisis, which almost caused the banking system to collapse. Proprietary trading involves transactions made on behalf of the bank rather than its customers. The curbs are known as the Volcker rule, named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who campaigned for limits on risk-taking by lenders.

JPMorgan’s “principal activities,” which include trading and private equity investing for its own book, generated about $2 billion in revenue in the second quarter, said Christopher Whalen, a Federal Reserve Bank of New York analyst in the 1980s and co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics in Torrance, California. He said principal activities have generated as much as $10 billion on an annual basis in profits and losses in recent years.

Revenue Goes Away

The limits on proprietary trading contained in the Dodd- Frank Act that was signed into law in July by President Barack Obama will cost the company about 10 percent in quarterly revenue, Whalen said.

“This revenue and the risk it carries with it now goes away,” he said. “This will put more pressure on JPM to look for growth outside the U.S. market.”

JP Morgan traders will be given a chance to apply for jobs elsewhere in the company, according to the person. JPMorgan spokeswoman Kimberly Weinrick declined to comment.

Banks are exploring ways to comply with the new trading rules. Citigroup Inc. was looking at three options to meet the new rule, including moving a team of proprietary traders into its hedge-fund unit, people briefed on the matter said in July.

Traders in the Citi Principal Strategies unit, led by Sutesh Sharma, would be reassigned to Citi Capital Advisors, which mostly oversees money for outside investors, said the people, speaking anonymously because the talks were preliminary. The bank would set up the traders as hedge-fund managers and seed their funds, then raise money from outside investors to redeem its stakes, the people said.

JP Morgan's Commodities Trading Head Blythe Masters to Troops: "Don't Panic"

Note to Blythe Masters: Sorry to hear about your losses in the coal market because of a 'rookie error' in taking on overlarge positions. But an epic short squeeze is coming for your massive and untenable positions in silver and gold, and hell is coming with it.

And the vampire squid and its minions are going to wrap themselves around your neck, and inexorably suck the life from you, while the hedge funds lick your wounds. Your protectors in the government will not even return your calls, because they will be running for their own lives away from the disaster that you created, denying all knowledge of it, any of it.

And then, by all means, you may panic.

Bloomberg
JPMorgan's Masters Urges No `Panic' as Commodities Unit Slips
By Dawn Kopecki
Aug 03 2010

Blythe Masters, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of commodities, sought to reassure her team on an internal conference call after “extremely difficult” dismissals, defections and a first half in which some results were as much as 20 percent below expectations.

“Don’t panic,” she said in summing up the 35-minute call, a recording of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. “No one’s going to get screwed. We’re not going to do crazy things on compensation at the end of the year.”

Masters, who was named to run the business in late 2006, said the bank began dismissals on July 21, a day before the call, to trim overlap after buying parts of RBS Sempra Commodities LLP. The bank cut less than 10 percent of the combined front office, even as the oil unit lost “key people” who needed to be replaced, she said. She was discussing results with top executives after “we made a bit of a rookie error” that left the firm “vulnerable to a squeeze,” she said.

The 41-year-old banker, who helped develop credit-default swaps while at JPMorgan in the 1990s (kharma, ain't it a bitch - Jesse), delivered her talk from a conference room in New York, where the bank is based, less than a month after the firm closed its $1.7 billion RBS Sempra purchase. The deal almost doubled the number of corporate clients the bank can serve for commodities, Jes Staley, Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan’s investment bank, said in February....

...“You should think of this [the layoffs] as business as usual and definitely not a reaction to losses in coal, or anything like that,” she said. “It’s not because we are panicking. It is not because we are changing our minds, backing off, backing out, backing down, running away, none of the above.” (When an executive has to say this, they are indeed panicking, and ass-covering at the highest levels is already underway - Jesse)

Masters said had she spent the previous several days in meetings with Staley, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and the investment bank’s operating committee and was preparing a “deep dive” with JPMorgan’s board and Chief Financial Officer Doug Braunstein. (When the perfect metals storm hits their derivatives positions, Jamie is going to be throwing up in his wastebasket, and JPM's stock price is going to be doing a deep dive of its own as people realize that they are Lehman writ large. - Jesse)

“When you have a bad quarter or a bad year, you should expect to spend a lot of time with senior management explaining yourself,” she said. (ROFLMAO - Jesse) “I have worked very hard, number 1, to own responsibility for what went on and to acknowledge it and not excuse it. We made an error of judgment. Frankly, we made a bit of a rookie error. We got overexposed in the market and made ourselves vulnerable to a squeeze. (Their position losses in coal compared to their risk exposure in silver is like a broken pipe in the wall compared to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami - Jesse)

‘‘But if you take that out and recognize that we’re not going to allow that to happen to ourselves again, the rest of the story really ain’t that bad,” she said. “In fact, if you look through it all, it’s extraordinarily encouraging.” (The 12 steps start with Step One - overcoming denial - Jesse)

Coal derivatives trader Chan Bhima made an error of judgment, not of character, (lol, this sounds like Michael Scott excusing Dwight's fire drill fiasco at Dunder Mifflin - Jesse) in “taking a risk on our behalf,” she said. Coal prices plunged 24 percent from January through March and then surged 35 percent through June. Marchiony, the bank spokesman, said Bhima wasn’t available for comment.

The company took an oversized position both relative to their fledgling operation and relative to the market, Masters said. The error cost the company as much as $250 million, the New York Post reported June 8, without saying where it got the information...

In the meanwhile here is some light reading while you consider you options with those oversized short positions China Seeks To Widen Gold Market