Comex and Nymex Metals Calendar for 2012; Something Nasty on the Way?

A few people have asked me to post the complete Comex Metals Calendar for 2012.

So here it is, and you can find it here. I am afraid that the usual futures brokers have not published a handy pocket calendar of the key dates again this year, possibly as MF Global has cast a general pall on enthusiasm for the markets.

As a word of caution for all you amateur analysts, not all expirations and key dates are created equal. And the equations that drive prices, especially in the short term, are multi-variate with multi-dimensional lags and secondary and tertiary effects.

I used to be able to derive decent intermediate term multivariate regressions for certain commodity prices even a few years ago, but lately the markets seems to have become just a shoving match with less rational linkage to the real world than one might imagine.

This is probably the effect of the Fed's ZIRP policy, with the buying and selling of bonds and other instruments in the market at non-market prices, causing the subornation of the pricing of risk that makes most other value discovery just a short term shell game.

And of course the market regulators have pretty much rolled over for the insiders at every key juncture. At least the long term fundamentals prove resilient, but only over the longer term. Negative real interest rates as a powerful force even in la la land.

I have this nagging suspicion that there will be a major break in the equity and other paper markets, possibly tied to some non-market macro event, in the first half of this year, likely in March. I cannot say how the metals will react because that depends on the nature of the trigger event and manner in which the crisis unfolds.

I do like the model of the deflationary withdrawal of the sea of liquidity with the subsequent tsunami of paper. But that is too textbook perhaps.

It is likely, however, that the pigmen will once again place an offer on the table that they think the people cannot refuse. Or the refusal will be ignored by the peoples' representatives even if they do object, as happened in the manner of TARP.

Fear and confusion in the herd creates opportunities for the predators of all stripes. The best remedy would be for the more moderate elements in the Tea Party and the Occupy movement to find common cause and put aside their emotions, but that is not likely since such popular movements of discontent are often led at the extremes and by popular emotions. The lack of leadership and platforms has immunized the OWS movement so far, but one wonders if it can last.

The same coming together of moderate Muslims, Christians and Jews of good will would be effective for promoting the cause of justice for that matter. But there is nothing worse than a family fight among children when it comes to arguing about who is their father's favorite, no matter what their father has said, and the tasks that has given them to do.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

The great mass of independents seem to be angry, but do not know whether 'to shit or go blind' as the colloquialism goes. History suggests that they will first do the latter, then the former. But there are a range of possibilities.

Feb. 23 Comex March silver options expiry
Feb. 23 Comex March copper options expiry
Feb. 24 Nymex February platinum futures last trading day
Feb. 24 Nymex February palladium futures last trading day
Feb. 27 Comex February gold futures last trading day
Feb. 27 Comex February copper futures last trading day
Feb. 27 Comex February E-micro gold futures last trading day
Feb. 27 Comex March E-mini copper futures last trading day
Feb. 27 Comex March miNY silver futures last trading day
Feb. 29 Nymex March palladium futures first notice day
Feb. 29 Comex March silver futures first notice day
Feb. 29 Comex March copper futures first notice day
March 16 Nymex April platinum options expiry
March 20 Nymex April platinum futures first notice day
March 27 Comex April gold options expiry
March 27 Comex April copper options expiry
March 28 Comex April miNY gold futures last trading
March 28 Comex March silver futures last trading day
March 28 Comex March copper futures last trading day
March 28 Comex April E-mini copper futures last trading day
March 28 Nymex March palladium futures last trading day
March 29 Comex April E-mini gold futures last trading day
March 30 Comex April gold futures first notice day
March 30 Comex April copper futures first notice day
April 25 Comex May copper options expiry
April 25 Comex May silver options expiry
April 26 Comex April gold futures last trading day
April 26 Comex April copper futures last trading day
April 26 Comex April E-micro gold futures last trading day
April 26 Comex May E-mini copper futures last trading day
April 26 Comex May miNY silver futures last trading day
April 26 Nymex April platinum futures last trading day
April 27 Comex April silver futures last trading day
April 30 Comex May silver futures first notice day
April 30 Comex May copper futures first notice day
May 24 Comex June gold options expiry
May 24 Comex June copper options expiry
May 26 Comex June miNY gold futures last trading day
May 29 Comex May silver futures last trading day
May 29 Comex May copper futures last trading day
May 29 Comex June E-mini copper futures last trading day
May 29 Comex June miNY gold futures last trading day
May 31 Comex June gold futures first notice day
May 31 Comex June copper futures first notice day
May 31 Nymex June palladium futures first notice day
June 26 Comex July silver options expiry
June 26 Comex July copper options expiry
June 26 Comex July silver futures last trading day
June 27 Comex June gold futures last trading day
June 27 Comex June copper futures last trading day
June 27 Comex June E-micro gold futures last trading day
June 27 Comex July E-mini copper futures last trading day
June 27 Comex July miNY silver futures last trading day
June 27 Nymex June palladium futures last trading day
June 29 Comex July silver futures first notice day
June 29 Comex July copper futures first notice day
June 29 Nymex July platinum futures first notice day
July 26 Comex August gold options expiry
July 26 Comex August copper options expiry
July 27 Comex August miNY gold futures last trading day
July 27 Comex July gold futures last trading day
July 27 Comex July silver futures last trading day
July 27 Comex July copper futures last trading day
July 27 Comex August miNY gold futures last trading day
July 27 Comex August E-mini copper futures last trading day
July 27 Nymex July platinum futures last trading day
July 31 Comex August gold futures first notice day
July 31 Comex August copper futures first notice day
Aug. 28 Comex September copper options expiry
Aug. 29 Comex August gold futures last trading day
Aug. 29 Comex August copper futures last trading day
Aug. 29 Comex August silver futures last trading day
Aug. 29 Comex August E-micro gold futures last trading day
Aug. 29 Comex September E-mini copper futures last trading day
Aug. 29 Comex September miNY silver futures last trading day
Aug. 31 Comex September silver futures first notice day
Aug. 31 Comex September copper futures first notice day
Aug. 31 Nymex September palladium futures first notice day
Sept. 21 Nymex October platinum options expiry
Sept. 25 Comex October copper options expiry
Sept. 26 Comex October miNY gold futures last trading day
Sept. 26 Comex September copper futures last trading day
Sept. 26 Comex September silver futures last trading day
Sept. 26 Comex October E-mini copper futures last trading day
Sept. 27 Comex October gold options expiry
Sept. 28 Comex September gold futures last trading day
Sept. 28 Comex October E-mini gold futures last trading day
Sept. 28 Nymex September palladium futures last trading day
Sept. 28 Comex October gold futures first notice day
Sept. 28 Comex October copper futures first notice day
Sept. 30 Nymex October platinum futures first notice day
Oct. 25 Comex November copper options expiry
Oct. 27 Comex November E-mini silver futures last trading day
Oct. 27 Nymex October platinum futures last trading day
Oct. 27 Comex October silver futures last trading day
Oct. 27 Comex November E-mini gold futures last trading day
Oct. 29 Comex November E-mini copper futures last trading day
Oct. 29 Comex October gold futures last trading day
Oct. 29 Comex October copper futures last trading day
Oct. 31 Comex November copper futures first notice day
Nov. 27 Comex December gold options expiry
Nov. 27 Comex December silver options expiry
Nov. 27 Comex December copper options expiry
Nov. 28 Comex December miNY gold futures last trading day
Nov. 28 Comex November copper futures last trading day
Nov. 28 Comex December E-mini copper futures last trading day
Nov. 28 Comex December miNY silver futures last trading day
Nov. 30 Comex December gold futures first notice day
Nov. 30 Comex December silver futures first notice day
Nov. 30 Comex December copper futures first notice day
Nov. 30 Nymex December palladium futures first notice day
Dec. 21 Nymex January 2013 platinum options expiry
Dec. 26 Comex January 2013 copper options expiry
Dec. 27 Comex December gold futures last trading day
Dec. 27 Comex December silver futures last trading day
Dec. 27 Comex December copper futures last trading day
Dec. 27 Comex December E-micro gold futures last trading day
Dec. 27 Comex January 2013 E-mini copper futures last trading day
Dec. 28 Nymex December palladium futures last trading day
Dec. 30 Nymex January 2013 platinum futures first notice day
Dec. 31 Comex January 2013 silver futures first notice day
Dec. 31 Comex January 2013 copper futures first notice day

The Next Two Dates to Watch for Comex Option Expiration in the Metals

Keep an eye out for the next two Comex option expirations in the metals, both tomorrow 26 October but in particular the December expiry on 22 November. Perhaps not so much tomorrow but the days after. And of course December is a key month. I see resistance at 1720 that may prove to be important.

And never forget how the metals markets were ruthlessly slammed down into the October expiration on Sept 27, when the shills and apologists for the banks and hedge funds tell you how sound and fair the markets are, and denounce any evidence to the contrary.

Sometimes it seems that, as Chris Powell so astutely observed, "there are no markets anymore, just interventions."

This is what Markopolos faced when attempting to expose the great Madoff fraud, and it repeats almost endlessly in times of sanctioned corruption. Evidence is gathered by outsiders, presentations are made and ignored, the testimony of whistleblowers is ridiculed and even assaulted, the fraudulent scheme falls in a collapse, the public is tasked to absorb the losses and insiders keep their gains, and the many enablers move on as the public is distracted and forgets.

Nothing will change while crime pays. And even as things change, reform is taken away from the hands of the people, and carefully managed in back rooms and private deals.

"The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform."

Alexis de Tocqueville

Those in positions of authority and beneficiaries of the status quo understand this well. That is the credibility trap that is the impediment to recovery. Reform is an impulse to be carefully managed and directed by the insiders, and those who are implicated in corruption and sometimes even great crimes. The benefits of genuine reform are secondary to the appearance that 'something is being done.'

And if the charade goes on long enough, the people begin to take to the public squares and the streets, because they are otherwise being ignored, betrayed and abused.

The moment is most dangerous when the decision is made whether to answer the people with change, or stifle their just complaints with repression. Then the die is cast, and the great moment of history truly begins.

It is good to see gold open interest on the Comex at relatively low levels here, as the commercials continue to cover ahead of the enactment of position limits, projected to occur in the first month of 2012.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Risk Off - Option Expiration Week

Wax on, wax off.

As a reminder, this is a stock options expiration week.

The Real Class Warfare

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Night Bombing Raid - Silver +4.50 from Low - LBMA

Gold December futures fell to 1535 and Silver to 26.15 in the overnight session as a determined night bombing raid took them down in the least liquid period of the 24 hour trading day, with the low being reached around 2 AM New York time.

Silver Dec futures are now at 30.78 in New York, virtually unchanged from their open at 30.85, or up over $4.50 from the low.

Gold is at 1623 now, or up $88 from its overnight low.

The December SP 500 Futures had bottomed at 1116 around the same early morning hours, and are now at 1158 or about 42 point from the overnight lows.

Gold has NOT yet broken the short term downtrend, marked with a sharply declining blue line on the chart.

Tomorrow is option expiration on the Comex as we might have expected. I would hope that long term investors would take advantage of these price drops by locking in physical bullion purchases when they can.

However, it is hard to do this with the leverage and margin requirements on Comex especially on the overnight globex trading session. How can an average trader hope to maintain a position? And that is the basis of their schemes.

"It is not immediately clear at this juncture who was selling or why - but in placing such a huge order into the market when the least number of market participants were active tells you that they were out for dramatic effect.

Anyone looking to offload significant amounts of metal at the best possible price would have done so when both London and New York were both open - this would have ensured they would have hit the market when it was most liquid and ensured they got the best price for their sale.

Clearly finessing gold into the market was not their motive - they wanted a statement."

Ross Norman, Sharps Fixley

The interplay between the LBMA 'physical market' and the New York 'futures markets' is fairly obvious. The leverage on the LBMA physical market for gold and silver, as opposed to the London Metals Exchange which trades base metals, is reputed to be around 100 - 1. So any 'run' on the metals will stress the system.

According to their website the LBMA market markers are some of the largest Too Big to Fail banks including UBS, Société Générale, Merrill Lynch (BoA), Credit Suisse, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JPM, HSBC, The Bank of Nova Scotia ScotiaMocatta, Deutsche Bank.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Liquidation Panic - Martian Gold - Comex Hikes Margins

"Yesterday, the textbook was thrown out the window. All asset classes saw sudden and sharp moves far in excess of normal volatility patterns. To an old timer, that points to one conclusion. Liquidation. Wide-spread liquidation across asset classes. Currencies, bonds, commodities and stocks all moved swiftly and sharply in a direction that screamed - Seek safety! Raise cash! Get liquid...

All of that had a quick and discernible negative impact on markets. But, the selling was far more pervasive and dramatic than simply a conscious adjustment of positions based upon new data. Thursday’s action screamed liquidation - and not all of it voluntary."

Art Cashin, 22 September 2011


"That day the U.S. announced that the dollar would be devalued by 10 percent. By switching the yen to a floating exchange rate, the Japanese currency appreciated, and a sufficient realignment in exchange rates was realized. Joint intervention in gold sales to prevent a steep rise in the price of gold, however, was not undertaken. That was a mistake."

Paul Volcker, Nikkei Weekly 2004

There was a major sell off in gold and silver today that was due in part to the liquidation of assets coming out of Europe. That is the basis of the quotation from Art Cashin, and he is right in what he says.

But while stocks and the dollar all paused today, gold and silver were hammered, and the selling looked to be more calculated than incidental as it has been throughout the week.

There is little doubt that some of this is the association with usual gaming of the Comex option expiration next week, and the potential delivery situation on that exchange with their unusually thin supplies and concentrated short positions held by a few of the banks. Comex Hikes Gold, Silver, Copper Margins After the Bell.

But today in particular seems to be even a little more than that.

Every time the central banks and their affiliates get desperate, some economic essayist trots out an outlandish argument about why gold is a 'barbarous relic.'   Here is one that tops even the almost petulant argument of Willem Buiter in 2009. 

The Price of Gold in 2160 - Statsguy and James Kwak

I had to read this essay twice to make sure it just was not satire. I can summarize my reaction by saying that finding gold in outer space with assumed technologies speaks to supply, but the author does not present any assumptions about population, economics structures, and of course future demand.

The method by which gold is formed in relatively rare supernova events is fairly well known, and its distribution relative to other elements and compounds is not completely eccentric, at least not as random and eccentric as pseudo-scientific economic theories might become these days.

The author's premise of the discovery of new bullion supplies in outer space is analogous to the discovery of the New World by Europeans, and the remarkable finds of gold and silver on those two vast continents.

And yet here we are today.

Some might say that the author was merely saying in a cute way that commodity based currencies always fail, with an example being salt or Yap stones as Mr. Buiter had argued to greater effect.

And I would say that all currencies do go in and out of favor in their time, since there is an element of relativism in value that can be enforced by ruling authorities, who themselves tend to come and go, even if in their time these authorities might seem invincible, their empires intended to last for a thousand years.

But some stores of value, not based on passing utilitarian criteria or force, do tend to be resilient, and come back again and again, and retain an element of value from generation to generation. Or as some might with a more profound understanding of money might say, they maintain the confidence of their steadfastness that is a pre-requisite of sound money that is difficult to maintain by mere force of will.

As some historians of money have pointed out, the Federal Reserve was initially set up to emulate this type of external immutability of value in what later became a purely fiat currency. As men like Andrew Jackson would have predicted, they failed in exactly the same ways and for the same reasons that every other attempt at this has failed throughout history.

All systems are prone to corruption and decay, but none so much as those that rely exclusively on the goodness and wisdom of small groups of powerful men, especially when acting in secret.

It does seems quite cheeky for a modern economist to criticize a natural store of value with a 5000 year history, while standing on the platform of a purely fiat currency, given the short half life of every fiat currency throughout history. They may be recreated and devalued, but they never retain much of their value and character, with the only remnant their name.

I hear the sounds of printing presses over the horizon. Get ready for Quantitative Easing European style, and massive European bailouts, and increasingly absurd arguments from the econo-sphere as they avoid the subject of justice for the sake of expediency.

I have some limited sympathy for the dilemma facing the increasingly desperate western central banks, and understand their rationalizations.  But they are doing something that is the very epitome of moral hazard, and abuse of power, in their attempts to stabilize the unsustainable, without allowing for meaningful change and reform.

The heart of the issue is that the existing monetary and financial system is becoming increasingly arbitrary and corrupt. A relatively small group of interconnected crony capitalists wishes to create a digital money out of nothing, and distribute it increasingly as they will, to whom they will.

And this is the basis of my resentment with this policy abuse, and the irritation with the assault on reason by those in the financial demimonde engaging in what might be politely called perception management.

This self-serving arbitrariness, even if done for 'good motives,' is the very reason why all fiat currencies fail. No matter how you want to rationalize it they are going to create money out of nothing, and give it to whom they will, while corrupting the political system in the process.

And the cumulative results of this abuse of power are corrosive to society. Lawless example by a ruthless few brings out the worst in all the people, always. And that is a shame.

"Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Louis D. Brandeis

I am reading The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, and it is diverting as well as instructive, full of personal vignettes of Berlin in the 1930s told from the standpoint of the US Ambassador and his family.  It is perhaps not surprising that most cruelty is based in casual disregard for others, and a pre-occupation with the self.  And of course, that evil flourishes when the good do and say nothing.

As a preparation for this I read The Long Night by Steve Wick. Perhaps this is responsible for my gloomy frame of mind this week. But these things do not happen overnight, but by measures, until one is firmly in the crude grip of the banality of evil.  And then of course it is too late to escape from the maw of the abyss. 

So don't go there.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Another Eurodollar Squeeze? - Lehman Flashbacks - Crazy Eddie Does the World

"We committed our crimes at Crazy Eddie for fun and profit and simply because we could. We had no empathy whatsoever for our victims...

I eventually pleaded guilty to three felonies: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. I was sentenced to only six-months of house arrest, 1,200 hours of community service, and paid approximately $10,000 in fines...In my settlement with the victims of my crimes, I avoided all civil liability...

I did not cooperate with the government and victims because of any sense of morality or remorse for my crimes. I simply cooperated with them to avoid a long prison sentence and reduce potential monetary penalties. If my crimes had remained undetected and the government did not seek to prosecute me, I would probably still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today."

Sam Antar

This report was at least partly responsible for the plunge in stocks and the rise in gold. It gave the markets a Lehman flashback.

This is the kind of moment where Greenie would announce he was ready to put out any and all fires in the markets with his großen Dollar schlauch.

In Bernanke's defense, when Greenspan was boss the US government was still a going concern, without crazy Uncle GOP trying to crash the car into a ditch to show Babbling Barry who is the boss.

And the politicians are only doing what the Banks have been doing for years.

Say what you will about it, the dollar is still the reserve currency, for now. And the financial system, in addition to the equity market carnival show, is based on nothing more fundamental than greed and fear, and short term positioning. The only capital allocation being done is from the real economy into the pockets of the financiers.

And that is the failure of Monetary Theory, Parts 1 and 2, and the Chicago School of Carny-nomics.

The market action here is a bit cynical, even by current standards, and tailor made for an option expiration this week and next. But the backdrop of danger is real. That makes it a tough play.

Bloomberg reports that 75% of the volume is High Frequency Trading. It adds no real liquidity, it only distorts and extracts. When one needs it, it is either gone or reinforcing the short term trends. That it still exists is a tribute to the dodgy nature of the markets, and the failure of US governance.

I took my profits. When in doubt, stay out.

"We have known for some time that the ECB has been holding both the Euro-based interbank liquidity market and the sovereign bond market together with its balance sheet. But as I reported late last week the international liquidity being provided to banks is drying up and this is an Achilles heel for the European banks. They have been borrowing short in US dollars to fund long term Euro-denominated assets. This means they constantly need a rolling supply of $US in order to meet the repayments on their prior short-term funding obligations as their Euro assets mature more slowly. If the holders of $US no longer think they are a safe bet then they are caught in a good old fashioned banking liquidity trap."

ECB Moves Into FX - Macrobusiness

At least some of the friends of Ben have dollar reserves, but they are hardly enough to hold off a panic, a modern variation of the classic bank run. These Ben Bucks are being used to put a little Spine-a-Cola into their balance sheets. Show-cash. A wad of Tens covered with a C-note.

From Phil's StockWorld's review of Sam Antar.  This is a nice description of what I have called 'the CEO defense.'

The Art of Spinning:

■ Sell people hope. My cousin ‘Crazy Eddie’ Antar taught me that “people live on hope” and their hopes and dreams must be fed through our spin and lies. In any situation, if possible, accentuate the positive.

■ Make excuses as long as you can. Try to have your excuses based on at least one truthful fact even if the fact is unrelated to your actions and argument.

■ When you cannot dispute the underlying facts, accept them as true but rationalize your actions. You are allowed to make mistakes as long as you have no wrongful intent. Being stupid is not a crime.

■ Always say in words you “take responsibility” but try to indirectly shift the blame on other people and factors. You need to portray yourself as a “stand up” guy or gal.

■ When you cannot defend your actions or arguments attack the messenger to detract attention from your questionable actions.

■ Build up your stature, integrity, and credibility by publicizing the good deeds you have done in areas unrelated to the subject of scrutiny.

■ If you can, appear to take the “high road” and have your surrogates do the “dirty work” for you. After all, you cannot control the actions of your zealots.

■ When you can no longer spin, shut up. For example, offer no guidance to investors or resign for “personal reasons.” Your surrogates and so-called friends can still speak on your behalf and defend you.

■ If you are under investigation always say you will “cooperate.” However, use all means necessary legal or otherwise to stifle the investigators. Remember that “people live on hope” and their inclination is to believe you.

■ When called to testify under oath (if you do not exercise your 5th amendment privilege against self-incrimination) have selective memory about your questionable actions. It is harder to be charged with perjury if you cannot remember what you have done rather than testify and lie about it.

■ Try not to have your actions at least appear to rise to the level of criminal conduct or a litigable action. Being stupid or being unethical is not always a crime or tortious action.

Based on my own exposure in the distant past as a consultant to national politicians and news commentators, both Republican and Democrat, Sam Antar is a talented amateur who makes up for a lack of finesse, and a seeming lack of willingness or ability to use blackmail and violence, with chutzpah.

There are many, many good people in government and the financial world who only wish to do the right thing, and serve their country faithfully. I admire them, with gratitude. They stand a lonely watch, unnoticed by the world.

But there are times when the tainted few grab the reins of power for whatever reason, and things get a little crazy, and those are difficult times for the honest individual, to say the least.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Comex Bear Raid Continues

Next week Friday is an options expiration in stocks, and on August 25 is an option expiration in the metals on Comex.

I suspect world events will continue to drive the trade, with a steady undercurrent of high frequency price manipulation during periods of light participation by legitimate investors.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - La Douleur du Monde - Option Expiry Fizzle?

Although there were some efforts to push down price in the thin hours, the debt ceiling showdown has a bid under the metals, so most of the action was in capping the price to keep it manageable. So what next, declare victory and go home?

When Comex options expire, the holder receives an active long or short position in the contract the next day. And so we will have quite a few new futures contracts issued tomorrow given the number of 'in the money' calls.

The buyer of an option on a future contract is taking limited risk. Conversion to the actual futures contract itself, however, leaves the owner with substantial downside risk, so that holder often places a 'stop loss order'.

The Street crawlers can see those stops and their clustering and will often test that number and give the newbies a 'gut check' to see how serious they are.

But against that is the debt ceiling drama, so it might be quite quick unless there is some news being spread, even if it is only behind the scenes. There is quite a bit of that leakage going on in Washington these days.

The Dollar took a bit of a dive today, but is still above the critical support levels.

The actual mechanics of the debt ceiling timing are a bit more complex than many believe. Technically the Treasury can muddle along until August 15 I think given the need for new funding issuance, although the Credit Rating cartel has the power to rattle their pens and frighten everyone. But these things tend to involve anti-climactic moments and a dragging on. So timing is tough.

Certainly a deal or delay will be sought for Sunday evening before the Asian open. It is going to be a tough trade to decide how to go into the weekend.

Weekly US Economic Calendar - June Stock Options Expiration on Friday

Here is the weekly US economic calendar courtesy of Briefing.com.

As a reminder, this Friday is the 3rd of the month, and therefore a US stock market option expiration for June. Shenanigans are anticipated.

The expiration for July precious metals will not occur until the last week of the month on June 27.

Reminder: Gold and Silver Option Expiration for May Is Next Tuesday

As a reminder, the Comex will have their gold and silver option expiration on Tuesday, April 26.

Due to a lax regulation of the markets by the CFTC, there are sometimes major price manipulation shenanigans associated with these events, and these sometimes during thinly traded periods of time.

Someone sent me this article. It makes a point about the calendar holidays which I had not noticed. Here is their follow up aricle.

Since much of the physical buying comes out of Asia, and most of the price manipulation seems to originate in London and New York, this could be interesting. Although the setup is there for a thin trade, it takes a look at the composition of the markets, and the actual details of the options and contracts held in balance to other things, in order to make any judgements.

I do know that quite a few specs are jiggy with their recent gains in silver. This makes a retracement possible if someone 'gets the ball rolling' as they say. On the other hand, I have seen fellows use option expiration to breakout metals and other instruments and beat the shorts mercilessly. It is hard to trade this sort of event reliably if one is not an insider.

I stopped trading on the Comex a few years ago, before I scaled back my general trading, out of sense of discouragement in the integrity of their markets. But it is hard to get away from it, since their trades feed into and affect so many other instruments like ETFs, etc. When one take a position in a short ETF like ZSL, for example, one is trading with the Comex by proxy I would imagine.

While I do not believe in 'hanging bankers' at all, I think some serious investigations, indictments, and prison terms for the guilty white collar criminals would do a great deal to stimulate the real economy by reining in the excessive fee-based taxes from the financial sector, and refreshing the price discovery and efficiency of the markets.

But the Obama Administration is reform adverse, especially while collecting its famous billion dollar campaign slush fund. You don't get that kind of money from the "Yes We Can" crowd. And most Republicans are unashamedly servants of the pigmen.

Here is a nice, concise analysis of the Obama Administration's policy from an interview with William K. Black:

Ryssdal: What about the argument, though, that the financial system is so fragile still, and these cases so complicated, that we can’t really tear things apart with substantive investigations and prosecutions because it will all fall apart again?

Black: Yeah, that’s an excellent point. We should leave felons in charge of our largest financial institutions as a means of achieving financial stability.

Ryssdal: See, that’s funny because I was expecting you to come back with — I don’t know, JPMorgan earned $5 billion last quarter. How shaky can they be?

I am now flat in my trading account, and am not sure about putting on trades for the holiday weekend.

Gold and Silver Options Expiration At the Comex This Week

As a caution, not all option expirations are created equal, in terms of the shenanigans and market moves that they precipitate.

The breakout in gold and silver came off an option expiration.

SP 500 and NDX March Futures Daily Charts: Option Expiration and Brave New Bubble

More melt-up trade on thin volumes, not indicative of confidence, but mere momentum trading by gambling hands holding hot money courtesy of the Fed.

The market is now entering bubble territory, being artificially driven too far and too fast. Once again the Fed and Treasury are trying to use Wall Street to create a recovery in the real economy rather than reflect or even anticipate it. This sort of trickle down economic quackery has failed twice so far at least, generating bubbles that are followed by even more severe declines.

The US is caught in a credibility trap. They cannot perform effective change without admitting the corruption and placing the powerful status quo at risk. So this will continue until there is an unavoidable crisis.

Well as should be clear from the last few days of monetary mumbo jumbo, to the modern economic mind perception is everything and the truth is what we say it is. It does not matter if you feel good and are healthy, as long as you look good. And the pervasive accounting frauds have made the US economy look better than it is.

After the bell FedEx lowered its forecast based on the rising cost of fuel.

JP Morgan placed a downgrade on Wal mart.

I cannot help but wonder what games will be played on this option expiration in such a thinly traded, over inflated market.

The way I would tend to play this market is hedged or flat, or very cynically short term if I had a mind to that sort of thing.  

Wait for three down days to play for the short side or a break of key support, or some unavoidable trigger event that reveals the hollow nature of the recovery.

As a reminder this is option expiration week in the US equity markets, so expect a lot of short term 'technical trade.'

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts: Bear Raids Abounding - Trading Range?

Note: addition in gold chart showing a potential trading range

At last a change of pace!

A series of determined and very heavy-handed bear raids took down both gold and silver in the afternoon trade, and of course their associated investments.

It is a bit early for an options expiration smackdown. The only thing I see on the economic calendar is the Consumer Price Index report for December. Today's Initial Jobless Claims number was a high end buzz kill, but the Street brushed it off.

It looks as though gold may enter a trading range here, as a determined effort to stop its advance gains seasonal traction. I think the 1455 target should be set aside if a trading trading range develops more fully, and a breakout target be set instead. Let's wait and see what happens around January 24 week.

As a reminder, US markets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.

Gold and Silver Option Expiration in a Holiday Shortened Week in the US

It's that time again, another option expiration next week on November 23 for the Comex gold and silver options. And it will be a short week because of the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the states.

Generally the game is for the wiseguys on the exchange to stuff the call options buyers by driving the price below the largest groupings of calls. And if a large number of calls are converted to futures positions they like to take the price down again in the two days following expiration.

But keep in mind that the breakout in the metals was done in an expiration gambit that failed, in which the smart money was caught offsides of a failed attempt to push the price down, and fueled a sharp rally on short covering of their own.

James Turk provides a not dissimilar observation in his own way here, but much more confidently seasoned perhaps than your humble proprietaire.

So let's see what happens.

Gold and Silver Options Expiration

Those who hold in-the-money options receive long and short positions in the futures today. Sometimes they like to run the stops to test the new hands on board.

Just in case you were wondering.

The Sprott Silver Trust is pricing tonight as well I believe.

Option Expiration and A Few Dates and Facts Worth Noting

As a reminder today is stock option expiration in the States.

Precious metals options expiration for November will be next week.

The US 2010 elections will be held on the first Tuesday in November which is the 2nd.

The Federal Reserve will be meeting on Wednesday 3 November, and is widely expected to be announcing a new quantitative easing program, particularly after the preface which Mr. Bernanke delivered today.

As an aside October 2010 is unusual in that it contains five full weekends, a welcome rest before the great events to come.

This is among my favorite times of the year, as the heat of summer gives way to the pleasant warm days and cool nights of autumn, and expectations of the harvest holidays and family gatherings rise, culminating in Christmas week and the beginning of a new year. The cycle of nature cares little for the comings and goings of men.

And finally, an interesting graph showing the percentage of gold as an investment in global portfolios.

Gold Daily Chart; Shock and Awe for Comex Option Expiration

Today is yet another Comex option expiry, and the metals, which have been subject to bear raids for the past week, were hit hard and heavy from the New York crowd. This is also the "roll" week, as anyone not intending or funded to take delivery of August gold has to be out of their long positions by the end of the day Thursday.

Why anyone would bother to invest in Comex options is beyond me, or Comex futures for that matter, given the position abuses it tolerates. While we welcome Bart Chilton's stirring message of reform, we'll have to wait and see what the actions taken by the CFTC in position limits and disruptive manipulation are. I think the traders on the NY commodities exchanges have given Bart their answer to his proposed changes, and put him in his place.



Besides the usual market manipulation generally seen around key events like the end of quarter or an option expiration, what reason is there for this incessant capping and smackdowns of the precious metals? Is it a simple question of confidence in the dollar? Surely it is not because of the $30 billion being made available for subsidized small business lending. Or are their preparations being made for another large round of Quantitative Easing II, or even the pre-emptive bombing of Iran? It is hard to say, since the fraud option has been on the table as an instrument of US policy since the 1990's at least.

Obama has proven to be a good talker for reform but a very poor performer when it comes to curbing the excesses of his supporters and contributors at the large corporations particularly in the financial sector. This taints his entire administration.

At 11:00 AM



Here is an intraday update on the Gold Daily Chart. 1166.50 is an important level because it marks a prior low. We have reached it intraday today, so we would look for some support and a potential double bottom.

The formation as a 'cup and handle' is still valid, with the retracement less than 50% off the final high (1154 would be 50%) but there are other formations worth considering. We'll keep an open mind on that depending on how this week finishes.



Unfortunately for Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke, and their friends at the BIS, they have not yet figured out how to print physical gold, silver, and the world is reaching the point where it might start simply ignoring the New York markets with respect to essential commodities such as basic materials, oil, foodstuffs, metals, and the like, as they become increasingly irrelevant, fraudulent, and Orwellian. And then where will the financial engineers be, except with no more excuses and no place to hide?

Gold Daily Chart: Déjà Vu All Over Again

A glance at the chatboards and the technical analysts last night cast quite a bit of gloom over the precious metals and the gold chart in particular after the smackdown in price it received after hitting another new all time high. Even some normally steadfast analysts seemed to lose their nerve at that big red 'engulfing candle.'

It didn't help apparently to have noted last week that gold almost always gets hit in an option expiration week, to a great or lesser degree depending on the underlying contract's popularity and the distribution of puts and calls. (Note 1) And of course this is an FOMC two day meeting week as well. Benjy and his mutts are all about the confidence game these days, and Larry Summers is the hairy-knuckled persuader who can move markets and destroy wealth, at least in the short term.

Some of it is disinformation from traders at hedge funds who spread rumours to support their own positions. Some of it is the natural exuberance of those who are hopeful but long suffering from being on the wrong side of a bull market. Even worse are those who simply ignore the markets and pursue some misplaced theory or belief for which they are willing to sacrifice themselves, and hopefully you, if they can manage it.

If you look at this chart below, as gold climbs within 'the handle,' it tends to get hit at the top of the channel with bear raids and profit taking, and then finds a footing near the bottom as the shorts cover and the hot money moves back in. It has done this twice now most recently. Why it comes as such a surprise that it is doing the same thing again is tied perhaps to the memory span of the markets now, which is about a day. This is a day traders market overall, and this is not a good thing.

This does not mean that the price of gold cannot drop from here and go lower, or even break down through support and change its trend. But it does mean that it has not done so yet.

It appears highly probable, to the point that I will be happily surprised if it does not, that the price of gold will go back down to test that trendline support, and set a firmer low, shaking out more weak hands. But anticipating the market too much to the upside or the downside is how speculators lose their nerve, or their money, which is consumed by losses, fees, and commissions through over-trading. They overleverage, overextend, and then throw their positions away at highs or lows.

And as for all these hysterical 'forecasters,' so certain of what will come next, and most often repeating the same, tired memes at every opportunity, keep in mind the old saying, "The words of the wise considered in quiet are better heeded than the shouts of a ruler among his fools." Ecclesiastes 8:17

Listen to all worth hearing, especially inviting a diversity of informed opinion, but allow the market and your own calm reason to instruct your actions. There is nothing more powerfully wrong and corrosively dangerous to your money than self-reinforcing group thought. I have seen the evolution of this condition on many chatboards as moderators and powerful and persistent posters start suppressing, first through peer pressure and then through outright bans and censorship, even fact based dissenting thought, contrary judgements, and evidence not supporting their assumptions.

I do not know which way this market will go, up or down. I like to think that I know what to look for by now, and how to listen to what the evidence of the markets is saying to us. All the rest is discipline, perseverance, and money management. Most professional traders find their niche in some market inefficiency or informational asymmetry, and leverage it with their deep pockets, certainly deeper and better connected than yours. As an amateur you cannot hope to compete against them in their short term games. But pride and greed have a siren's song.

If you cannot make decisions and reason calmly when trading, then you are trading to lose, and should just stop it, now. This HFT-driven trading is THE worst market for cheap tricks and outright scams that I have ever seen. Even though they are stealing pennies, it is over millions of transactions, and it debilitates the trade. The silver market in particular is a shame, although we have seen similar manipulation in the energy markets by the likes of Enron for example, that brought one of the US' largest states literally to its knees. And still there is no reform.

Find some safe harbor and stay there, and stop venturing out in dangerous and unfamiliar waters. Better to take an adequate, modest gain than to suffer an immodest loss. You are just feeding the sharks, and they do not need the encouragement.



Note 1: On the Comex / Nymex, the metals options for the GC contract expire on the fourth business days prior to the underlying contract's delivery month. If that day is a Friday or the day before an exchange holiday, then it is the day before that. This is the 24th of June for the July contracts. There is something known as 'Asia Gold' and 'Asia Silver' that have a different expiry, but they seem to be an odd product designed to capture Asian business and has a metric specification and no volumes. For the US contract based options it is the 24th.

Net Asset Values of Precious Metal Trusts and Funds in an Option Expiration Week

Although there will be plenty of commentary seeking some 'fundamental' reason for this pullback in gold and silver, I was looking for it, and noted last week that this week is the option expiration for the July contracts on the COMEX.

This is the kind of weakness I like to buy in adding to the 'long gold / short stocks' hedge I am running. It takes some guts but that is why we use charts to help take the emotion out of your decision and maintain a perspective. It also helps to ignore non-sensical forecasts and book-talking from chatboards and analysts who live in perpetual fantasies that come alive periodically when the market gives them a random nod. If you really want to see the worst in human nature, become a trader.

It really is that obvious anymore. Words like 'malfeasance' or at least 'nonfeasance' in office come to mind when considering the regulators at the CFTC and the SEC, their bosses, and the appropriate oversight in the Congress.

When there is a default on delivery, as I suspect there will be, I would hope that the usual 'non-involvement' and personal incompetency defenses will not be so easily accepted by a long-suffering public.

As a reminder, the GTU shelf offering closes on June 23.

SP 500 Daily Chart and The Planet of the Apes

The SP futures declined to briefly touch a channel trendline that goes all the way back to the intraday spike lows of October 2009!

The market is rallying sharply now, and if it can retake the old support, now resistance, around 1105 it has a good chance of setting a new uptrend back to the top of the channel. This could just be a dead cat bounce. I was looking at some of the indicators last night, and they were at record oversold levels going back at least four years, including the crash.

Was all this a trading gambit mixed with petulance over the financial reform package? In a normal market I would say "nonsense." But this market is thin, like a Ponzi scheme, driven by high frequency trading and artificial liquidity. The few genuine investors are being chased and shot down like the human beings in The Planet of the Apes. The Wall Street gorillas have all the horses, nets and rifles, courtesy of the government, the regulators, and the Fed.

The smackdown in gold and silver ahead of option expiration next week, and the miners' option expiration today, was some of the most blatant and heavy handed market manipulation I have seen in a long time.

The US is badly in need of adult supervision and behavioural modification. Not the much maligned people, the long suffering public which seeks only to go about its daily business creating wealth in the real economy in the face of mounting hardships, but rather the corrupt and irresponsible government, and the pampered princes of Wall Street, who are engaged primarily in wealth extraction and redistribution, primarily for themselves.

Washington can pass all the reforms it wishes. But until it obtains the will and the regulators to enforce the laws, including the existing laws, it is all merely a show to placate the public and maintain a misplaced confidence in 'extend and pretend' sustained by self-serving neo-liberal economic mythology.

"Meanwhile, the financial sector is to be enriched by the translation of junk economics into international policy. Living in the short run is the financial sector¹s time frame ­ while distracting the attention of indebted populations from calculations that Wall Street understands quite well: the debts cannot be paid in the end.

But they can be paid in the short run, with promises to pay someday ­ as if any economies ever have been able to grow by imposing austerity! It is all junk economics, of course. But it buys time for the bankers to pay themselves yet more bonuses this year. By the time the financial system collapses, they presumably will have put their money into hard assets.

Bank lobbyists know that the financial game is over. They are playing for the short run. The financial sector’s aim is to take as much bailout money as it can and run, with large enough annual bonuses to lord it over the rest of society after the Clean Slate finally arrives. Less public spending on social programs will leave more bailout money to pay the banks for their exponentially rising bad debts that cannot possibly be paid in the end. It is inevitable that loans and bonds will default in the usual convulsion of bankruptcy."

Michael Hudson

As the crisis continues unreformed, the frauds will become increasingly outrageous, and obvious, to all those with a willingness, and yes the courage, to see things as they really are.