Precious Metals Holdings and Commitments of Traders

Thanks to Nick at goldchartsrus.com for the charts as always.

Precious Metal Holdings and Commitments of Traders

Thanks to Nick Laird the data wrangler at goldchartsrus.com as always.

Precious Metals Holdings and Commitments of Traders

"Who can stop a people determined to be rich without productive labor, and with a self-obsession capable of subordinating even heaven to their personal greed and vanity?  This will end in an ocean of tears."

Jesse, 9 Nov 2009

Precious Metals Holdings and Commitments of Traders

Gold and Silver Commitments, Holdings, and Technicals - What Is Hidden Will Be Revealed

"Gold will be around, gold will be money when the dollar and the euro and the yuan and the ringgit are mere memories."

Richard Russell


"'We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market,' says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. 'They were totally opposed to it,' Born says. 'That puzzled me.  What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?'"

PBS Frontine, The Warning


"Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history.  But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood. For these few gold has been the asset of last resort."

Antony C. Sutton


"Gold in US dollars is 25.7 % away from its all time high.

Gold in renminbi is 13.8 % away from its all time high.

Gold in euros is 3.2 % away from its all time high.

In many other (major) currencies gold is at an all time high."

Jan Nieuwenhuijs, the artist formerly known as Koos Jansen

Gold and Silver Fund and ETF Flows and the Commitments of Traders Market Positioning

Physical gold continues to come out of the funds and trusts.  Silver shows no such withdrawals.

When gold starts to rally again, that physical gold is going to have to be bought back, and probably at increasing prices on the market.  Much of this physical gold has already made its way to the markets and vaults in Asia, and not likely to return anytime soon.

With regard to the commitments of traders, the readings for both metals are at some historical extremes, suggesting a rally ahead when the positions revert to the mean.

We have a slam dunk FOMC meeting and an option expiration on the Comex this week ahead, and another Non-Farm Payrolls report the following week.

Gold Market Structure - Little Red Riding Hood

We have not seen a market structure like this since the beginning of 2009.  It appears to be tilted towards a significant trend change.

Although we have to remember that this structure is on the COMEX, which is becoming a market involved largely in the movement of paper, rather than a mechanism for the efficient discovery of price and the allocation of capital to resources.

These charts are all from Sharelynx.com, the precious metals information place.

Hey there Little Red Riding Hood....

CFTC to Begin Releasing New Commitments of Traders Reports on US Futures Markets

A step in the right direction for sure.

A much needed enhancement would be to report the five largest position holders in key markets, on the long and short side over a certain size limit on a weekly basis.

Release: 5710-09
For Release: September 2, 2009

CFTC Implements New Transparency Efforts to Promote Market Integrity

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it will begin implementing new transparency efforts outlined in a July 7, 2009, statement by CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler. Starting Friday, September 4, 2009, the CFTC will begin disaggregating the data in its weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) reports and begin releasing, on a quarterly basis, data collected from an ongoing special call on swap dealers and index traders in the futures markets.

“A core mission of the CFTC is to promote market transparency,” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said. “Last September, the CFTC recommended disaggregating our weekly Commitments of Traders reports. In July, I announced that we would also periodically release data on index investors’ participation in the commodity futures markets. I am pleased that as of Friday, September 4, we will be able to take these steps toward increased transparency. For the first time, we will break out managed money and swaps in our COT reports and release information on index investment to give the public a better of view of trading activity in the futures markets.”

Commitments of Traders (COT) Reports

For decades, the CFTC has provided the futures industry with COT reports consisting of aggregated large-trader position data to shed light on the changing composition of the markets. The reports are based on a request by Congress for an annual report, upon passage of original enabling legislation in the 1920’s, and have been intensified over time into weekly reports in several formats and a weekly Commodity Index Supplement for 12 agricultural markets, begun in January 2007.

Beginning Friday, September 4, 2009 (for data as of September 1, the CFTC will publish additional COT data for 22 contract markets, including major agriculture, energy and metals markets. The COT reports currently break traders into two broad categories: commercial and noncommercial. The new reports will improve upon the existing reports by breaking the data into four categories of traders: Producer/Merchant/Processor/User; Swap Dealers; Managed Money; and Other Reportables.

The CFTC intends to produce the same disaggregated data on all of the remaining physical commodity markets for which we currently publish COT data. The agency will continue to also release the traditional COT reports for a transition period until at least the end of 2009. This will allow the public to become familiar with the new reports as well as comment to the CFTC as to any further possible enhancements (Comments should be submitted via email to secretary@cftc.gov by October 1, 2009). The CFTC also plans to soon release three years of historical data for the new report.

The CFTC also is working to create a new COT for all of the financial markets in a form that will improve the transparency of those markets. The categories of this new financial COT may be different from those being applied to the physical markets, described above.

The CFTC is concurrently working on improvements to the agency’s Form 40 and other methodologies to improve the accuracy of trader classifications.

See Disaggregated COT Explanatory Notes under Related Documents for additional information.

Index Investment Data

In addition to disaggregating the CFTC’s COT reports, the agency will begin periodically releasing data on index investment in the commodity futures markets. In September, 2008, the CFTC published a Report on Swap Dealers and Index Traders that was based on data received from our special call authority. The CFTC continued this special call and enhanced the information disseminated in the September report. Starting Friday, September 4, the agency will begin releasing the data on a quarterly basis with a goal of eventually releasing this data monthly.

The new data will include both gross long and gross short positions and will update data in the previously released report to include some additional data.