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.

Full Text of CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton's Statement on Market Manipulation

Has the US financial media mentioned or even discussed this? Today the Bloomberg television news people are busy discussing the World Wrestling Federation, a caricature of sport analagous to the Comex and NYSE as financial markets.

Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Public Hearing on Anti-Manipulation and Disruptive Trading Practices
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I take this opportunity to comment on the precious metals markets and in particular the silver markets.

More than two years ago the agency began an investigation into silver markets. I have been urging the agency to say something on the matter for months. The public deserves some answers to their concerns that silver markets are being, and have been, manipulated.

The legal definition of manipulation under the law is a high bar to prove. It is a much different test than what the average person might consider as manipulation. Under existing law, to prove manipulation, the government is required to demonstrate not only specific intent; we also need to prove that as a result of the intent and market control, that activity caused an artificial price -- a point that can certainly be debated by economists.

Attempted manipulation is less difficult to prove -- requiring an intent to manipulate and some overt act in furtherance of that intent. There are also other violations of law that could contort markets and distort prices.

I believe that there have been repeated attempts to influence prices in the silver markets. There have been fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control that price. Based on what I have been told by members of the public and reviewed in publicly available documents, I believe violations to the Commodity Exchange Act have taken place in silver markets and that any such violation of the law in this regard should be prosecuted.

In saying this, I am fully aware of the prohibition from divulging trader names or information about their positions I am extremely careful not to violate the law in this, or any, regard. I also cannot pre-judge anything the agency may do with regard to our silver investigation, or any other matter.

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which I strongly supported, contains new manipulation provisions as well as anti-disruptive trading rules. These new authorities, along with the implementation of thoughtful position limits in metals, will go a long way toward ensuring more efficient and effective metals markets devoid of fraud, abuse, and manipulation.

Thoughtful investigations take time. The CFTC staff has worked extremely hard on the silver investigation. That said, there is a point at which it is our responsibility to say something. Within the law, I have done so. I am hopeful that the agency will speak publicly about the investigation in the very near future and when they do so that it will be in a more granular fashion than I am permitted from doing at this time.

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)