Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Option Expiration Next Monday

Intraday commentary here.

Another day, another raid by the gangs of New York. And an abject failure of leadership, globally.

"Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.  True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition.

Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence.

They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Don't Fight the Fraud

There are many reasons offered to buy equities.

One of the reasons being touted lately is that with bonds in a bubble, and nowhere to go but down, and money leaving commodities, equities are the only place for money to go to obtain a fair return.

But there was another reason offered today on US financial television that had me gobsmacked, as my British cousins say.

The guest said that the market was 'rigged to go higher.'

So obviously one should not short it, and staying out of it is not such a good play either. Rather, if you know the dice is going to come up the same way each time, you need to get in on the betting, whether it makes sense otherwise or not.

Now I've heard everything. Don't fight the fraud.

After the bell, Dell beat earnings by a penny.

What hath Ben wrought.

Don't ask why; just buy.

Comex Metals Option Expiration For Remainder of the Year - Hedge Fund Buying Metal Shares

As a reminder, next Monday is the March option expiration for gold and silver at the Comex.

Here is an interesting blurb on the steps the government of India is taking to dampen gold imports: fractional reserve bullion. I wonder where they got this idea?

"The government recently stopped requiring gold-backed exchange-traded funds to hold physical gold in the amount of their sales. Instead, the funds will be allowed to deposit some gold with banks who in turn can lend it to jewelers, which in theory should reduce imports for a time."

India Cultural Demand Defies Gold Curbs

And there is this tidbit:

"SAC Capital Partners LP, a $20 billion dollar group of hedge funds founded by Stephen A. Cohen, quietly positioned itself in over $240 million dollars worth of gold, silver, and mining share investments during Q4 2012.

Of great interest is the structure of those positions. They are indicating, that the firm is expecting a massive spike in both gold and silver, as well as a staggering move higher in the mining shares."

SAC Puts $240 Million into Gold/Silver/Mining Shares Investments

As you may recall, it is Stevie Cohen's cohorts who are being frisked up for having traded on non-public information. Naw, couldn't be.

About that FDIC Controversy, and Some Other Internet Rumours

I answered a few emails on this a week or so ago, but the issue seems to have come back again.

There was a change in the aggregation of accounts at the FDIC as of 31 Dec 2012. That change rolled back a consideration that had been granted for 'non-interest bearing transactional accounts' held at a bank. Such an account is what is normally considered a checking account. Those were to be aggregated with the other accounts of the account holder.

But in terms of aggregation, nothing else changed. Some people said the rule would aggregate ALL accounts at ALL banks to a single Social Security number in the amount of $250,000.

This is not what the FDIC said, not at all.  And there updated information from 1 January 2013 confirms this.

The aggregation rules are still based on a 'per bank' basis. And within that bank, those rules are roughly as follows per the FDIC's webpage.

I do not know the future. Some will ask, 'well do you trust the ....?'    Probably not, and I tend to trust in God, and look at the data for everything else. But there is a wide gap between blind trust and just making things up.   And it is there that we must make our stand, on as firm a ground as we can find.

It is not unreasonable to believe that dollar debts will be paid in devalued dollars, and there will be de facto defaults as well.   This has been going on for quite some time, and there is plenty of historical precedent.  Much of the hoohah going on in politics revolves around the allocation of financial pain.

There are legitimate concerns, and fears, and phantoms.   The difference between the first two is the difference between probability and possibility.  And with regard to the last, it is a terror of the imagination that is inimical to reason and to a rewarding life and the refuge of despair.

We entering a time of rumour and hysteria. I have been hearing some rather crazy things, about the Mormons buying up all the real estate of California, and the Queen of England buying up Nevada.  And some other things I do not care to even mention in this Café, from the usual repugnant sources of fear and hatred and violence about the usual victims of prejudice. 

Because to do that is not to stand with the truth as we can know it, even if we think we are wallowing with those in the mud for 'the right ends' and things we may sincerely believe.   That merely serves the madness, which serves none but itself.  

If hatred and fear crowd out the reason, and love, in our words and our minds, we have probably gone off the path.