Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Metals Rally, Miners Spanked on Stock Option Expiry

"Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole. If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable."

London Banker, Lies, Damn Lies, and Libor


"Delivery takes on a note of finality, of a reckoning, when the available supply has become rehypothecated into little more than a digital entry and a state of mind. The unanswered call for delivery begins the final lifting of the veil."

Jesse

Gold managed to hold a rally around 1090 and silver at 14 almost on the nose.

Some of the miners were spanked, in what could have been related to the January stock option expiry.  Or not.  

There is a general repricing of the mispriced risks from last year going on if you had not noticed in the general equity markets.  It is possible that the miners are being caught up in that urge to liquidate uncertainty.  A miner is a leveraged 'if-come' bet on the metal with varying degrees of uncertainty.

If the trends continue as they are then this is the year I think we may see the first very visible (to the general public) manifestations of the divergence between synthetic gold derivatives trading and the physical gold bullion trade.   But let's wait for that event to happen in its own time.

I have made up the new calendars for gold futures and futures options for 2016 and have included them both below.

The Bucket Shop was quiet as usual, although we saw a little action in silver.

As a reminder the US markets will be closed for the observance of Martin Luther King day on Monday.

Please try to carry on without their guidance with regard to values.

Have a pleasant weekend.  See you on Monday evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Options Expiry and a Retail Flop

Retail sales came in plug ugly this morning, and stocks sold off.  It certainly landed a surprise to the stock option dip buyers who braved these storm-tossed markets and got appropriately tossed.

The elite class is beginning to acknowledge that keeping the working class down as the 'working poor' is not good for sales, especially when the common people have exhausted their ability to mortgage their futures.  They are struggling to pay all their bank fees, rents, and healthcare.

But for now at least most of the privileged class just seem puzzled.  Why aren't the puppies eating our puppy chow?

If the old saying that 'as goes January so goes the year' holds true then hang on to your hats.  Although it should be noted that we are only halfway through January.

US markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King day.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - C'est la Même Chose

Gold and silver were hit by selling starting in the overnight, but gathering a little more momentum in the late London and early NY trading in synthetic paper metals.

There was a dribble of 'physical' gold deliveries in The Bucket Shop yesterday, and nothing for silver.

There was minimal movement in the warehouses once again.

To consistently complain about market manipulation and being bullied, while doing nothing or speaking out in favor of those who bully others in different ways is the height of foolishness.

No justice for some implies no justice for all, given time. One has to read history and consider the human situation with open eyes to see this sort of thing.

Personal egoism tends to persuade the individual that 'they are different,' they are better than these others, and will certainly be favored by the powerful and the sociopaths who pillage these others who probably deserve it.

This is the great weakness in too many reform movements and efforts to improve the human condition. They are merely other forms of selfishness and pride wrapped up in base hypocrisy.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Flippity Flop

Stocks were in rally mode today, in an attempt to dampen fear and encourage confidence.

While they were most likely short term oversold, the 'rally' was all artifice, and had the feel of the kind of forced cheeriness in the big household during times of plague.

And so the half-hearted rally faded into the close.

The economic news this morning was rather poor.  And yet there was happy talk being given out by the creatures of the financial sector, both in the States and the UK.

There will be no sustainable rally based on fundamentals, and no general return to prosperity and growth, until the system is reformed.

As Simon Johnson noted a few years ago, there has been a financial coup d'etat.  We talk about these things like they are abstractions, almost stories, things that are happening to someone else.

But it is real, and it is affecting your lives, and the real economy, every day.

Have a pleasant evening.