Shorts loading up on SLV; physical being withdrawn

[PMBug]

A quick review of Shortsqueeze.com indicates that the SLV's short interest increased by 6.71%, or 1,670,600 shares (ounces) in the past week! Even more astonishing, the SLV has reportedly had over 3 million ounces of silver withdrawn since the beginning of January- likely deposited directly into COMEX vaults.

At 26.57 million, the short interest in the SLV is a whopping 8.7% of the entire 305 million shares of SLV! ...

http://silverdoctors.blogspot.com/20...s-to-2657.html

[swissaustrian]

For a minute, I thought somebody might speculate on slv blowing up as a scam, then I read this:

As Ted Butler has long argued, such an extreme naked short position of the SLV is pure manipulation aimed at preventing the SLV from holding 26.57 million ounces of silver that would otherwise be required to be held by the fund. 27 million ounces of silver is almost an entire year's US production! Don't expect Blackrock, the CFTC, or the SEC to do anything about this anytime soon however. In fact, if anything- expect the cartel's manipulation of silver via the SLV to only intensify as the COMEX fades into irrelevance.

[PMBug]

I think this lends more credence to the idea that there is a real shortage of physical silver (in large, [serialized?] bars favored by SLV, PSLV, IRAs, etc.).

[ancona]

I would bet that the number of institutionally held serialized good delivery bars of silver has dropped significantly in the last three years. When silver got smashed during the massive post-Lehman liquidation, there were some very astute investors who could see through the fog of obfuscation, and knew instinctively that silver was brought down through paper vehicles, not organic selling of bars. Once all the paper finished burning, those who grabbed the bars have held on to them and are still holding them, because when you manage to get silver at 12 - 15 dollars, and get it at quantity, you have to know the move will richly reward you if you are patient about it.

I would hazard a guess and say that some of the selling when silver was between 40 and 49 was some of these very people, simply cashing out their original investment, and keeping the difference in physical metals.

I sold 1k oz. at 44, and saw nearly 300% profit. I have yet to buy it all back, but did pick up about 400 at 29. Suffice it to say that I am waiting, just as we all are waiting, for the time to come when we truly need to liquidate our metals simply to pay our bills, because fiat is no longer trusted. I believe we are getting closer to that time every day.