Just think of the markets and some big money trying to steal as much money as possible from the casino. You'll understand its moves much better.
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pmbug said:Free float gold stock (ie. actually available - not owned by ETFs or the Bank of England) in the LBMA + COMEX vaults as of the end of July was only ~2,375 metric tons. At $4,500/ozt, that's ~$344B. A rotation of just ~0.1% of that $350T would be enough to wipe out the entire available inventory of currently vaulted Good Delivery gold bars in Western markets.
The math is even more striking with silver (it's a much smaller market). Free float silver stock in the LBMA + COMEX vaults as of the end of July was only ~15,330 metric tons. At $80/ozt, that's $39.4B (10x smaller than gold). Just 0.01% of the $350T would wipe out available inventory of currently vaulted Good Delivery silver bars in Western markets.
pmbug said:LBMA gold and silver supply is likely shrinking as spot prices are rising relative to COMEX futures.
EFP spreads (COMEX futures price - LBMA spot price) for August & September contracts continued to drop this morning with silver's Sep COMEX contract EFP spread flipping negative and gold's Aug COMEX contract EFP spread at >$5 below LBMA spot - the most it's been since early July.
LBMA prices are rising relative to COMEX futures. It's likely, IMO, that this is reflecting shrinking supply of available metal in the LBMA vaults (ie. free float vault stock). This would make sense as ETFs, China and India are all reporting increasing vault stocks. The ETF's gains are the LBMA's drains.
China and India could possibly be sourcing their inflows from somewhere other than the LBMA, but it's pretty safe to say they aren't sourcing from the COMEX directly (as COMEX withdrawals are low for August). The LBMA is the most likely venue (especially for India as that has been their preferred venue in the recent past).
I think there is a good chance the LBMA gets squeezed again before the end of this year if the current trend continues.