Gold & Precious Metals

Congrats to the gold bears and stock bulls! After being slaughtered for the majority of the last decade and more, they finally won a victory. Golf clap for you gentlemen. Now you can have your day in the sun once again. US stocks are at all-time highs and Gold sucks again! You won’t have to listen to your clients bitch and moan about how you ignored, avoided or were underweight the bull market of our time. Time to crow!

I awoke on Monday to a link from a subscriber. It was an editorial titled, “The Day that Gold Died.” The author cited the usual, clueless and baseless arguments both to why folks buy gold and why gold sucks as an investment. It is nothing more than a flimsy rant.  He also cited a “marvelous takedown” by Barry Ritholtz, a formerly humble and generally impartial commentator who is now enjoying mainstream notoriety.

The worst and most natural, instinctive error these chaps and all gold haters make is to immediately refer to gold is an end of the world investment. This would be the most bizarre and ridiculous argument for gold. If the world ends, then how do you collect on it? If society breaks down for a period of time, then what good will Gold do for you, ahead of a farm?

Do central banks buy Gold because they think the end of the world is coming? If Gold is an “end of the world” investment, then why the hell do western central banks own the vast majority of their reserves in Gold? And why are emerging central banks buying Gold?

It’s because Gold is money and has been the only form of money to last for thousands of years. Not too long ago it was legally part of the monetary system. Since that change in 1971, the S&P 500 has advanced from 88 to 1541 while Gold has moved from $35/oz to $1395/oz (as I pen this). Even with the latest slide in Gold, it has still crushed the S&P 500 by rising 40-fold compared to just 17.5 fold for the S&P 500.

Gold’s tremendous increase in value (since its removal from the monetary system) over a long period of time shows its value as a speculation but more importantly, a currency. Though it fluctuates greatly during each cycle, over the very long-term it is the strongest reserve asset. This is why central banks buy it, hold it and accumulate it. It’s a no-brainer. Jim Grant put it best when he said gold is a hedge against monetary disorder.

Now let me get back to this supposed “marvelous takedown” from Ritholtz.

First he cites that the US$ is at a 3-year high and that Gold rallied when the buck fell from 2001-2007. First, let me note what few analysts know. When it comes to important market moves, Gold usually leads the US$. Does Ritholtz know that the US$ bottomed in late 1978 while Gold soon advanced 400% until its top in early 1980? Does he know that each of Gold’s recent major bottoms (2000, 2005, 2008) occurred before the US$ topped? The US$ is at the same level it was in late 2004 when Gold was trading below $500/oz. So should Gold be at that level? Surely, a strong US$ is a negative for Gold. However, history shows us that Gold is far more than an anti-dollar bet.

Secondly, as usual we hear this utter nonsense that Gold is a “trade”. It’s a greater fool trade as Ritholtz says. According to Ritholtz, gold trades differently than equities (citing history) because it has no fundamentals (i.e. no earnings, cash flow, etc.). What detractors of Gold should say is, because it produces nothing and is hard to value, it is never an investment and always a speculation.

Getting back to his point, can we check the charts of the last 10-15 years? Which one is a trade and which is in a bull market? There is a difference between a trade and a secular trend (i.e. a bull market). The bull market is in Gold while equities with their 15-year zigzag, clearly should have been traded back and forth.

Ritholtz totally bungles this argument. He cites history but fails to mention that Gold and equities trade inversely over long cycles. Equities were in a secular bear from 1966 to 1982 while gold stocks were in a bull from 1960 to 1980 and gold in a bull from 1969 to 1980. Then precious metals experienced a vicious bear market in the 1980s and 1990s while equities performed fantastically. Since 2000 stocks have been in a bear market and precious metals in a bull.

There is a reason for this long-term cyclicality. Stocks begin a bear market at times of major economic excess. Naturally, the economy corrects the excesses while at the same time, government increases its spending and the Fed cuts rates to soften the impact of long-term recessionary forces. Furthermore, real interest rates are typically negative to ensure more money comes out of cash and fixed income. Stocks struggle through these periods and hard assets (especially precious metals) perform well. Ultimately, the private sector is able to work through the problems and high commodity prices induce greater supply, which quells future inflation and results in an extended bear market.

This entire argument between stock bulls and gold bugs ultimately comes down to one thing. Has the secular tide shifted? Was this the major top in Gold on par with 1980?

Let’s compare some performance numbers. In the previous bull market, Gold gained about 25-fold. In this one, its gained nearly 7.5-fold. In the final 12 months of the previous bull market, Gold gained 282%. The 12 months before the 2011 peak, Gold gained about 55%. The last three years of each? It’s 577% (1977-1980) and 156% (2008-2011).

Gold corrected about 45% after its peak at the end of 1974. In the 13 months leading up to that peak, Gold gained 116% versus 59% for this bull market. In the 24 months leading up to that top Gold gained about 200% versus about 100% for this bull market.

In terms of the numbers, the most recent top in Gold comes nowhere close to the bubble peak of 1980 nor is it close to the peak in 1974 which was followed by a 45% downturn. Calling Gold a bubble just proves you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Furthermore, we’ve noted that the Barron’s Gold Mining Index, which was in a bull market from 1960 to 1980, experienced two substantial downturns of 61% (1968-1969) and 68% (1972-1974) before rising about 7-fold from 1976 to 1980. The HUI Gold Bugs Index declined about 71% in 2008 and as of yesterday was down about 60% since its 2011 peak.

History argues that equities will remain in a secular bear market. The three previous secular bear markets lasted 20, 13 and 16 years. The shortest commodity bull market, the last one, is 13 years long. It is highly unlikely that the commodity bull market ended in 2011 at 12 years old. The shortest bull market is not likely to be followed by an even shorter one. Furthermore, its highly unlikely the bear market in equities ended at 9 years when the others range from 13 to 20 years.  Moreover, valuations at the 2009 bottom did not come close to where they were in 1921, 1942, 1946 or 1982.

Also, consider the Gold versus the S&P 500 ratio. It peaked in 1942 at 4.3 and in 1980 at 5.8. In 2011 it peaked at 1.7. Judging from history that was nowhere close to bubble territory.

Meanwhile, the macro backdrop remains extremely supportive of precious metals. Real interest rates are negative and will remain so for years as governments try to “QE” their way through the coming sovereign debt crisis. Do stock bulls honestly think governments will be able to continue to print money to buy their own bonds and stocks will go up 10% a year, there will be no inflation and commodities will decline? (Barry, isn’t this the recency effect you speak of?) This reminds me of the folk who denied the housing bubble or thought we weren’t in a recession in spring 2008. What happens when governments and central banks lose control of the bond markets and interest rates start rising? I’ll tell you what, they’ll print more and more to try to reverse it and rates will still go up.

This is why Kyle Bass and John Paulson aren’t selling. They made assloads of money betting against something that was inevitable and patiently waited. In the meantime, reporters and bloggers can poke fun at them saying the “trade” hasn’t worked or has gone wrong. These folks were never invested in precious metals to begin with and they either can’t see the world beyond a few days or fail to understand the bulletproof case for precious metals.

It’s true that many gold bugs deserve the recent ridicule. When you constantly promote wild conspiracy theories or blame manipulation for your large losses, you lose respect and credibility and you taint gold as an investment. It just makes us look worse.

The stock bulls and gold haters have won the battle but not the war. Sorry guys but your victory lap is premature. Next time you may want to do some real research before writing about Gold unless you just want to do a hit piece or take a victory lap. Precious metals are likely to strongly outperform stocks in the next three to four years. Both are nearing cyclical turning points. Once Gold goes parabolic, that is the signal to abandon ship and get back into stocks.

A sharp rally in the precious metals complex is days or hours away but look for a base building process to follow. Right now the complex is a strong buy. We’ve kept at least 40% cash over the past several months and have scaled in, albeit early. Now is the time to put money to work more aggressively than normal. If you’d be interested in professional guidance in uncovering the producers and explorers poised for big gains in the next few years then we invite you to learn more about our service.  

Good Luck!

Jordan Roy-Byrne, CMT

Jordan@TheDailyGold.com

Can Wall St Continue to Rally W/out the U.S. Economy

Screen shot 2013-04-19 at 6.00.53 AM

Daily S&P 500 June Futures Contract

We haven’t stepped into the Twilight Zone, but it certainly seems that way when stocks are hitting historic highs yet the economy is still so weak that the Federal Reserve is printing money like a Third World nation.

It has the makings of a great prize fight between the largest market in the world and the largest economy in the world.

Can we keep this up? Is this titanic battle going to last like the decades-long Japanese recovery? Will stocks punch themselves out? Can slowing earnings keep stocks soaring?

Here’s the blow by blow so far on what’s causing what I call the Great Discrepancy. Let me know who you think is going to overtake the other.

Below, I tell you what I think is underway.

Creating Value in the Stock Market

Let’s address one of the most fundamental inputs in this situation: stock prices. Company valuations and their stock prices are a function of several inputs; the most important of which are earnings growth expectations and dividends.

One way to look at the price of a stock is to look at the present value of the expected future stream of dividends the company is supposed to pay out. In other words, when you get income from this company in the future, what’s that worth to you now?

You don’t have to apply any modeling to get to your valuation; the market basically does that for you by arriving at a consensus price that incorporates the discount model math.

Most companies that pay solid, steady dividends don’t see their stock price fluctuate too much because they are yield-based investments more than go-go growth investments.

Prices of high-yielding stocks have risen and been strong because investors starved for yield in the fixed income markets have turned to these equities for the income they deliver. And growth investors that were burned in the 2008 meltdown have sought out yields for safety and steady growth.

That’s making income investments very popular across all investor classes.

Dividends come out of earnings, so earnings are important. But for stocks that don’t pay a dividend, earnings (or in the case of crazy Internet-type stocks, would-be earnings) are everything.

Earnings: Good News vs. Bad News

Steady-state earnings don’t do much for stock prices. Earnings growth is the Holy Grail. The good news is that stock prices have been rising, justifiably, on better and better earnings.

The bad news is, those earnings, upon a deeper look, aren’t sustainable if economic growth doesn’t pick up.

Since 2009, earnings on stocks in the S&P 500 have risen collectively some 200%.

Most of those higher net earnings have resulted from cost-cutting, layoffs, productivity increases, favorable tax carry-forwards, refinancing old debt with cheaper low-interest loans, a weak dollar, and accounting gymnastics.

The bad news is over the same period top-line revenues have grown only about 10%.

In other words, in spite of deathly slow domestic growth in the U.S. and slow global growth, American corporations have benefited by leaning themselves out, globalizing their sales to where the growth is, and enjoying a positive currency translation when they account for overseas earnings in terms of cheap dollars.

Central Bank Steroids

Besides inherent valuation measures, stocks are subject to supply and demand equations. If there are more buyers than sellers on any given day, stock prices will rise.

The Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have been providing an extraordinary amount of buying power to short-term investors by flooding banking systems with trillions of dollars, as well as keeping interest rates at rock bottom levels, which adds to investor buying power.

All the stimulus money floating around the world means there’s plenty of money to buy stocks, especially for financial institutions. And when there are more buyers than sellers, stock prices, and this has been happening worldwide, will rise.

So far that’s all been well and good. GDP growth hasn’t had to be the prime mover of stocks. Inherent factors and superficial stimulus have provided the market’s fuel.

But, without strong economic growth, sooner or later, demand alone will prove inadequate in supplying top-line revenue and net earnings growth and stocks could fall.

The Reckoning

The market, which can still be saved hopefully long enough for GDP growth to kick in, and if sidelined investors keep pumping money into new positions, is nonetheless facing another headwind.

Share ownership and investor participation is dwindling in the U.S. as a stagnant economy is reducing the middle-class and their ability to invest in stocks.

According to Federal Reserve data from 2010, while 47.8% of the top 10% of income earning households in America owned stocks directly and 90.1% had retirement accounts averaging $277,000, in middle-income (the 40-60 percentile) households only 11.7% owned stocks directly and 52% had retirement accounts worth an average of only $22,800.

That’s worrisome for the middle-class, the stock market and America.

Entering the 12th Round

The Great Discrepancy has been bridged so far. But, if U.S. domestic growth continues to be lackluster and global growth, which is already slowing, doesn’t pick up robustly it’s unlikely that soaring stocks can keep fighting against what looks like a rope-a-dope opponent.

Is the fight over? By no means. GDP growth can pick up if housing continues to recover, if energy prices keep falling, if manufacturing jobs get repatriated back here, if the Fed stays its easy money course long enough for growth to get to its knees, stand up and start swinging.

Then again, I watched the famous Muhammad Ali-George Foreman fight where Ali took a beating on the ropes from a wildly punching Foreman, until Foreman ran out of gas and Ali outlasted the opponent he called a dope.

That means, don’t be a dope. Ride the rising market but use protective stops to take profits on the way up so you have a sack full of money to buy from the dopes who’ve forgotten that what goes up, must come down, when the big market hits the canvas.

I’ve been keeping an eye on this battle for some time and that’s why I’ve crafted a successful strategy in my DealBook service where I help investors start to read the clues the market offers and find the opportunities those clues reveal.

Because in this kind of market, even when you’re covered on the ropes, you’re not going to win if you can’t see your opportunities for knock-out punches.

Related Articles and News:

About the Author

Shah Gilani is the Event Trading Specialist for Money Map Press. He provides specific trading recommendations in Capital Wave Forecast, where he predicts gigantic “waves” of money forming and shows you how to play them for the biggest gains.In DealBook, Shah shows the “little guy” how to play the high-stakes game of dealmaking… and more importantly, how to win it. He also writes our most talked-about publication, Wall Street Insights & Indictments, where he reveals how Wall Street’s high-stakes game is really played.

 

 

 

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A PERSPECTIVE ON A FORECAST FOR DOW 18,000

Sound financial decisions are based on sound analysis.

People who only consider the short-term – or hold an overly narrow point of view – can benefit from the advice to “put things into perspective.” 

Because without perspective, we’re certain to repeat the same short-sighted decisions, one after another.

Consider this headline:
 
Median sale price of homes in Washington, D.C., hits record high
 
Washington Post, April 10
 
Perspective is key.
 
Someone who is unfamiliar with housing’s long-term price trend might think, “Now is the time to buy, before prices go even higher.”
 
Here’s another perspective:
 
Headlines proclaim that the real estate market is recovering. ‘Best market in five years,’ say the statistics. It’s a true statement. But to understand how misleading it is, look at [the chart below]. The latest recovery has taken … one-family home sales back only to the levels of prior recessionary lows. Had these measures fallen straight to current levels from 2006, people would be calling it a deep slump.
 
The Elliott Wave Theorist, March 2013
 

Totalnewonefamilyhomes

Headlines and commentary also reflect the stock market’s recovery. One commentator has grabbed bullish sentiment by the horns.
 
The market’s risk/reward ratio remains attractive both short- and longer-term. I see the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 2013 at between 14,750 and 15,100; by the time this cycle ends in 2015, the Dow will be at 18,000.
 
Marketwatch, April 9
 
It’s true that the Dow Industrials are in record-high territory. Prices might climb even higher.
 
In his latest Elliott Wave Theorist, Robert Prechter puts the stock market’s price pattern into proper perspective just like he does with real estate. The issue starts with the title, “More Amazing Charts.”
 

 

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220px-Gordon GekkoThey just showed their hands. The paper Ponzi pyramid is wobbling. It’s time to go in for the kill.
 
Let me explain. But first let’s get a handle on what’s happening:

“We’ve traded gold for nearly four decades and we’ve never … ever… EVER… seen anything like what we’ve witnessed in the past two trading sessions,”

Dennis Gartman, via The New York Times

“This is an orchestration (the smash in gold). It’s been going on now from the beginning of April. Brokerage houses told their individual clients the word was out that hedge funds and institutional investors were going to be dumping gold and that they should get out in advance…it is the Fed’s concern with the dollar because the dollar is being printed in huge quantities at the same time that other countries are abandoning the use of the dollar as international payment.

The exchange value of the dollar is (being) threatened, and if that collapses the Fed loses control over interest rates. Then the bond market blows up, the stock market blows up, and the banks that are too big to fail, fail. So it’s an act of desperationbecause they’ve got to establish in people’s minds that the dollar is the only safe place, it is the only safe haven, not gold, not silver, and not other currencies.

And to help protect this policy they have convinced or pressured the Japanese to inflate their own currency. The Japanese are now going to print money like the Fed. They are lobbying the ECB to print more. So I see this as a dollar protection policy…I know where the gold is coming from in the market, it’s just paper. It’s naked shorts, there is no gold there. If somebody wanted to take delivery on those contracts nobody would be able to provide it. I don’t know what the source of the (physical) gold is…

..I think the power of the West has already been lost. When you have off-shored your manufacturing and professional service jobs, you’ve hollowed out your economy. So gold or no gold, the United States economy has been severely damaged and I don’t think it can recover…

This gold business (smash in price) is something to do with the dollar….They are trying to destroy gold as a (safe) haven from the dollar in order to carry on the Fed’s policy of negative real interest rates. That is what is driving the illegal policy of selling naked shorts in order to manipulate a market. If you and I were to do something like this without the government’s instruction or protection, we would be arrested. So the fact that it’s illegal, being done by the authorities, tells me thatthey are seriously worried about the dollar.

Paul Craig Roberts, Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (via King World News)

 
If there is one thing this latest shock-and-awe “theater” in the Gold market tells us, it’s that the government and banksters (i.e. the oligarchy) must be REALLY pissing their pants. It doesn’t show their strength – it lays bare their weakness. They just made it abundantly clear (again) how important Gold is in their scheme of things. A rapidly rising Gold price would reveal the utter fraud of their paper money Ponzi scheme and reveal them as simple hucksters, charlatans and scamsters counterfeiting money and hiding behind all the elegant regalia. The emperor would be naked. Can’t let that happen. The franchise of the paper dollar – arguably the most profitable franchise in history enabling theft on a global scale – must be protected at all costs. Something is or must be about to go seriously wrong with their empire of fake paper money (perhaps the recentgyrations in the JGBmarket is a tell).
 
With this recent paper Gold market “drama” they have only shown their desperation and weakness. The level of their desperation this time is so great that they had their bought-and-paid-for shills in the media mouthpieces attack and mock Gold and its buyers even before the sell-off (which further goes to proves that it was orchestrated; I’ll provide more evidence below). Consider this in an article “Lust for Gold” which appeared in the New York Times on the 11th April by none other than the lead bankster shill and cheerleader Paul Krugman:

After all, historically, gold has been anything but a safe investment…John Maynard Keynes famously dismissed the Gold standard as a “barbarous relic”, noting the absurdity of yoking the fortunes of a modern industrial society to the supply of a decorative metal…for a while, rising gold prices helped create some credibility for the goldbugs even as their predictions about everything else proved wrong, but now gold as an investment has turned sour, too. So will we see prominent goldbugs change their views, or at least lose a lot of their followers.

Its funny how the paperbugs liken Gold buyers to a cult, while not realizing they themselves sound like one, with their irrational faith in and defense of paper money (well, not completely irrational – they know where their next paycheck is coming from :-)). While I may provide a full rebuttal to Mr. Krugman in a later article (it barely deserves one, childish and inane as it is), I will point out this: If Gold is so inconsequential and such a “barbarous relic”, why is the government lapdog media busy trying to discredit it and all those who buy it? I mean just look at the sheer gloating:
 
From the Business Insider:
 

GOLD BUGS: The Gold Crash Is A Bernanke Conspiracy

 EVERYONE Should Be Thrilled By The Gold Crash

7 Things That Gold Bugs Are Saying This Morning To Console Themselves

The WSJ also joined in the fun On Heard On The Street:
 

Crushed Gold Bugs Mean Squashed Growth Expectations

 

I’ll tell you why – because underneath all the bullshit they are spewing they know that buyers of Gold are not actually buying anything but voting against their paymaster government and bankster oligarchy. There is nothing spectacular about Gold except for its ability to reveal the truth about the scam being run by our ruling feudal masters, and this is the one and only reason why Gold and all those who buy it are so vilely derided by the establishment.

The global economy is still in shambles and the oligarchy have shown that they can’t do ANYTHING of ANY real consequence except manipulating the public opinion – either via “market” shenanigans or media mouthpieces. Just think about it – a global empire, a powerful and apparently invincible oligarchy threatened by just an inanimate piece of metal. But they know that because all their power is based on lies and deception, a simple truth – the rising price of Gold indicating the massive dilution of currency – can completely destroy it. Having become thoroughly corrupt, impotent and incompetent, unable to fix anything (they couldn’t run a lemonade stand if their lives depended on it) and fast becoming desperate with Gold having risen more than seven-fold from about $250 in 1999 to $1900 in 2011 exemplifying the worthlessness of their paper money and reality catching up to them, they did the only thing they knew: attack the messenger – Gold. It’s a short term fix which perpetuates their paper money franchise and thus their power, but longer term it’s meaningless. It doesn’t fix the massive misallocations which have occurred and are occurring due to central control of money via the paper money system and it doesn’t change one bit of the truth of the present dilapidated state of our economy and society which is a direct result of it. In fact it’s making the situation worse as by not allowing the misallocations to correct and reallocation of capital to productive hands to occur, huge amount of scarce resources – both human and material – continue to be wasted on unproductive enterprises.
 
Unless and until the following factors are no longer true, there is and will remain a case for buying Gold. These factors did not vanish overnight because of a single orchestrated plunge:
 

1. Exponentially increasing Government and private debt

2. Exponentially increasing money supply

3. Consistent rise in the price of items of daily need (yes I know there is no “inflation” but anybody who goes to the supermarket knows what a crock of bullshit the government CPI numbers are)

4. Rising unemployment and falling incomes

5. Corrupt government and politicians

The banksters are acting like a child throwing a tantrum because daddy (Gold) is going to take their toy (paper money) away from them, so they simply wail and try to hit back at daddy, as if that would accomplish anything. People who know the truth should simply sit back and laugh at the banksters and their shenanigans while using the opportunity to buy even more.
 
The Discount of a Lifetime
 
The way this price fall occurred makes it clear that there were NO fundamentals behind the move and, paradoxically, strengthens the case for Gold even further. Let’s take a look at exactly how this latest plunge in Gold price happened (via Ross Norman):
 

The gold futures markets opened in New York on Friday 12th April to amonumental 3.4 million ounces (100 tonnes) of gold selling of the June futures contract in what proved to be only an opening shot. The selling took gold to the technically very important level of $1540 which was not only the low of 2012, it was also seen by many as the level which confirmed the ongoing bull run which dates back to 2000. In many traders minds it stood as a formidable support level… the line in the sand.

Two hours later the initial selling, rumored to have been routed through Merrill Lynch’s floor team, by a rather more significant blast when the floor was hit by a further 10 million ounces of selling (300 tonnes) over the following 30 minutes of trading. This was clearly not a case of disappointed longs leaving the market – it had the hallmarks of a concerted ‘short sale’, which by driving prices sharply lower in a display of ‘shock & awe’ – would seek to gain further momentum by prompting others to also sell as their positions as they hit their maximum acceptable losses or so-called ‘stopped-out’ in market parlance – probably hidden the unimpeachable (?) $1540 level.

The selling was timed for optimal impact with New York at its most liquid, while key overseas gold markets including London were open and able feel the impact. The estimated 400 tonne of gold futures selling in total equates to 15% of annual gold mine production – too much for the market to readily absorb, especially with sentiment weak following gold’s non performance in the wake of Japanese QE, a nuclear threat from North Korea and weakening US economic data. The assault to the short side was essentially saying “you are long… and wrong”.

The CME’s 10% reduction in the required gold margins in November 2012 from $9133/contract to just $7425/contract made the market more accessible to those wishing both to go long or as it transpired, to go short. Soon after we saw the first serious assault to the downside in Dec 2012, followed by further bouts in January 2013 – modest in size compared to the recent shorting but effective – it laid the ground for what was to follow. One fund in particular, based in Stamford Connecticut, was identified as the previous shorter of gold and has a history of being caught on the wrong side of the law on a few occasions. As baddies go – they fit the bill nicely.

The value of the 400 tonnes of gold sold is approximately $20 billion but because it is margined, this short bet would require them to stump up just $1b…. By forcing the market lower the Fund sought to prompt a cascade or avalanche of additional selling, proving the lie ; predictably some newswires were premature in announcing the death of the gold bull run doing, in effect, the dirty work of the shorters in driving the market lower still[1].

If someone is selling anything, the rational thing to do would be to get the best price possible, right? Would you get the best price if you sell your lot in one go flooding the market? Would you want to overwhelm all the bids and crush the price? Yes, but only if exactly that was your objective – to crush the price. Nobody sells 400 tons (!) of gold in one go if they are trying to get the best possible price. So this wasn’t a case of varied market participants selling their gold holdings having considered the fundamentals for Gold and arrived at the conclusion their long position didn’t make sense anymore. This was a case of concerted selling by one single entitywhose sole intention was to drive down the price. Not only that, nobody sells $20 BILLION worth of Gold in ONE GO without some sort of state/CB backing. You think some piddly hedge fund manager would have the balls to do this while risking prosecution and jail time? So not only was this market manipulation, but state-sponsored market manipulation completely unrelated to the reality and the fundamental basis for buying Gold, which remains as strong as ever.
 
But it gets better. While this is the probably the most spectacular takedown of the Gold price ever, but by no means is it the first or the only one. Anyone who has actually traded the Gold futures market for any length of time knows that this happens on a regular basis. So basically the government/Central Banks use the paper gold futures market as a price control mechanism for Gold (of course, they can’t impose price controls on Gold overtly as it would reveal the lie – if Gold is a barbarous, meaningless relic why would you need to impose price controls on it?). But what happens when price controls are imposed on something? Shortages start to occur resulting in an even greater moonshot in price than would have otherwise occurred. A “black” market (which is actually the free market at play and depicts the true price of the commodity) eventually emerges where it sells at a premium to the official price. There are two reasons for this:
 

1. Buyers – aware that the commodity/good is available at a discounted price – beat a path to the door of whoever is foolish enough to sell it at the government mandated price. Availability at that price soon runs out.

2. The good becomes even scarcer as the costs of producing and selling it are no longer covered by the government mandated price. Aware of this, sellers withdraw from the market and demand ever higher prices for the good.

And remember: for marketable goods, the “out” is money, but the only “out” for money is a superior form of money. When the paper currencies become unstable, the only “out” is Gold so you can be sure there will be no lack of buyers, only sellers – and there is no upper limit to high it can go. Theoretically, the price will be infinity when no seller is willing to sell Gold in exchange for paper. You want to be “out” of paper before we reach that event horizon.
 
If the rigging in the futures market keeps continuing, the futures price at some point will decouple from the physical and become meaningless. This is exactly why you should use this opportunity to buy as much physical as possible at discounted prices while there are foolish sellers still willing to sell at the stated official (futures) price. I’m sure many of you remember Gold’s spectacular fall from about $1000 to $680 circa 2008. How many of you have regretted not buying at those levels while you have been watching Gold’s inexorable rise since? You’ve been waiting for a price drop, haven’t you? So what are you waiting for? We saw the same scary headlines in the MSM that we are seeing now with the same bullshit reasons – while the reality hasn’t changed ONE BIT. Some media mouthpieces are proclaiming a bear market in Gold has begun while others are hoping that their paymasters’ moronic ideas are finally working but remember this is the same media that sold you real estate before the bust, the same media that sold you DOW 36000, the same media that sold you Obama’s “hope and change” and has pilloried gold and gold buyers whenever its price crashes but has been largely silent throughout the past 13 years of the gold bull run. There’ve been many of you saying Gold is too expensive and waiting for an opportunity to buy in. Well, the banksters in using the futures market as a propaganda vehicle against Gold have unwittingly provided you with one. Overcome your fears for fortune favors the brave. It’s time to go in for the kill.
 
Don’t Pick Pennies In Front of The Steamroller – Get Out Of The Paper Markets
 
First, you must be clear why you are buying Gold. Sure, paper gains are nice to have but are only a side effect. The real reason is this (from one of my previous articles):
 

Any type of financial asset that has a counterparty – which is pretty much all the paper assets in the world – bonds, futures, any and all derivatives and yes, even the paper currency – will crash. What will they crash against? Yes, that’s right – Gold. All the world’s capital – trillions, perhaps quadrillions of it – will come rushing into the very tiny physical (NOT paper) Gold market. Remember, the world’s real physical capital – real assets such as land, oil-refineries, mines, infrastructure, etc. will not vanish, only it will be re-priced in terms of Gold and its ownership transferred to those who hold it. Since everything stays on this planet, it is a zero-sum game and the winner will be Gold. In other words, an ounce of physical Gold will command a lot more in real purchasing power than it does today. Just like a national currency is a claim on goods and assets within that country, Gold will be a claim on global goods and assets worldwide.

In other words, wealth preservation in the face of a currency collapse and an insurance policy against the idiocy and depredations of our monetary masters.
 
For those of you who have read my work, this current smash shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact – not to beat my own drum – but if you understood and followed my advice, you would have been out of the paper markets and not affected one bit by these shenanigans. If you wish to trade the paper market for short term paper gains, by all means do it (at your own risk though – and you just saw what that “risk” looks and feels like), but in the end always – ALWAYS – convert those paper gains to real profit by buying the physical metal because Gold will never ever attain its true price in the futures markets. They can always issue an unlimited supply of naked paper contracts. The following extract from one of my previous articles explains the reality of the futures market:
 

The futures market is nothing but a tool for the dollar managers (US Government/Fed/Bullion banks) to manage/control the price of Gold. Any rational observer with an iota of brain who has watched the gold market for any reasonable length of time can tell that the price is intentionally driven down during the Comex trading hours. If you don’t believe this, either you’re in denial or worse – collusion – and IT WILL end up costing you big time. Given the massive, concentrated and long-term (the entire past decade – they haven’t been net-long – not once – during that time period) nature of their short positions, it really isn’t that hard to deduce that the banks do not nearly have enough metal to cover their shorts and that the sole intention of the massive short position is to control the price. Whenever the price rises (or threatens to rise) the big bullion banks ala JP Morgan create massive naked shorts introducing fake supply of Gold in the market, thus driving the price down. “But the price has been rising for the past decade, hasn’t it? So how can you say they are driving it down?”, many people ask. Well, the constraint on the bullion banks has been the availability of the physical metal. If the metal is not available, the fraud of the paper market is exposed and they lose their price managing ability. So they allow the price rise to a level at which there are some weak hands willing to sell and then they hold it there till all the sellers have been exhausted (I am assuming the Fed has already sold all the US Gold during the past decade). So strong are Gold’s fundamentals that despite the massive rigging, all they have been able to do is slow its rise. The weak hands who sell the physical metal at every price rise have helped them in this endeavor. But soon, as the bond market implodes, they will run out of sellers. Treat the availability of real metal at today’s paper price a gift and buy as much as you can.

To those who think that the Comex shorts will be crushed one day and the price of paper Gold will do a moonshot, to them I will say that you are dreaming. The Comex shorts will be crushed, but not in their own casino! If and when a majority of paper Gold longs demand delivery a force majure (who do you think the US Government will side with?) will be declared with cash settlements and/or offers of equally worthless GLD shares (don’t tell me you didn’t know about this). By some accounts, this is already happening. What will happen to the paper price then? That’s right – it will utterly collapse even as the physical’s price is rocketing. Paper gold holders will dump it all to buy the physical – which, unfortunately – will most likely not be available at all…in light of the sum total of the recent developments mentioned in this update I think it is too risky to be trading right now and one should just sit 100% in physical Gold and some currency for day-to-day needs…Trading paper markets for paper gains is like picking up pennies in front of the steamroller. It’s time to stop trading and just buy the physical metal….

They don’t have nearly enough Gold to cover all the contracts they’ve sold in the market. If you’ve bought one, stand for delivery. I’m sure many will be offered cash premiums in place of Gold. Refuse. Demand the metal. This is the right time to tighten the screws on them while they are vulnerable having sold 400 tons of non-existent Gold in the market. Getting out of the fake paper market and collapsing it will have a threefold benefit:
 

1. Buying physical with cash preserves your anonymity and safeguards your wealth in your hands away from the prying eyes of the looters posing as “the government”.

2. Counterparty risk is eliminated as there is none. You’re home free.

3. The fake paper market will collapse due to non-availability of the physical and non-participation of the majority. The sooner it happens, the sooner Gold will attain its true value and the emperor will be naked for all to see. This fake money system needs to collapse so the work of reallocation and rebuilding can begin. The cancerous tumor of banksters needs to be eliminated from the economy.

 
Make no mistake, this is a war. A war for your freedom, liberty and life. They have won the battle but they are not going to win the war. It is upto you to make sure they don’t take you down with them. Those buying gold are not in it for the short term pleasure of paper profits but because they understand that it is the only way to safeguard your wealth and a claim to a chair when the music of the paper pyramid Ponzi finally stops.
 
To me, the only question is: Who Would I Trust With My Wealth?
 
This:
 
5
 
6
 
Or this:
 
7
 
The best time to buy is when there is blood in the streets. That time is NOW.
 
So don’t panic. Just buy the physical, sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

http://www.gekkosblog.com/

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[220px-Gordon Gekko1] Some people may find this description of events to be too “conspiratorial”, but rest assured, if anyone does the diligence, I’m sure they won’t find things differently. This is how things are “done” in the “markets” today.
 

(Ed Note: Gordon Gekko is a fictional character, the main antagonist of the 1987 film Wall Streetand the antihero of its 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,[2] both directed byOliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, whose performance in the first film won him an Oscar for Best Actor.[3])

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