|
On August 23rd, I linked Ted Butler's article, showcasing market
manipulation in silver at the COMEX:
http://silverstockreport.com/2008/freemarketshortages.html
Ted Butler released an article "The Smoking Gun", where he
revealed that two banks sold 27,000 paper contracts for about 139 million
ounces of silver, from July 1 to August 5th, which depressed the paper price
at the COMEX. Many are saying this is Ted's greatest article, as it is better
proof of market manipulation than any other evidence we've ever seen.
http://news.silverseek.com/TedButler/1219417468.php
Two days later, another man, Gene Arensberg, did some 7th grade math,
and put the amount of the silver sold short into context for us.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=45611
"A short position of 33,805 contracts is a big number. It
represents 169,025,000
ounces of silver. That is a net short position by two U.S. banks of
5,257 tonnes on silver worth about $2.7 billion at $16.00 the ounce."
$2.7 billion worth of "silver sold" has important
implications, as even more 7th Grade Math will show.
The CPM Group
has estimated that out of the 550 million ounces of silver produce by the
mines, only about 60 million ounces are purchased by investors annually; the
rest, and more (from recycling and government selling) goes to industry, jewelry,
and photography.
The 60 million ounces purchased by investors, at an average of
$13/oz., as 7th Grade Math shows, is $780 million dollars, or less than $1
billion.
Interesting. Let's use more 7th Grade Math to compare those two
numbers. $2.7 billion divided by $.78 billion = 3.46.
See, two U.S.
banks sold 3.46 times as much silver in a month, as investors worldwide,
bought in an entire year.
Doing more math, we can divide annnual investor demand by 12 months,
to see what investors buy in a typical month.
$.78 billion / 12 = $.065 billion, or $65 million.
Doing more math, we can compare what the two big banks sold in a
month, to what investors buy in a month.
$2.7 billion / $.065 billion = 41.53
Wow. In one month, the banks sold 41.53 times as much silver
promises as investors buy silver. No wonder the price went down.
But the idiots who don't know basic 7th grade math, and who refuse to
do 7th grade math, or who think those people who do know how to do 7th grade
math must wear tinfoil hats or be some sort of "conspiracy
theorists", will say, shout, deny, and scream, "no manipulation
here". Right.
God I love 7th Grade Math. It cuts through all the lies.
It reveals so much.
If two banks sold that much silver, then where is it? Who has
it? Why isn't it for sale?
Oh, that's right, they didn't sell silver. They sold paper
promises to deliver silver, to gamblers who never take any chips off the
table. See, that's what even a 7th Grader can know if they do the basic
math.
Parents & Teachers. Show your children this article.
Teach them to apply 7th grade math to numbers in the real world. Show
them how exciting math can be! They will need that skill. You
might need them to have that skill. After all, what if your kids end up
managing your money for you in the final years of your life?
Investing is not all that difficult. You just need to do the 7th
grade math that very few people are willing or capable of doing.
Extra Credit: While the math in this article in 100% correct,
the assumptions used for some of the starting figures have 3 minor
mistakes. Identify and correct the mistakes.
Hints: At the top of this article, there are two sets of
numbers used for the silver short positions of the banks; the larger
number is their total short position, and the smaller number is the number of
new short positions put on "in a month". Which number should
be used, and which number did I use? And was the time period exactly a
month? And what was the dollar value of silver used to compare the two
amounts of silver the same? And how would those changes
affect the overall numbers?
Advanced essay questions: Is it fair to sell so much paper
silver? Is it fair for me to compare paper silver to physical
silver? Is it fair for people to sell what they don't have? Is it
fair to sell what you have borrowed from someone else? Is it fair to
sell physical silver to the highest bidder? What's the best way to deal
with things that seem unfair? What is the most fair way to run an
auction? what is the most fair way to set up a market? Do free
markets ever need help being set up, or do they form on their own? How
will teacher's union's pension plans perform in the future, given that none
them can own real physical silver?
As a student of the silver market, these are some of the questions
that I'm thinking about, and may be the subject of my future essays.
* 7th Grade is a U.S. designation for the school year of most 12 year olds.
It is one of the last years of math before pre-algebra or sometimes algebra,
which is often taught in the 8th grade, which is a form of math more advanced
than is used here.
=========
May I suggest to Meet up other
Silver Stock Report readers at YOUR LOCAL COIN SHOP, on Tuesday, September 2, at 2PM.
Suppose if all buyers during a month show up all at once? Clearly, the
shop will be sold out immediately, if it isn't already. I think that
would leave an impression on the owner.
This will serve several purposes:
1. You will find out that you are not alone.
2. You will impress upon your dealer the amount of demand for silver.
3. The coin shop owner will be more confident and more likely to raise
his bids to get silver for everyone, so it's in your own best long term
interests to show up.
4. Be sure to tell him about good sources, such as fidelitrade.com,
amark.com ($50,000 minimum), wexfordcoin.com ($10,000 minimum), apmex.com,
tulving.com, and others where he can buy in bulk, cheaply, if he needs
to.
5. Be prepared to network with other buyers. Other buyers may
have bars to sell if they are retired, and "all in"; they may have
to sell bars for normal life expenses.
I suggest that everyone visit their favorite local coin shop on September 2,
at 2PM. That's Tuesday, 2 days from now. (TWO's-Day)
Easy to remember!
Sincerely,
Jason Hommel
goldismoney.com
I
have 2 major resources on mining stocks to offer to you.
First, look at www.miningpedia.com
It is a FREE comprehensive database of mining stocks. Anyone can update
or enter data, it's like wikipedia.com. Miningpedia has replaced the
"silver stock report" in that it is doing the legwork on individual
stock analysis that I used to do manually. This frees me up to do what
I like best, which is to write commentary. My commentary retains the
name, "Silver Stock Report", but for individual stocks, please see
miningpedia.com.
Second, I offer a "look at my
portfolio" for $50/month; where I share a peek at which stocks I own,
once a month. You can log in at any time, repeatedly, and also see all
my prior months
Please
visit Silver Stock Report for specific stock picks.
|