Boy, a few comments last month by CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton and a short-squeeze that shows no sign of abating for traders at JPMorgan (who, along with HSBC, are now being sued for their allegedly dastardly deeds) have really done wonders for the price of silver, but the stockpile of silver bars at the iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSE: SLV) doesn’t seem to be responding as you might think. The 10+ percent increase in the “tonnes in the trust” doesn't match up very well against an increase of more than 50 percent in the price.

Of course, the inventory at the popular SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSE: GLD) is even more out-of-step with the rising price of the metal as the stockpile there is virtually unchanged from back in the summer when the gold price was $250 an ounce lower. Then again, you really don’t know quite what to make of the inventory levels versus the metal prices since the custodians for these funds are the very banks that are being sued – JPMorgan and HSBC.

Disclosure: Long gold and silver for the foreseeable future

Tim Iacono

Iacono Research.com

Tim Iacono is the founder of Iacono Research which provides market commentary and investment advisory services specializing in macroeconomic analysis and commodity based investing. He also writes the popular blog The Mess That Greenspan Made.