Jetzt haben es Butler und Hommel durch ihr Insisitieren immerhin geschafft, dass sich die Regulierungsbehörde für Rohwarentermingeschäfte (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) der wiederholt vorgebrachten Anschuldigungen, der letzte Kursrutsch des Silbers sei durch illegale Aktionen massiv verschärft worden, annehmen will.
Zur Erinnerung: 2 Banken sollen, Butler und Hommel zufolge, zwischen Juli und August ihre Silber-Shorts um 450% erhöht haben und sich damit 25% des gesamten Open Interest unter den Nagel gerissen haben. Zwar hat es eine ähnliche "Untersuchung" , damals auch auf Butlers Veranlassung hin, schon einmal gegeben, die damals mit einer matten Antwort der CFTC auslief, man habe nichts Verdächtiges feststellen können. Doch diesmal liegt zum Glück wesentlich mehr Zunder in der Sache. Bin trotz aller Vorbehalte gegen die Fähigkeiten der Behörde, hier etwas Substantielles herauszufinden, dennoch sehr gespannt, wie die Antwort denn ausfallen werde. Eine langjährige Schwäche in Butlers Argumentation scheint mir seine totale Fixierung auf die Comex zu sein. Andere, wie z.B. Tom Szabo, haben schon seit Langem darauf hingewiesen, dass der OTC-Handel mit Silber viel grösser sein könnte, als es Leute wie Butler wahrhaben wollen.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 CFTC Relents and Probes Silver Market
Persistent Complaints of Foul Play Draw the Still-Skeptical Agency to Investigate
With silver prices falling this past summer, silver bugs world-wide set out to prove that their metal was in short supply and market manipulation was at work. They bombarded federal regulators with hundreds of emails crying foul play and demanded answers.
Though such pleas proved futile in the past, this time the rousing chorus grabbed regulators' attention. On Wednesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission confirmed that there's an investigation into the silver market.
We take the threat of manipulation in the futures and options markets very seriously and employ a number of measures to prevent, identify and prosecute it," said Stephen Obie, acting director of the agency's division of enforcement.
Silver investors have argued that a handful of U.S. banks have been controlling a large portion of silver's short positions -- or bets that prices will decline -- on Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Official data from the CFTC showed that two U.S. banks had increased short positions in the silver futures market between July and August by 450% and controlled 25% of the total open interest.
"The proof that this selloff was criminal lies in public data," wrote Theodore Butler of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, in August in a silver newsletter. "The concentrated sale of such quantities in such a short time" caused silver's fall, wrote Mr. Butler, who for many years has been vocal about purported silver-market manipulation. In September he reiterated to readers that they should email the CFTC.
The CFTC had argued in May that the large banks that people assailed for manipulating the market were instead acting appropriately as market makers, who take on futures positions to offset their exposure in over-the-counter markets. Therefore, these traders aren't "naked shorts" and won't benefit from long-term depressed silver prices. Many analysts agree with the agency's conclusion.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122231175151874367.html
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