I received a call this morning from a commodities broker who told me the Comex is alerting various futures firms about the potential of a squeeze on the December contract and is advising the 840 December shorts to exit their positions. That is the remaining open position.

There have been 12,636 notices of delivery. The shorts have until December 31 to make delivery. Normally, they deliver early to take in cash and earn the interest. They must be delaying. As I understand the situation, that represents about 40% of the available gold at the Comex, and of course, someone could enter the scene late, buy Feb gold, and then spread into December, which would stun the shorts.

My broker friend said his back office said this sort of alert is highly unusual and that the concern is real, not only for gold, but other commodities too like copper and palladium, as there is a good deal of talk of taking deliveries there too. But gold is the one in which the advice to cover went out.

This is an extremely productive development and could spur the price of gold up quickly as word spreads.