Can anyone please shed some light on what this below means? what is open interest? as it relates to shorts? and then what is "serious spec long liquidation"?

As I put this column to bed for another day, I'm wondering what today's gold and silver trading will bring once it begins this morning in New York. Both metals have had serious sell-offs, but the open interest data still shows that the bullion banks hold monstrous short positions. Sure, they may have gone long in lieu of covering short positions... but if that's what they're doing, they're being awful clever about it. With the silver price below its 50-day moving average, we'll start to see some serious spec long liquidation... but gold's 50-day moving average is still $30 below where it currently sits at 5:15 a.m. Eastern time Thursday morning as I write these words. In order for serious liquidation to occur, that moving average must be broken with authority... and the price stay below that level for a bit. We'll find out soon enough if the bullion banks have that idea themselves... as they certainly have the firepower to do it.