The gold price worked its way a few bucks higher during Far East trading during their Monday...but ran into a not-for-profit seller the moment that the London market opened at 8:00 a.m. local time [3:00 a.m. Eastern]...and the price got sold off to the Friday close by the time New York opened yesterday.

Then, a few minutes before 9:00 a.m. Eastern, a buyer showed up...and even though the price took off at the London p.m. fix at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, there was a willing seller there immediately to cap the price.

Then, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, the price got taken down...and finished the New York electronic trading session up only a dollar or so. Nothing free-market about this. Volume was light, as it normally is on a Monday.

Silver was up about fifty cents by the time the bullion banks began trading on the Comex...and was up over seventy cents by the time the London p.m. fix was at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

From there, the silver price suffered the same fate as gold...and silver got sold off over ninety cents by 3:25 p.m. in electronic trading in New York.

The silver price rallied rather impressively from there...and gained back about forty cents before the New York close at 5:15 p.m. High frequency trading volume was light, relatively speaking.

The dollar traded quietly around 73.75 right up until the London open at 3:00 a.m. Eastern time, but then began to rally...and was up about 35 basis points at its high, which occurred minutes before 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. It then got sold off a hair in the last hour or so of trading.

Despite the fact that gold was up nicely by the opening of the equity markets at 9:30 a.m. Eastern yesterday morning, the stock barely poked their nose into positive territory, before turning lower. Once the real selling pressure began in gold at 12:30 p.m....the gold stock immediately headed lower, closing almost on their lows of the day.

If I had to pick a day when 'the powers that be' were dicking with the share prices...this would have been one of them...as there was absolutely no reason why the gold shares should have sold off in that manner.

And even though silver was up about fifty cents on the day, the equities still got hit hard for no reason that I could see, either. What not-for-profit seller would be dumping shares like this? I can guess. Here's Nick's Silver Sentiment Index.

The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 171 gold, along with 87 silver contracts, were posted for delivery on Wednesday...and the issuers and stoppers are worth a look. The link is here.

There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV on Monday.

There was a smallish sales report from the U.S. Mint yesterday. It showed that only 3,500 ounces of gold eagles were sold.

Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Friday, they reported no silver receipts, but shipped 586,642 ounces out the door. With Comex silver stocks now down to 100,535,272 ounces, I suspect that we won't have a long wait for more silver to show up, so that Comex inventories don't dip below the magic one hundred million market. We'll see if that happens again this time...as it has always happened in the past over the years.

Here are three paragraphs about High Frequency Traders in the silver market that silver analyst Ted Butler had in his commentary to paid subscribers over the weekend...

"Who are these HFT traders? You guessed it – mostly the big silver shorts, led by JPMorgan and other dominant CME Group members. Only these big traders can afford the million dollar computer hardware and software to run the HFT algorithms. How has it come to the point where giant traders with documented concentrated silver short positions have been further allowed to dominate daily trading volume that causes sharp dives in the price of silver? It is so crazy and outrageous that it should make your blood boil. Believe it or not, I’m trying to contain my outrage. These HFT traders, led by the JPMorgan silver crooks, are like a band of outlaws in the old West who have come to control and terrorize a town and its citizens."

"The central cause of this travesty of a group of crooked traders coming to dominate positions and volume by virtue of concentration is the CME Group. The CME has created this Frankenstein of a market. Because the CME is a for-profit corporation, it is concerned primarily with generating additional profits. Its revenue comes from trading volume, as the CME gets paid for every contract traded. Therefore, it will do anything to increase trading volume, including, I believe, promoting increased volume by illegal means. I would define illegal as including the promotion of practices encouraging concentration, which HFT does."

"Let’s face it – HFT is about massive concentrated computerized day trading designed to manipulate the price and bring in trading revenue to the CME. It’s not about promoting true price discovery and an increase in legitimate hedging, the economic purpose of futures trading. At the exact same time that actual COMEX silver deliveries are hitting historic low levels, electronic volume has hit new highs. This means that COMEX silver is becoming a paper trading mechanism, as opposed to a legitimate futures exchange where real producers and consumers go to hedge. In short, the COMEX is more a bucket shop than a legitimate exchange."

Here's a graph that reader 'David in California' sent me over the weekend, which requires no further explanation from me.

Here's another offering from David....this one from Sandpoint, Idaho. It, too, requires no further embellishment.

¤ Critical Reads

For Your Reading Pleasure

I'm still in Vancouver until early this morning...and here are the stories that I've hyperlinked for your reading 'pleasure'. The first story about the Chilean volcanic eruption that was posted in yesterday's edition of the Daily Mail is a must read...as the pictures alone are worth the trip.

1] When all hell breaks loose: Lightning tears the sky apart above the glow of the Chilean volcano

2] Greeks protest after nation pledges 'significant cuts' to secure €12bn IMF bail-out - The Telegraph

3] Greece to start austerity drive as nation seethes - Reuters

4] A Fatally Flawed Recovery Plan: Greece Back on the Brink - Spiegel Online

5] Dubious Value: European Banks Dump Junk Bonds on ECB - Spiegel Online

6] Yemeni leader Saleh flies to Saudi Arabia for 'treatment' - France24

7] Post-Saleh, worst is yet to come - IndiaTimes

8] True Cost of Fannie, Freddie Bailouts: $317 Billion, CBO Says - CNS News

9] We will Destroy the Currency Completely: Peter Schiff - King World News

10] GoldMoney interview: James Grant says only 'confidence' underpins dollar - GATA

11] Catch 22 for the Fed: Alasdair Macleod - GATA

12] Commodity Bubbles Caused by Speculators Need Intervention, UN Agency Says - Bloomberg

13] Florida couple forecloses on Bank of America - cbs12.com

14] Golden State is poised to outlaw gold prospecting - Daily Mail/GATA

15] Traders Are Dumping Stocks and Buying Gold and Silver - CNBC

16] James Turk and his charts show gold smashing the currencies - GATA

17] Silver Investing Guide: Jeff Clark - Casey Research

View full GSD edition

It's taken almost two centuries for bankers to pull the wool over Americans' eyes, but today you and I are working for intrinsically worthless paper that can be created by bureaucrats-created without sweat, without creative ability, without work, without anything but a decision by the Federal Reserve. This is the disease at the base of today's monetary system. And like a cancer, it will spread until the system ultimately falls apart. This is the tragedy of the great lie. The great lie is that fiat paper represents a store of value, money of lasting wealth. - Richard Russell

Gold's trading volume on Monday was pretty light...around 93,000 contracts net of all roll-overs. The preliminary open interest number checked in with an increase of 6,233 contracts, which will be much reduced by the time the final o.i. number is posted later this morning.

Gold's final open interest change on Friday showed an increase of 4,311 contracts...which is vast improvement over the preliminary number of 12,161 contracts. I'm not amused by this increase, as it shows that the bullion banks are continuing to pile on the short positions [as sellers of last resort] as the prices rise, which probably means that sooner or later, JPMorgan et al are going to pull the pin and harvest all these new technical longs that have moved up the price by $55 or so during the last three weeks.

Silver's net volume yesterday was around the 45,000 contract mark...and the preliminary open interest number was +2,578 contracts. Considering yesterday's price action, this number will be much smaller when the CME posts the final figures.

Silver's final open interest number on Friday actually showed a decline of 1,683 contracts, which is a huge drop from the preliminary o.i. numbers which showed an increase of 4,804 contracts. I'm always delighted to see a decline in open interest, as it means that the bullion banks are probably reducing their net short position in silver.

June's open interest in silver currently sits at 198 contracts...but that number will decline by at least the 87 contracts that were posted for delivery tomorrow, which I mentioned further up in the column.

Not much happened in Far East trading during their Tuesday trading day...and both metals are up a hair heading into the London open. Silver is doing better, but it ran into a brick wall once it penetrated the $37 level. Based on yesterday's trading pattern, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw something similar today if the gold price shows any signs of 'irrational exuberance' like it did yesterday around the London p.m. fix. Time will tell.

Before I sign off here, the girls over at Casey Research informed me of a 1-week special offer that they are promoting.

The offer???

Buy The Next Few Years: A Casey Summit CDs (23 CDs, with more than 20 hours of presentations, stock picks, Q&A sessions and a data disc with all the summit presentation slides and handouts), and get a one-year subscription to The Casey Report...all for the unbelievable cheap price of $100...and yes, you read the price right!

The deadline for this incredible offer [and it is an incredible offer] is next Tuesday, June 14th...or whenever the CDs sell out...whichever come first. I urge you to check it out at the link, which is here.

I'll be back in Edmonton by noon today Mountain Daylight Time...and my commentary tomorrow should be a bit longer...and, hopefully, somewhat less disjointed. Thanks for putting up with it for the last couple of columns.

Have a good day...and I'll see you on Wednesday.