I am frequently harping about the fraud imposed on the metals trading, such that gold and silver almost always start the week lower no matter what the underlying fundamentals may be. On Friday we saw both gold and silver strong with each closing on the highs of the day. To me that would imply a stong carry-over into Monday trading, considering that nothing bearish has come to pass since the NA markets closed.

The COT data reported last week showed the commercials appear to be piling on the shorts yet again. That means that each and every short contract laid on since last week is now underwater, losing money. It is the oversized short position that has been driving the paper trading for more than a decade.

So what will be the dominant factor on Monday? Will the fundamental strength prevail, or will the criminals just dump more fraudulent paper contract obligations to swamp buyers and drive the metals lower to print a bearish start on the week, as they have done almost every week for years? For any week this year it is hard to find a more bullish set up and perhaps tomorrow we see the buyers outbid the selling pressure from the crooks.

None of this will affect anything I do but I am sure there are many traders that wait to see what way the wind blows on Monday morning and put in their bets accordingly. How nice it must be for the shorts to play on a tilted field every week and not have to deal with even a hint of regulatory oversight. I would love to see a fenzy of buyers jump all over the scam and put the commercials behind the 8-ball for a change. Even the term 'commercials' pisses me off since as a group they have no commercial interest in the metals at all, and instead are in the business of dumping paper to stiffle the free market price discovery.

cheers!

mike