Since May 5 BlackRock’s iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) reports adding 202.21 tonnes of new allocated bar silver held by a custodian in London. As of May 11 SLV reports holding 9,115.15 tonnes of silver which is about 293.1 million ounces. As of yesterday (Tuesday) the silver held in trust was worth $5.4 billion. Here’s our tracking graph of the SLV metal holdings.

The authorized market participants for SLV add shares to the trading float and increase the amount of silver held in response to periods of aggressive buying pressure for the shares of SLV and vice versa.

Underwater Shorts

On another note, with both gold and silver attempting new highs this morning, virtually all short positions on gold and nearly all shorts on silver are effectively underwater – a condition the largest short sellers (the CFTC calls them “hedgers”) are compelled to correct – if they can.

Sometime they can with just the weight of their own trading, taking all long comers until they waste the upward momentum, ballooning the open interest in the process. For those who think about such things, it is the same thing as “printing” tonnes and tonnes of “paper metal.”

And then there are there are the other times when the buying pressure so overwhelms the selling pressure that even the biggest, best-funded and “bullet-proof” sellers are forced to become buyers as their risk-management kicks in.

When buying pressure is coming from both sides of the gold battlefield, the results can be dramatic, and they can seem ridiculous to anyone not familiar with the markets.

We holders of long-term physical gold and silver bullion call those days "fun."

We are close to just such a day, (today maybe with silver knocking at $19.52?) but in the mean time, for the short-term ammo trades enjoy the action, but as always, MIND YOUR STOPS.

http://treo.typepad.com/got_gold_report/