In the weekly Smart Money Report, I wrote this about next week’s Commitment of Traders report for gold:
So on next Friday’s report, unless there is a big run up on Monday and Tuesday, look for commercial net shorts to be much less than what we see with this week’s report. I’m guessing about 50,000 contracts less.
And this about silver:
With silver — and, again, assuming there’s no big advance on Monday and Tuesday — I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 20,000 decline in net shorts for one week.
Well, it turns out that silver guru Ted Butler, who stays very close to the situation, has come to a similar conclusion:
The sharp sell-off has resulted, in my opinion, in the cleansing out, or removal, of most, if not all, of the technical fund leveraged long positions in silver and gold. I think the amounts come to 20,000 contracts (100 million ounces in silver), and 75,000 contracts in gold COMEX futures (7.5 million ounces). This is my analysis, but we will have to wait until this week’s COT Report is issued to verify the actual figures.
Whatever the exact number turns out to be, it’s likely to be a big one. And Ted Butler is “All In.”
