JP Morgan Covering Silver Short Position
There were reports out today that JP Morgan has now admitted to having their massive naked short position in silver and is taking steps to reduce it. According to the Financial Times in London, "JPMorgan has quietly reduced a large position in the US silver futures market which had been at the centre of a controversy about its impact on global prices for the precious metal." According to a person familiar with the matter, "The decision by JPMorgan was an attempt to deflect public criticism of the bank’s dealings in silver." JP Morgan said in a statement, "It is absolutely incorrect to say or imply that the Nymex, CFTC or any other exchange or regulator has instructed or asked us to reduce our position."
NIA, along with the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), has been at the forefront of helping expose JP Morgan's silver price suppression scheme. Over a year ago on December 11th, 2009, NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade at $17.40 per ounce. NIA said in its December 11th article, "It's not a coincidence that the day silver reached its multi-decade high of over $21 per ounce in March of 2008, was the same day Bear Stearns failed. Bear Stearns was a holder of a massive short position in silver."
NIA went on to say, "The reason why we believe the Federal Reserve was so eager to orchestrate a bailout of Bear Stearns, is because Bear Stearns was on the verge of being forced to cover their silver short position." NIA then said, "JP Morgan still holds the silver short position they inherited from Bear Stearns" and "JP Morgan will have to cover this short position or it could jeopardize their existence."
On February 5th, 2010, JP Morgan was successful at manipulating the price of silver down to below $15 per ounce. On February 7th, NIA wrote an article entitled, "NIA Bets Big on Silver Price Recovery" in which it said, "NIA is betting big that this past week's short-term decline in the paper price of silver was just a temporary wash out, before a huge surge in silver prices later in 2010. One of NIA's co-founders purchased on Friday, 1,300 January 2011 $20 SLV call options at a price of $0.89." These call options that NIA suggested went on to rise as much as 1,024% to a high this month of $10.
On March 25th, 2010, the CFTC held a hearing on position limits in precious metals. Bill Murphy of GATA (see NIA's video page for an interview we conducted with Mr. Murphy on Thursday) was allowed to speak (within a five-minute time constraint). Right at the beginning of Murphy's speech, there was a technical failure of the live television broadcast, which was mysteriously fixed as soon as he was done speaking. This did not stop Murphy, who was brave enough to present the evidence of Andrew Maguire, a former Goldman Sachs precious metals trader who on February 3rd became a whistleblower when he wrote to Eliud Ramirez, a senior investigator for the CFTC's Enforcement Division, giving him the "heads up" for a "manipulative event" signaled for February 5th. Maguire described to the CFTC in February 3rd emails, exactly what would happen on February 5th (which did occur exactly like predicted), yet the CFTC refused to take any action against JP Morgan or the other conspirators.
Murphy was scheduled for several mainstream media television interviews after the CFTC hearings, but they were all abruptly cancelled at once. In the weeks that followed, Murphy's car was stolen, his web site was hacked, and he was punched with brass knuckles and knocked out cold less than two blocks from his house. As for Maguire, a couple of days after the CFTC hearings, he and his wife were involved in a bizarre hit-and-run car accident in London where a second car coming out of a side street struck their vehicle. The hit-and-run suspect then hit two more vehicles when he desperately attempted to flee, which resulted in a police chase with helicopters. The suspect was nabbed, yet surprisingly, his name was never released and it was never made known if charges were filed.
On April 3rd, 2010, with silver at $17.89 per ounce, NIA wrote an article entitled, "Silver Short Squeeze Could Be Imminent". In this article, NIA said, "With the spotlight now on JP Morgan, NIA believes they will be less likely to naked short silver at these levels and manipulate the price down like in February. With the mainstream media blackout, it is important for NIA members to work harder than ever to spread the word and help expose what could be the largest fraud in the history of the world."
On May 13th, 2010, NIA released its critically acclaimed documentary 'Meltup', which featured our in-depth research on JP Morgan's silver price suppression scheme. Thanks to the help of tens of thousands of NIA members who worked tirelessly to spread the word about 'Meltup', nearly 1 million people saw the documentary and became educated to the truth about JP Morgan's silver manipulation. Without the hard work of NIA members, JP Morgan would have went on naked shorting silver for years and the topic would have never become mainstream.
In 'Meltup', NIA's President Gerard Adams stated, "The current gold/silver ratio of 64 wouldn't be possible unless silver prices were being held artificially low through manipulation. I don't believe it is possible for the silver that JP Morgan is short to be backed by physical silver. Most likely, JP Morgan has been naked shorting silver, by selling paper silver that doesn't physically exist." Since the release of 'Meltup', the gold/silver ratio has fallen by a shocking 27% down to 47. Within the next few years, NIA expects the gold/silver ratio to at least fall to 16, which will mean another three times increase in the purchasing power of those who own silver. In fact, because silver prices have been held artificially low for so long by JP Morgan's manipulation, there is a chance the gold/silver ratio will over swing to the downside and decline to 10 or lower this decade.
Throughout world history, there have been 46 billion ounces of silver produced compared to 5 billion ounces of gold. Although gold gets all of the headlines in the mainstream media, silver shares all of the same monetary qualities as gold. Based on historical production ratios, a gold/silver ratio of 10 down the road could certainly be realistic. In fact, considering that most of the silver ever produced has been consumed by manufacturing, a gold/silver ratio of much less than 10 is possible. Worldwide inventories of silver have declined 90% since 1940 from 10 billion ounces down to approximately 1 billion ounces today. NIA believes that a major shortage of physical silver is in the process of developing.
On September 9th, 2010, NIA released an article entitled, "Is JP Morgan's Silver Manipulation Over?". In this article, we discussed how JP Morgan was winding down their proprietary trading desks, which we felt were responsible for the silver manipulation. We stated that we were "hopeful but skeptical that the manipulation is coming to an end" and "cautiously optimistic at this time". Since September 9th, the price of silver has gained over 50% and is holding strong near $30 per ounce. There have been no noticeable manipulative takedown attempts by JP Morgan.
NIA estimates that over the past 30 days, JP Morgan has covered approximately 4,000 silver contracts, which has corresponded with about a $4 per ounce upward move in the price of silver. We estimate JP Morgan to still be short approximately 26,000 silver contracts or 130 million ounces of silver, which equals about 18% of worldwide annual silver production from mining of 709.6 million ounces. If JP Morgan covers their entire silver short position and the price of silver was to continue rising by $1 for every 1,000 silver contracts that JP Morgan covers, silver would rise to $56 per ounce.
JP Morgan appears to be covering its shorts in a very managed and orderly way. We are not yet seeing anything that resembles a short squeeze, although one could occur at any time. If we see a major silver shortage and a real short squeeze, silver could literally rise to hundreds of dollars per ounce overnight. Silver's all time high of $49.45 per ounce adjusted to the CPI equals $139 per ounce in today's dollars. As all NIA members know, the CPI understates inflation through geometric weighting and hedonics. The real inflation adjusted all time high for silver is over $400 per ounce.
With almost everybody who has ever purchased silver being up on silver in terms of dollars, it is possible we could see silver prices take a breather in the short-term. NIA is hoping for a short-term pullback, but with so many investors waiting to buy on dips, there is a chance that a large short-term pullback will never occur. NIA is very pleased that for the first time in many years, silver prices appear to be trading based on free market forces and not the manipulation of JP Morgan.
It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us
