don't they say that the shares lead the metal?, page-7

A rigged market doesn't make them useless.

They still indicate broad areas of support and resistance. Added to that, I have little doubt that the short trading of the precious metals is done by people who have a complete understanding of all areas of technical analysis and utilise this knowledge in their trading.

That said, there is no doubt that it makes TA less effective than it would be in a free market. But I guess its to a similar extent that mark-to-fantasy accounting and the like make FA less effective.

There is still plenty of information to be gleaned from charts and balance sheets etc, even if the real picture is intentionally clouded.


As to your question/comment on the other thread, it may well be the case that these bankers believe they are doing their 'civic duty', and it wouldn't suprise me if they did. But does that really make it ok or change things?

Soldiers around the world do their 'civic duty' by fighting wars and killing civilans to protect 'national interests'. It doesn't make it right and never will in my mind.

Too many people seem to think better to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are doing their 'civic duty', maybe the FED isn't on a power grab, maybe they're not leading the world down a dark alley.

If your right, then there won't be any problem. No harm done, we'll apologise for being suspicious, citing good circumstantial evidence that led us to think what we did. But would it have made much difference in the scheme of things if the powers were spread amongst entities?

But what if your wrong? What if much of what many of us fear actually has been going on? And they're about to possibly recieve some of the most concentrated regulating powers in US history? What then? The last ones have been around for the last 70 years.

If your right then there was nothing to worry about. If your wrong the effects could reverberate for literally generations. Like many things, they get fast tracked through, but take decades to undo. When do you think the Patriot Act will be repealed, if ever? I guarantee it won't be repealed as quickly as it was passed.

IMO there's far too many suspicious/secretive things going on where there is ZERO transparency, for any smart person to be prepared to just give these guys the benefit of the doubt.

If the FED allowed a full audit, if Fort Know recieved a full audit, if financial records of TARP/TALF and all the other crap were made public, if a REASONABLE explanation were given for the exceedingly large concentration of short positions in PM's (relative to virtually none in other commod future's), then it might be a different story.

But otherwise I'm being asked to trust, on the benefit of the doubt alone, some of the least transparant and most suspicious organisations who just happen to be at the center of this whole mess.