On 25th May 2010, approx. 2300 AEST, I posted this:
"Well something curious is happening with lease rates... this is particularly evident in the relatively large falls in the 6mth and 1yr rates.
I'd say this leasing en-masse is to ease overwhelming demand pressures in the PM (AU) complex.
It's a possible band-aid measure to aid the roll-over of significant (short) positional pricing pressure from the short term to the longer term - ergo to delay the inevitable run up and buy time for a/the big player/s to exit or adjust positions"
This morning I read the following commentary within "Hidden Dollar Hammer", May 28 2010, author Jim Willie:
"OPTIONS EXPIRATION
If the Commodity Trading Futures Commission truly wished to observe the details of highly suspicious anomalies in the precious metals market, they need only monitor large trades in this current week when futures options expired for gold. Many gold futures options expired worthless. Notice the gold price stayed below the critical $1200 waterline until Tuesday afternoon. A heap of options went worthless, and the gold price moved over $1200 in the wake of the strained event. Huge paper gold sales were recorded. Positions by gold traders who expected mammoth monetary inflation to push gold toward $1300 per ounce were laid to waste. Referring to options expiration day of TUESDAY MAY 25TH (emphasis added), Jesse of the Cafe Americain said "Gold traded all day below 1200, at times rising to within fifty cents of the key strike price of 1200 where a large concentration of call options were clustered. Well, since the call options at 1200 have expired worthless, why bother using the energy to continue to suppress the price?" The tactics used to prevent the gold price from advancing are more easily seen in the open. One must wonder if the CFTC officials are actively doing their jobs".
This extract lends weight to my original proposition - that the swift drop in lease rates on the 25 May was intended to suppress the gold price at least long enough to benefit the big players.
Is this wholesale reduction in lease rates on options expiry date (25th May) to render those options worthless mere coincidence? I think NOT! Just one more example of the games being waged by the 'house' on the unwitting casino (sorry, market) players...
