The 50 day moving average in gold has turned up and it has bullishly crossed through the 100 dma – it has also bullishly crossed through the 200 dma…It’s almost like the HFT hedge fund programs have been flipped from “sell every rally” to now “buy every dip” because the technical picture is so good. – Craig “Turd Ferguson” Hemke on the Shadow of Truth

There’s debate raging in the precious metals community if and when a big raid on the precious metals market will commence. Today, for instance, gold has drifted higher in overnight trading only to be smacked pretty hard when the Comex opened. That’s nothing new. But what’s new, given the way in which the precious metals market is set up, is that after being taken down $12 by the criminal traders on the Comex, gold grinded higher until it was only down a couple bucks by the time the stock market closed. Even more interesting is the fact that the mining stocks (HUI Amex Gold Bugs Index) rejected repeated attempts to put them negative on the day and finished up over 6 points – 3.6% – on the day.

The trading pattern of the precious metals sector – at least for now – has defied all expectations of the market given that the technical factors in place now have historically ushered in a vicious takedown of the sector.

This data that I refer to when I talk about the bank picture, whether its the Commitment of Traders report or the Bank Participation report – it’s all dubious crap anyway because its generated by the criminals at the CFTC…when they crank out these reports, we’re supposed to take them seriously in the first place? The CFTC is criminal co-conspirator [in the precious metals manipulation scheme] – Craig “Turn Ferguson” Hemke, SoT

A big variable in the expectation of a big sell-off in gold and silver is the COT “structure.” As of last Tuesday, the “Commercial Sector,” which primarily the bullion banks, is net short 171,000 gold future contracts. The hedge funds segment of the COT is net long 104k gold future contracts. The “other reportables” and “non-reportable (retail trader) segments make up the rest of the long side of the bullion bank short position.