iShares Silver Trust (SLV)

[lady glueck]

In general yes adamp. on silver I do not think so. the last option expiration weeks were hard in general, but after a massive cartell raid silver recovered and gained back up from the 18.60 level (which was an important level as I noticed already on tuesday, when it started) to almost 18.80 which suggests cartell will take a break bashing silver next week. Also its in my guess that cartell covered loads of their shortcontracts (as seen in gold but have no figs on silver).
however, GOFO rates turned positive
http://www.quandl.com/OFDP/GOLD_3-LBMA-Gold-Forward-Offered-Rates-GOFO
the fact gofo rates swinged back to positive rate structure combined with gold and silvers positive performance on friday afternoon session in an opt.exp. weeks let me believe that next week silver will go back to 19+ levels.

Silver's OI appears to be driven by an increase in short positions in the Managed Money category, so hedge funds are presumably anticipating the July contract running off the board. Anyway their shorts are now at a new record high, which is technically bullish.
CHART follow link below:
http://www.goldmoney.com/research/updates/market-report-gold-and-silver-fell-sharply

It's worth remembering that Managed Money, which is another way of saying "hedge funds", rarely takes a straight bet. Instead this category buys or sells precious metals as a counterpart to positions in other markets. So selling down gold and silver futures while physical demand still outstrips supply is to some extent a counterpart of bond and equity positions. And here it's worth noting that bond yields have collapsed this year, as shown in the chart of UST 10-year bonds.
.........


Blood in the street elsewhere? yes:
The mainstream media is latching on to the idea that all is not well in the world of 'markets'. The FT's Gillian Tett notes that, as we have vociferously explained, almost every measure of volatility has tumbled to unusual low levels, "this is bizarre," she notes, "financial history suggests that at this point in an economic cycle, volatility normally jumps." But investors are acting as if they were living in a calm and predictable universe, "[Investors in] the options markets are not pricing in any big macro risks. This is very unusual." In reality, as Hyman Minsky notes, market tranquility tends to sow the seeds of its own demise and the longer the period of calm, the worse the eventual whiplash. Tett concludes, that pattern played out back in 2007... and there are good reasons to suspect it will recur.


No matter what asset clas you espy, volatility levels are at or near record low levels (record high levels of complacency)...
SEE CHART and read more:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-30/market-tranquility-sowing-seeds-its-own-demise


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/05a4b31a-e5ae-11e3-aeef-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F05a4b31a-e5ae-11e3-aeef-00144feabdc0.html%3Fsiteedition%3Duk&siteedition=uk&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2014-05-30%2Fmarket-tranquility-sowing-seeds-its-own-demise#axzz33I620FwE