COMEX trades hundreds of times more gold & silver than they actually possess. If enough investors demand delivery of PHYSICAL gold & silver COMEX stockpiles will be depleted. If COMEX runs out, the ensuing rush to grab physical metal to settle contract obligations *could* be the spark that ignites the long-awaited precious metals wildfire.

Explanation:
COMEX warehouses contain both “registered” and “eligible” metals. The “registered” metals are available for physical delivery. The “eligible” metals are not ready for delivery until they become “registered.” Although this pool of “eligible” metals is stored at COMEX warehouses there is no obligation to “register” these metals for subsequent physical deliveries.

The graph shows:
1) the cumulative ounces of metal delivery notices this month,
2) the ounces of “registered” metal available for delivery,
The percentage shown is based on the cumulative physical metal delivery notices for the month against the “registered” amount of metal in COMEX.
“Eligible” metal inventories are not shown as they do not have a direct bearing on the inventory depletion ratio.

Sources:
[1] COMEX precious metals warehouse stocks:
gold: http://cmegroup.com/trading/energy-metals/files/Gold_Stocks.xls
silver: http://cmegroup.com/trading/energy-metals/files/Silver_Stocks.xls
[2] COMEX precious metals daily delivery notices: http://cmegroup.com/trading/energy-metals/files/delivery.pdf

More info:
- Gold: Is This It, NOW?
- Attack of COMEX Gold & Silver
- How 2 Track COMEX Deliveries
- Sinclair Sez “Help Me Bust Comex”
- This Guy Plans 2 Kill “Paper” Silver
- COMEX: Taking Delizery Is EZ

-- Posted Friday, 19 December 2008 | Digg This Article