Gold Committment

As far as the Commitment of Traders goes, the numbers were much smaller than I was expecting/hoping. I guess the boys were telling the truth. If everything got reported at Tuesday's cut-off, then we have an accurate snapshot of a market bottom. For the week in silver, total o.i was down 3,560 contracts. The short traders in the Commercial category only improved their position by 829 contracts...which is nothing. As of this COT, the Commercial net short position stands at a mind-boggling 58,292 contracts, which is a hair under 300 million ounces. How bad is that...well, at the August 'end-of-the-world' low in 2007, they had a net short position of only 26,427...an increase of 120% in about seven months.In gold, the numbers are similar so I won't get into it in detail except to say that the traders in the Commercial category managed to improve their position this past week (covered their shorts) by 13,057 contracts. Last August, the Commercials were net short 98,864 contracts. As of Tuesday's cut-off, they are now short 193,068 contracts. Regardless of the rising price, the bullion banks just keep going shorter and shorter against the longs. The question that has to be asked here, is this: What are these bullion banks going to do on the next price rise in both gold and silver...and other commodities that they have an 'interest' in? Once the moving averages dictate it, the tech funds will be piling in on the long side in the Non-Commercial category. Exogenous events excluded, will the bullion banks go short against them...the same old drill...or will they stand aside and let the market 'discover' the true prices? That, and only that, determines how high gold and silver prices will go on the next price rise.