GOLD

For the week, the Large Specs dumped 16,836 longs and added 6,544 new shorts (quite a few of which got squeezed yesterday and put back on today). This brings the Large Spec net long total down to just 56,879 contracts. Do you think that's a lot? Hmmm. What if I told you that, back on 9/11/12, the Large Specs were net long 182,016? From a different perspective, back on 9/11/12, the Large Spec net long ratio was 6.62:1. As of last Tuesday, it was down to1.49:1. And here's a little more perspective for you: At the price lows on 12/27/2011, the Large Specs were net long 130,788 with a ratio of 4.57:1 and at the price lows of last August they were net long 114,304 with a ratio of 3.43:1. Again, as of last Tuesday, the Large Specs were net long just 56,879 contracts and had a net long ratio of 1.49:1.

The Small Specs also reduced their net long position by a little over 1500 contracts and they are now net long just 2,342 total contracts. Again, by contrast, back on 9/11/12 the Small Specs were net long 55,075. That's a reduction of nearly 96%!

And The Gold Cartel. What did they accomplish this week? Not much...No, they just reduced their net short exposure by nearly 25,000 contracts! Again and as stated above, The Gold Cartel is now net short just 59,221 contracts or 184 metric tonnes of paper gold. Back on 9/11/12, they were net short 237,091 contracts or 737 metric tonnes of paper gold. The new Cartel net short ratio is just 1.34:1. This means that they are now long 3 contracts for every four that they are short. Incredible!

Once again for perspective, at the most recent price bottoms near $1525 in Dec of 2011 and August of 2012, The Gold Cartel was still net short 163,932 and 143,940, respectively. Their net short ratios on those occasions were 2.01:1 and 1.98:1. Again, as of last Tuesday, the numbers are 59,221 and 1.34:1.