Market Report: Silver hammered

On Comex, the large four traders category late in February was net short about 78,000 contracts, while the managed money category was net long 77,000 contracts. We won’t know for sure how this jumbo sale has effected this balance until the Commitment of Traders report for the current period is issued on 10th March. But it appears that one of the large four (it had to be one of them because of the size of the transaction) took the view that flaky hedge funds, in aggregate net long of what they were short, could be panicked out of their positions. Furthermore, the timing of the sale tells us that these flaky longs are in the US time zone, and that the seller didn’t want to see his shorts absorbed by more solid European buyers, who might take the opportunity to add to their positions.