Though we seldom, if ever, hear about gold mini contracts being traded on the COMEX, there are now at least three. Open interest, so far, is only a small fraction of the big gold contracts, about 11,000 total, I think, for the December contracts, but, nevertheless, they must be doing okay.

On October 3rd, a 10-ounce E-micro gold futures contract started trading "adding it to the full-size 100-ounce contract, a 50-ounce miNY gold futures contract and a financially settled 33-ounce E-mini contract already traded by the company’s (me: CME Group) Comex division." Why another new one now, I wonder. Money makers, or what?

Cynical me says that with some advertising and a big plug or two, combined with surging metal prices, these minis could generate a great deal of interest from funds and even six-packers and could serve as another avenue to siphon away some big bucks that otherwise would go into the PM stocks. ETF's and now the minis. What next?

And I wonder who the guys are taking the short side of the mini trades. Could it be the usual culprits?