Libya set for civil war/expect a raid tomorrow.

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:

Gold closed today up $1.90 to $1415.30. Silver on the other hand was hit with relentless unbacked paper and lost 12 cents to $33.18. The gold shares were extremely weak and I knew that a raid was upon us. The bankers will supply massive paper tomorrow in an attempt to cool the jets of gold and silver. The numbers today are all at comex closing time of 1:30.

Let us now see how comex silver and gold traded today.

First the less volatile gold:

The total gold comex open interest rose by 2,357 contracts to rest tonight (basis yesterday) at 504,476. This is quite normal as gold has been receiving plenty of impetus from the Libyian and other middle eastern turmoil.

The front delivery month of February saw its open interest today fall from 631 to 524 for a loss of 106 contracts. We had 131 deliveries yesterday so all of the fall was due to those deliveries. We also had a few queue jumpers anxious to get a hold of some gold. The next front delivery month of April saw its open interest rise from 330,973 to 331,160. Again, this is to be expected. The estimated volume today was very large at 173,920. The confirmed volume yesterday was also quite large at 162,085 as investors globally seek these ancient metal of kings.

Now for silver:

The total comex silver OI fell by 3558 contracts from 145,070 to 141,512 (basis yesterday). No doubt the new comex margins rules may have played some roll in this as you will notice that silver did not follow gold OI. The speculators in silver did not want to play with the crooked bankers.

The front options expiry month of February saw it OI drop from 118 to 107 for a drop of 11 contracts.

We had 30 deliveries yesterday, so all of the drop was due to the deliveries and we got a few queue jumpers to boot. All eyes are on the front delivery month of March. The comex notified us that as of 1:30 today, the open interest in the March contract fell from 39,528 to 28,275 which of course is basis yesterday. The estimated volume at the silver comex was an astounding 103,391 contracts. The confirmed volume yesterday came in at an earth shattering 136,573 contracts. And our regulators sit idly by watching this soap opera unfold. The OI for March still standing is extremely high for one day to go. I will watch this very closely for you.