I think the breakdown of Gold's prevailing trendline last week was precisely the opportunity that Shorty required to slam PM equities. In the near term this means sentiment for PMs has turned somewhat negative over the next couple of weeks. So far the metals are holding up well as there doesn't appear to be much potential downside if my interpretation of the current down trending trading channel is on track (see red parallels in the attched chart.) But the shares are another story altogether (ugh. what else is new?)

In terms of my proprietary Gold cycles model, this rest period ends April 08, so there isn't much time left to cover existing shorts before the next upleg kicks into high gear through June 2011. Could be Shorty also senses this and is shaking the tree hard with only a little time left to cover in a meaningful way. There is no other valid reason to account for over a 20 percent hit to ECU in the span of less than a week.

At any rate they're definitely making a killing on the ratio trade between the price of physical by clobbering the equities. Makes me scratch my head why regulators ignore these blatant security trading violations. To me, Ratio Trading by intentionally shorting stocks into oblivion is the essence of manipulation. They're moving markets in the direction they need to create a profitable trade. You can't get any more illegal than that imo. But then again any enforcment would put a kink in JP Morgan's 100% success rate trading PMs.......