this is from ed steer of casey research:

As it stands, the Commitment of Traders report was very positive anyway...but would have been even more so if the withheld data had been reported in a timely manner. In silver, the Commercial traders [all bullion banks] decreased their net short position by a substantial 3,522 contracts. This was at the expense of the tech funds in the Non-Commercial category and the small traders in the Nonreportable category. They decreased their net long positions by 2,946 and 576 contracts respectively. If one were to include the 1,553 contracts deliberately not reported, the COT for silver is now back to readings that existed when silver was under $9 in November of last year...except now the price is back to almost $13 this time. As of last Tuesday...the cut-off for Good Friday's COT...the bullion banks were net short 147.8 million ounces of silver...and less than that now. The full-colour graph of the silver COT is linked here.

In gold, things are not quite as rosy...but they have improved considerably in this latest COT report. In the Commercial category, the bullion banks have decreased their net short position by a huge 28,703 contracts. This was, of course, at the financial expense of the tech funds in the Non-Commercial category and the small traders in the Nonreportable category. They reduced their long positions by 27,047 contracts and 1,656 contracts respectively. As of last Tuesday, the bullion banks had a net short position in gold of 15.3 million ounces. Even if you include the entire two days’ worth of data that weren't reported in a timely manner [another 11,448 contracts], the downward-revised net short position would only decrease by 1.1 million ounces to 14.2 million ounces [1 contract=100 oz. x 11,448 contracts]. At the bottom, back in early November [the Nov. 11th COT to be precise], the bullion banks were net short about 6.9 million ounces. That number is 7.3 million ounces [73,500 Comex contracts] below where we sit now. The full-colour COT gold graph is linked here.

That's why I [and Ted Butler] say that there is such a dichotomy between silver and gold. Silver is pretty much cleaned out and is the closest to the bottom of the barrel it's been in a very long time [years...not just since last November]. This is hugely bullish. But as I've been saying for weeks...if JPMorgan and HSBC USA put their minds to it, gold could still get creamed pretty good...taking silver with it. When the bullion banks [the Commercials] were sitting at that net short position of 6.9 million ounces...gold was sub-$700. BUT can they do it? Will they do it? Nobody knows...except JPMorgan and HSBC.

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