Historic Event As Gold Slips Into Backwardation Once Again
Today James Turk told King World News that we are witnessing truly historic events in the gold market as gold has once again slipped into backwardation. Turk spoke about the unprecedented nature of what is taking place in gold, as well as what investors should expect as a result of this latest historic development. Below is what Turk had to say in this KWN exclusive interview.
Turk: “The big news here in London, Eric, is that gold slipped into backwardation once again. The previous backwardation ended here in London on Monday, when the US was closed for a holiday. It looked like a concerted effort by the central planners to put gold and dollar interest rates back into their normal relationship.
Where
are the arbitrageurs? Why haven't they stepped in to take the easy
profits? All they have to do, Eric, is sell their physical metal and
simultaneously buy it back for future delivery at a cheaper price.
Plus, they have use of the proceeds from their sale to invest. They
also avoid storage costs while they own paper gold - a promise to pay
gold in the future - instead of physical metal. For the big gold
players it is easy money laying right there on the table, in plain sight
for everyone to see. So why don't the big players take the advantage
of the arbitrage?
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Today James Turk told King World News that we are witnessing truly historic events in the gold market as gold has once again slipped into backwardation. Turk spoke about the unprecedented nature of what is taking place in gold, as well as what investors should expect as a result of this latest historic development. Below is what Turk had to say in this KWN exclusive interview.
Turk: “The big news here in London, Eric, is that gold slipped into backwardation once again. The previous backwardation ended here in London on Monday, when the US was closed for a holiday. It looked like a concerted effort by the central planners to put gold and dollar interest rates back into their normal relationship.
“But this artificial
condition could not hold because the demand for physical metal is just
too strong. So gold's 1-month forward rate against the dollar is once
again negative.
I
think some history will be useful to help explain what is happening,
starting first with what took place in 1999. In May of that year,
British Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that Britain would sell
one-half of its gold reserves. That announcement started a selling
panic which ended with the so-called ‘Brown bottom’ on July 19 at $253.
In a couple of months, gold had dropped about 10%.
As we
now know, that selling climax ended the 19-year bear market in gold.
Importantly, the gold price then began to slowly climb. At the end of
September 1999, central banks announced the Washington Agreement on Gold
which limited the weight of gold they would lend to the bullion banks
that had been actively borrowing metal.
This
activity was a major reason why the gold price had fallen nearly 40%
over the last years of the 1990s. So it is understandable that the
central bank announcement resulted in a big $30 jump in the gold price
to over $300, and for a couple of days, gold even went into
backwardation -- indicating a shortage of physical metal. Thereafter,
the gold price began what has become a historic multi-year climb.
Now,
let's fast forward to 2008. After the Lehman collapse there was a rush
for liquidity, and gold is one of the most liquid assets. So it was
aggressively sold into November of 2008, when the selling pressure ended
as gold went into backwardation for a couple of days. And as proof
that the baby was thrown out with the bath water, gold climbed from
$717, at its November 2008 low, to $1,000 by February 2009. And it kept
climbing for two more years.
During
each of those two previous periods, gold was in backwardation for just a
few days. In contrast, the backwardation that ended Monday prevailed
for a totally unprecedented and record breaking 40 trading days. During
that time, gold rose from $1,200 to over $1,430. It was a spectacular
jump in price. But with gold again below $1,400, the backwardation has
re-appeared.
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