Across the Street Blog - Found 10 million ounces of physical Silver extracted from SLV over a few days

Across the Street blog found 10 million ounces of physical silver was extracted from SLV in a few days time and the fact there is no silver left there (written on April 29th).

Go to link to read whole article, it has graphs.

 portion from article:

I’m not real big on suspense, so I’ll tell you upfront, I think so.  Once again, we may be about to find out what happens when regulators are asleep at the switch.

As of this writing there are 364 million shares of SLV outstanding.  In the past five trading days (April 25 – 29) more than 755 million shares have been traded, and get this, more than 10 million ounces of silver were taken from the trust between the 26th and the 28th, taking available shares with them.  From Stockhouse.com :

Note: Stockhouse.com is the only free website that I know of that accurately tracks the number of ETF shares outstanding and changes (wish I could say the same of my broker).  Enter the ETF ticker with the suffix “.SO”

At what point does trading volume relative to existing shares become unbelievable?

Information on institutional holdings of ETF shares is also hard to find. but according to nasdaq.com, 86 million shares of SLV are held by institutions, but that does not include any holdings reported since April 1, 2011.  And speaking of missing data, does anybody know where China Investment Corp’s 13F‘s  are?  The sovereign wealth giant filed its initial holdings with the SEC on February 5, 2010,   but no additional data has been released.  The SEC requires the form to be filed within 45 days of the quarter’s end. 

The point is that the SLV has become one of the most heavily traded instruments on our exchanges and there is an all too finite number of shares.  There’s at least some evidence that the SECs institutional holdings data is outdated and/or incomplete.   What happens when all the shares are spoken for?  If it hasn’t happened already (I suspect it has), it should soon…..

TOO Funny - Bankers Sounding a Siren Today. What is it they are saying? "Stay AWAY from Gold" ! HOW Hilarious! Of course we should trust them, right?

This has just got my day going with a a GOOD Laugh.  Bankers are coming out sounding an Alarm this morning!  They are Yelling 'STAY AWAY FROM GOLD'!  How Funny!  Not just Reuters, carrying that article today but Wealth Briefing is also carrying the same article, with a different title, which sounds more official!

Of course we should all listen to them, right?  Gosh, they aren't the ones trying to steal everyone's houses with false paperwork now?  They aren't the ones that took Trillions of dollars from us either..... they aren't the ones who are bankrupting the middle class.... they aren't the ones who have caused this economic problems in the first place due to their fraudulent practices, right?  

I guess we should just listen to all they say and follow their advice.... correct?  

OH but before doing that..................... I would like all those who are sounding this alarm.... to REVEAL how much in metals do they PERSONALLY have!  I bet that would astound people in finding out how those top bankers are preserving their own wealth and protecting the value of the dollar at what it is right now!

So Are you going to listen to the bankers?  :)   

If there is one thing I have learned, whatever the Bankers say to do - DO THE OPPOSITE! 

People have learned to do the opposite of what Cramer says to do and have made money.  But I have to give "The Street" credit today.  They came out with an article yesterday that explains GLD and SLV in that they are simply Paper. 

The article says not to buy GLD or SLV either - due to it simply being paper and not real gold or silver being purchased and that big banks use that paper to short the metals in the futures market.  Great article and I advice reading it, to understand what GLD and SLV really are.


Portions of the Street Article:

When you buy gold and silver physically backed ETFs, you do not own the physical metal, you own a paper representation. With respect to the gold ETFs, for every share you buy, you "own" one tenth of an ounce of gold; for silver, it's one ounce. 

Because you own shares and not the physical metal, precious metal ETFs may be sold short, so two people can own the same "gold" -- the original owner and the investor who is borrowing the shares. Although baskets of shares are allocated to specific gold bars, which can be found in the ETF's prospectus, an investor must share ownership. 

Owning a precious metal ETF can also be more expensive than owning and storing the physical metal. Expense ratios can range from 0.25% to 0.50%, while storage fees at GoldMoney.com, according to founder James Turk, for example, cost 0.15% to 0.18%. 

Profits made on investments in physically backed ETFs are taxed like collectables, at a maximum of 28%, if the investment is held for more than a year. If an investor sells before the year is up, he is taxed at his regular income rate. Basically an investor gets taxed as if he owned bullion, when in reality he just owns paper. 

There are also two types of gold stored in the ETFs, allocated and unallocated. Allocated gold is the bullion held by the custodian. Custodians provide a bar list of all the individual allocated bars daily and are typically audited twice a year, paid for by the sponsor, by an independent party like Inspector International. 

Unallocated gold relates to authorized participants like JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs who trade gold futures. Futures contracts are often bought if the trustee needs to create new shares fast and doesn't have the time to buy and deliver the bullion. Typically allocated gold far outweighs the unallocated gold and the amounts are tallied each day by the custodian.