JPMorgan et al Rush to Cover Silver Short Positions: Is a Silver Price Explosion Imminent?

In Ed's latest commentary (scroll about 1/3rd down the page) he gives good news of large reductions in the silver short position -- probably explaining the last leg of the silver rally, despite nearly everyone's expectations that the market was (should be) topping. This also implies there is quite a ways to go.

In silver, the Commercial net short position shrank by a whopping 10,158 contracts...50.8 million ounces...possibly the biggest one-week decline in open interest in silver, ever. Ted says that it was mostly the '4 or less' traders [read JPMorgan] and the raptors [the '8 or more' small traders in the Commercial category that were covering short positions and/or going long.

The Commercial net short position in silver is now down to 212.7 million ounces...down the above 50.8 million from the previous week. The '4 or less' bullion banks' short position has declined all the way down to 182.0 million ounces...and the '8 or less' bullion banks are short 227.9 million ounces. The '8 or less' traders include the '4 or less'...so you can do the math and figure out how many ounces the '5 through 8' traders are short on their own...and it's not a lot.

If you extrapolate the 10,000 or so contract decline in silver's open interest that's been reported on Wednesday and Thursday...it's obvious that JPMorgan et al are running for the hills as fast their bandy little legs will carry them.