‘Claims Per Deliverable Ounce’ Likely Soared to over 200:1 as JPM Pulls Another Large Tranche

JP Morgan, who as I shared last month tends to move large amounts of gold into the registered (deliverable) category on the Comex just in the nick of time, took another huge tranche of gold out of that category last Friday.
Registered (deliverable) gold is now down 202,000 troy ounces or a little over 6 tonnes, a level which we have not seen there since Nick Laird started keeping track of the Comex warehouses in 2003.
A quick calculation that awaits the updated open interest figure shows that the ‘claims per deliverable ounce’ has now likely soared to over 200:1. We have never seen a ratio that high.
I will put up the ‘official calculation’ from Nick when it becomes available most likely on Aussie time later tonight. We might not see the ratio climb if there has been a plunge in open interest, however unlikely that might seem.
Not just considering the Comex, which I consider to be a atavistic pricing mechanism, a conjunction of several things trouble me in the light of Ronan Manly’s second article in his current series.
He does a meticulous estimate that indicates that the levels of unencumbered gold in the LBMA, which some of us have come to call ‘the float’ of physical bullion, are now so low that he calls it ‘a game of musical chairs’ to cover the unallocated gold accounts.

This post was published at Jesses Crossroads Cafe on 08 SEPTEMBER 2015.