Unlike on the two prior occasions when the "mysterious" (coughBIScough [5]) gold seller sold so much gold he briefly broke the gold market not once [6]but twice [7], this morning's concerted gold selling episodes, which briefly took gold to a three month low, were unable to obliterate the entire bid stack (at least for now) and crush enough liquidity to force the CME to announce another "stop logic" 10-20 second trading halt.
However, there were some other peculiarities surrounding today's now recurring morning gold battering (which as we noted in a market where the CME no longer supervises any and all manipulation, [8]were and are certain to continue). Specifically, what is curious is that starting at 3:48 am Eastern Time, Nanex found "six instances (there may be more) of 1 second periods in Gold futures with a high number of trades (700 or more)." As those who have been covering our coverage of HFT manipulation will note, these are precisely the kinds of momentum ignition [9], and not rational price discovery, events that seek to manipulate prevailing prices lower (or higher). The good news is that as everyone knows, aside from equity, electricity, FX, libor, aluminum, and credit derivative markets (in just the case of JPM) gold is never manipulated: Blythe Masters promised [10]. So there's that.
These are the specific volume spiking intervals that Nanex has noted in the latest overnight trading session of note.
- 03:48:04
- 04:46:46
- 05:30:42
- 07:43:22
- 08:43:26
- 09:43:29
As Nanex further observes [11], "Note that the last 3 are almost exactly 1 hour and 3 seconds apart. That's not likely a coincidence."
And the actual bid-soaking trading slams in chart format:
03:48:04 ~ December 2013 Gold (GC) Futures Depth of Book
04:46:46
05:30:42
07:43:22
08:43:26
[12]
09:43:29
