Hedge Funds Target Silver

The hedge fund community, after pressing the Copper market from the short side to the point that they are now net short in the red metal by nearly a THREE to ONE ratio, are now moving to go after silver from the short side. This is the first time since the history of Disaggregated Commitment of Traders report broke out the hedge fund category (2006) that this group of traders has been NET SHORT the silver market.

Keep in mind that today's report (Friday) does not cover the further drop in silver below the $27 mark that occurred Wednesday and Thursday of this past week. No doubt a large portion of that further plunge was due to additional hedge fund shorting. The report also will not pick up today's short squeeze which caught a few of these newcomers to the short side off guard. However, based on what I can see of the attitude of the hedge fund community towards commodities in general, it is going to take some strongly bullish fundamental factor to drive these guys out of their short positions.

Any sort of sustained and strong rally in stocks might do it but I suspect it is going to take a series of economic reports showing solid growth in the US and global economies to get silver going to the upside along with copper.

Today's strength in silver was a by-product of gold, which pulled the grey metal higher - nothing else....