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Ronan Manly is a precious metals analyst with BullionStar whose blogs
often cover current themes including what's going on in the
London gold market and the gold activities of central banks.
18 Jul 2017 16:20
Ronan Manly
11 Comments
Many people will by now have heard of COMEX gold futures price 'flash crashes' during which the gold price collapses in free fall fashion over a few second interval. Whether these flash crashes are the result of trading errors, futures market illiquidity, computerized trading patterns or deliberately engineered moves is debateable.
But beyond the actual flash crash incidents on the... Continue Reading 
07 Jul 2017 20:27 Ronan Manly 3 Comments
Following an incident which caused a large rapid drop in COMEX gold futures prices last week, this week was the turn of COMEX silver where a short-lived and rapid ‘flash crash’ caused the price of COMEX silver futures prices to fall by more than 10% within 1 minute only to rebound strongly in the subsequent minute. While the CME Group which operates the COMEX has not provided an... Continue Reading
07 Jul 2017 03:45 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is about to launch a range of new gold and silver futures in the London market (LMEprecious). Crucially though, these gold futures do not deliver physical gold or silver. Instead they transfer around unallocated gold and unallocated silver, units of which are fractionally-backed in the London precious metals markets.
This LME development is also... Continue Reading
03 Jul 2017 03:48 Ronan Manly 4 Comments
BullionStar has previously analyzed how many gold bars are in the LBMA London gold vaults. Now we turn our attention to how many real physical silver bars are in those same LBMA London vaults. The subject is topical because the LBMA is about to start reporting the total quantity of both gold and silver stored in its network of vaults in London.
But whereas with gold, the vast... Continue Reading
22 Jun 2017 14:11 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
The mainstream financial media regularly records the interest in gold from some of the world’s most famous hedge fund managers. But are these legendary investors, all of whom are billionaires, actually buying real physical gold, or are they using paper proxies such as gold futures, gold-backed ETFs, or even gold mining stocks? This new article from BullionStar aims to find out, and... Continue Reading
23 May 2017 04:22 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
Following last week’s publication of “New Gold Pool at the BIS Basle, Switzerland, Part 1”, there now follows Part 2 of this two-part series. Part 2 continues to examine how in the early 1980s, the world's most powerful central bankers who met at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland called for the launch of a central bank Gold Pool cartel so as to manipulate... Continue Reading
17 May 2017 22:39 Ronan Manly 3 Comments
With four months of gold withdrawal data now released by the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) covering January to April, the year 2017 is shaping up to be one of very high gold demand in the Chinese market. SGE gold withdrawal figures are a suitable proxy to measure wholesale Chinese gold demand because nearly all gold entering the market is required to flow through the Exchange. SGE gold... Continue Reading
16 May 2017 15:27 Ronan Manly 7 Comments
Many people are familiar with the London Gold Pool which operated between 1961 and 1968 to control the price of gold in the London gold market. But very few people are aware that more than 11 years later, the same set of Western central banks, at central bank governor level, met in secrecy at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) over an extended period during 1979 and 1980 and... Continue Reading
11 May 2017 19:04 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Trading volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), the world's largest physical gold trading venue, have nearly tripled over the last 3 years. Full year volumes for 2016 came in at over 24,300 tonnes, a 43% rise on 2015's 17,000 tonnes. The equivalent figure for 2014 was 9243 tonnes. Much of the growth in volumes is coming from OTC trading of the 1 kilogram 9999 fine gold contract,... Continue Reading
09 May 2017 10:08 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has now confirmed that it will begin publishing gold and silver holdings data for the London based commercial precious vaults sometime during the summer of 2017. Details on this new data are still sketchy as the press release issued by the LBMA has not confirmed in what format the data will be issued, what historical time periods if any will... Continue Reading
28 Apr 2017 17:11 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
The Bank of England has just published new data on its website detailing month-end gold custody holdings for gold held within its vaults. This data covers every month for the last 6 years i.e. from January 2012 to December 2016. Going forward, the Bank of England will publish updates to this data with a 3 month lag. The new gold vault data will be very useful for seeing the ebbs and... Continue Reading
24 Apr 2017 17:02 Ronan Manly 3 Comments
In October 2013, the Swedish central bank, the Riksbank, for the first time revealed the storage locations of its sizeable gold bar reserves. Sweden claims to hold 125.7 tonnes of gold scattered across central bank gold vaults in New York, London, Canada, Switzerland and also in Sweden. At the time, the Riksbank also claimed it was going to start to physically audit this gold. Fast... Continue Reading
14 Apr 2017 03:50 Ronan Manly 3 Comments
This week the LBMA Silver Price and LBMA Gold Price daily auctions were both hit by unusual price movements over two consecutive days, on 10 April and 11 April. In both cases, the prices being quoted in the auctions deviated noticeably from their respective spot prices. There is little information on what exactly happened in the silver auction since none of CME (calculation agent),... Continue Reading
03 Apr 2017 15:13 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Following the July 2015 acquisition of Swiss gold and silver Valcambi by Indian group Rajesh Exports, and the July 2016 acquisition of Swiss precious metals refiner Metalor Technologies by Japanese Tanaka Precious Metals, it has now been announced that German industrial group Heraeus, a leading precious refiner, has moved to fully acquire the giant Argor-Heraeus gold and silver refinery... Continue Reading
11 Mar 2017 15:08 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
In response to a Freedom of Information Request by Mexican financial writer Guillermo Barba, Mexico’s central bank Banixco, has just a released a quite comprehensive list of 7265 gold bars that it holds in the Bank of England’s gold vaults. This is unusual in that very few central banks ever allow publication of such a list. While the Banixco list does not include real serial... Continue Reading
07 Mar 2017 15:17 Ronan Manly 6 Comments
News that Thomson Reuters and the CME intend to abandon ship as administrator and calculation agent of the LBMA Silver Price auction has raised more than a few eyebrows, especially since they appear to be linking the exit to the introduction of new European Benchmark Regulations. Whatever the reason for their departure mid-way through their service provision contract, it now provides a... Continue Reading
03 Mar 2017 19:14 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
The Deutsche Bundesbank’s announcement in early February that it had moved 300 tonnes of gold from the New York Fed to Frankfurt in a laughable 4 years threw the mainstream financial media into a back-slapping frenzy as they rushed to congratulate the German central bank for an exercise that should have only taken a couple of weeks to complete. Back in 1967 and 1968, the very same NY... Continue Reading
17 Feb 2017 03:41 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
A chink of light may be about to shine on the gold bars held in the London Gold Market vaults. Both the Bank of England and London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) have announced that relatively soon, they will begin to publish data on the quantity of gold physically held in the series of vaults that make up the London gold vaulting network. More data than less is always welcome,... Continue Reading
08 Feb 2017 00:50 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
In late 2016, three financial exchange providers each announced in rapid succession the launch of a London based gold futures contract. These providers are the London Metal Exchange (LME), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and the CME Group. ICE and CME gold futures contracts have gone live in the last 2 weeks, but neither has seen a single trade. LME plans to launch its gold futures... Continue Reading
30 Jan 2017 23:13 Ronan Manly 5 Comments
This article, the second in a series, looks at the difficulty experience in obtaining basic information out of the Central Bank of Ireland about Ireland's monetary gold reserves, even while using a Freedom of Information request. The Request was refused, and then on appeal partially actioned. However, throughout the process there was a feeling that the Central Bank was not divulging the... Continue Reading
23 Jan 2017 03:35 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Obtaining basic details about central bank gold holdings is a subject which without exception the mainstream financial media never appears to broach. However, various independent researchers have documented attempts at obtaining such details of sovereign / central bank gold holdings. This article (Part 1) and its sequel (Part 2) add to the documented evidence by summarising how a series... Continue Reading
09 Jan 2017 23:30 Ronan Manly 4 Comments
Given that central banks are extremely secretive about 'their' gold reserves, it's important to note that the majority of these central banks do not even own the gold that they go to great lengths to hide the details of. In most cases, the sovereign states which the central banks answer to own the gold. Taken to its logical conclusion, the citizens of the sovereign states own the gold,... Continue Reading
23 Dec 2016 17:09 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
Gold futures trade in New York on both the COMEX & ICE exchanges. Both exchanges also utilize the same network of approved gold vault facilities located in and around New York City. However, neither the ICE vault report nor the COMEX vault report takes account of the other Exchange's registered gold. Therefore both reports overstate the true amount of eligible gold in each of the... Continue Reading
08 Dec 2016 15:47 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
UBS and other precious metals traders on how to wreak havoc in silver markets Written by Allan Flynn, specialist researcher in aspects of gold and silver. “An avalanche can be triggered by a pebble if you get the timing right” Earlier this year at April’s hearings for London Silver and Gold Fix lawsuits, the judge and … Continue Reading
15 Nov 2016 22:10 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
The European Central Bank (ECB), creator of the Euro, currently claims to hold 504.8 tonnes of gold reserves. These gold holdings are reflected on the ECB balance sheet and arose from transfers made to the ECB by Euro member national central banks, mainly in January 1999 at the birth of the Euro. As of the … Continue Reading
03 Nov 2016 07:18 Ronan Manly 4 Comments
News has just emerged in the gold market that the giant Swiss precious metals refiner, Argor-Heraeus, has held discussions to be acquired, and that the likely outcome is an acquisition by a private equity group. This private equity group is believed to be London-based WRM CapInvest, part of Zurich headquartered WRM Capital. Other interested buyers are … Continue Reading
25 Oct 2016 06:33 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
Eighteen months ago I wrote a short synopsis of a gold sales transaction by the central bank of El Salvador wherein it had sold 80% (about 5.5 tonnes) of its official gold reserves. The title of the post was “El Salvador’s gold reserves, the BIS, and the bullion banks“. If you thought, why the focus … Continue Reading
05 Oct 2016 15:05 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Just over a year ago, gold researchers Nick Laird, Bron Suchecki, Koos Jansen and myself took a shot at estimating how much physical gold was accounted for in London within the gold-backed ETFs and under Bank of England custody. The results of that exercise are highlighted in September 2015 articles “How many Good Delivery gold bars are in … Continue Reading
02 Oct 2016 14:16 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
In a recent article titled “Blood Brothers: The Bank of England and the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)“, I charted the extremely close historical and contemporary relationship between the LBMA and the Bank of England. This article highlighted that: the LBMA was established in 1987 by the Bank of England the original bullion bank founding members … Continue Reading
25 Sep 2016 14:08 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) is a London-based, globally active, trade association for “the promotion and regulation of commerce relating to the London Bullion Market”. The “London Bullion Market” here collectively refers to the London Gold Market and the London Silver Market. The remit of the LBMA has very recently also been extended to … Continue Reading
23 Sep 2016 12:00 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Italy’s gold has had an eventful history. Robbed by the Nazis and taken to Berlin. Loaded on to gold trains and sent to Switzerland. Flown from London to Milan and Rome. Used as super-sized collateral for gold backed loans from West Germany while sitting quietly in a vault in New York. Leveraged as a springboard … Continue Reading
21 Sep 2016 15:39 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
Written by Allan Flynn, specialist researcher in aspects of gold and silver. Five months have lapsed without decision, since London gold and silver benchmark-rigging class action lawsuits received a cool response in a Manhattan court. Transcripts from April hearings show, in the absence of direct evidence, the claims dissected by a “very skeptical” judge, and criticized … Continue Reading
09 Sep 2016 19:04 Ronan Manly 11 Comments
China is now in pole position as regards annual global gold mining output. Much if not all of Chinese domestic gold mining output is refined into standard gold by Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) approved refiners and then sold through the SGE. A lot of recycled gold in China also flows through the same refineries. As of … Continue Reading
02 Sep 2016 14:44 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Welcome to the twilight zone of IMF gold sales, where transparency really means secrecy, where on-market is off-market, and where IMF gold sales documents remain indefinitely “classified” and out of public view due to the “sensitivity of the subject matter”. Off and On Market Between October 2009 and December 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claims to... Continue Reading
26 Aug 2016 12:56 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Anyone with even a passing interest in US official gold reserves will probably recall that the US Treasury claims to hold its gold (8,133.5 tonnes) over four locations in continental United States, namely at three US Mint facilities in Fort Knox (Kentucky), West Point (upstate New York), Denver (Colorado), and at the New York Fed … Continue Reading
09 Aug 2016 15:10 Ronan Manly 3 Comments
Today the London Metal Exchange (LME) and the World Gold Council (WGC) jointly announced (here and here) the launch next year of standardised gold and silver spot and futures contracts which will trade on the LME’s electronic platform LMESelect, will clear on the LME central clearing platform LME Clear, and that will be settled ‘loco London’. Together these … Continue Reading
03 Aug 2016 01:28 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
In a July 11 BullionStar article, “SPDR Gold Trust gold bars at the Bank of England vaults”, I highlighted that the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), in it’s Q1 2016 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosed that during the January – March 2016 quarter, the GLD custodian HSBC had employed the Bank of England as … Continue Reading
31 Jul 2016 00:50 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Earlier this year, the director of marketing and sales at the Austrian Mint confirmed to Bloomberg in an interview that the Mint’s combined gold bar and gold coin sales in 2015 had totalled 1.32 million troy ounces, a 45% increase on 2014, while the Mint’s silver sales in 2015 had reached 7.3 million ounces, a … Continue Reading
29 Jul 2016 08:19 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
A remarkable but little noticed development has occurred behind the scenes of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) over the last 3 years. This development concerns the very high level of executive staff turnover at World Gold Trust Services, the New York based ‘Sponsor’ of the mammoth gold GLD gold-backed Exchange Traded Fund that is listed … Continue Reading
11 Jul 2016 06:31 Ronan Manly 12 Comments
One of the most notable developments accompanying the gold price rally of 2016 has been the very large additions to the gold bar holdings of the major physically backed gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This is especially true of the SPDR Gold Trust (ticker GLD). The gold bar holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust peaked at 1353 … Continue Reading
13 Jun 2016 15:42 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
Within the world of central bank and government gold reserves, there is often an assumption that these gold holdings consist entirely of gold bullion bars. While this is true in some cases, it is not the fully story because many central banks and governments, such as the US, France, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and Venezuela, … Continue Reading
03 Jun 2016 13:47 Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Last year I published two posts featuring the 2013 refinery production statistics of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Good Delivery Refiners (gold and silver). The first post, “Moving the goalposts….The LBMA’s shifting stance on gold refinery production statistics“, looked primarily at how, in May 2015, the LBMA had first published a 2013 gold refining output... Continue Reading
30 May 2016 02:49 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Within the last 2 months, there have been a series of developments in the London Gold Market, each of which has involved Chinese-controlled banking group ICBC Standard Bank Plc. On 4 April, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) announced that ICBC Standard Bank had been reclassified as a LBMA Market Making member for the OTC spot … Continue Reading
17 May 2016 02:53 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
The platinum and palladium markets arguably receive more focus during the third week of May than at any other time of the year. This is due to a series of events hosted in London known as London Platinum Week. London Platinum Week, which also covers other platinum group metals such as palladium, is coordinated by … Continue Reading
11 May 2016 16:49 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
I was recently interviewed by financial journalist Lars Schall on behalf of Swiss based Matterhorn Asset Management. Our interview covered the German and Russian gold markets, Venezuela’s official gold reserves, the secrecy of the London gold market, and the outlook for the gold price, among a number of other topics. Matterhorn kindly granted me permission to … Continue Reading
23 Apr 2016 19:04 Ronan Manly 4 Comments
Exactly 19 months to the day after the International Board of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) held its first full trading session on 19 September 2014, the Shanghai Gold Exchange launched the Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price auction on 19 April 2016. In China, the number 19 is very auspicious since it consists of lucky number … Continue Reading
19 Apr 2016 04:36 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
HSBC’s main gold vault in London regularly comes under the media spotlight for a number of reasons. These reasons include: a) the HSBC London vault stores a very large amount of gold on behalf of gold-backed Exchange Traded Funds, primarily the well-known SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) b) along with the Bank of England vaults and … Continue Reading
14 Apr 2016 05:44 Ronan Manly 1 Comments
In a surprising development, a group of plaintiffs in an antitrust litigation case against Deutsche Bank, HSBC Bank plc, the Bank of Nova Scotia, and UBS AG, have just announced that Deutsche Bank is in the process of negotiating the formal terms of a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Scotia are the … Continue Reading
08 Apr 2016 17:47 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
The article “From Good Delivery bars to Kilobars – The Swiss Refineries, the GFMS data, and the LBMA” examined the mountain of evidence concerning the known Swiss conversion of Good Delivery bars into kilobars for export to gold markets in the East. As a further step in this process, it’s worth taking a look at the … Continue Reading
04 Apr 2016 08:49 Ronan Manly 0 Comments
When Singapore Exchange (SGX) launched a physically-delivered gold kilobar contract in October 2014, there was much fanfare from the contract’s promoters (SGX, World Gold Council, IE Singapore and the Singapore Bullion Market Association) that the SGX Gold Kilobar would kick-start exchange-based gold kilobar trading in the Singapore gold market, while providing liquidity, price... Continue Reading
No Spread between the buy and sell price Swiss-minted by Argor Heraeus "Money since 4000 B.C." stamped on the bar Delivered in secure tamper-proof package No Spread Silver Bars Also AvailableBuy from BullionStar SGD 6,213.76
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