Here’s a fun game for a (relatively quiet) Tuesday.
Take the latest general gold inventory figures from the Comex exchange — these have been falling since around the beginning of August:
Then the exchange’s registered gold holdings — the portion of inventory that’s actually available for delivery against futures:
And then the exchange’s eligible holdings — the portion of inventory that’s not eligible for delivery, but which is being stored by the exchange on behalf of others:
Then flip the registered holdings and superimpose them over the eligible ones:
You get two puzzle pieces which increasingly fail to match.
That’s at least when you compare them to the trend which had been running since about 2007 until about March 2010, below:
So where’s the missing piece?
Perhaps, it has something to do with the ongoing build-up in the portion of eligible shares dedicated to the iShares Gold Trust (IAU). These, as you can see below, have been increasing steadily since about May 2010:
The question, then, is has this come at the expense of general and registered Comex gold inventories?
Related links:
Is someone liquidating GLD? - FT Alphaville
The story of the gold curve, so far – FT Alphaville