For those tracking precious metals, keep a close eye on the Russian Ruble rate in $USD over the next few days/weeks. Keep in mind that Putin has pegged the ruble exchange rate at 5000 rubles per gram of gold for the next couple of months.
There are 31.1034768 grams in one troy ounce. As such, the exchange rate for a one troy ounce of gold garnering you 155,517 Rubles.
After peaking at 145 Rubles to $1 dollar (145:1) a few weeks ago at the start of the conflict, it's now approaching where its stable range was prior at about around 72-77:1 range. The ratio went as low as 74:1 last night, creating a brief arbitrage opportunity for savvy traders to sell gold in rubles amounting to $2101 USD/oz versus the present CRIMEX spot price in the neighborhood of $1950/oz.
Today the ruble:$USD ratio has been fluctuating wildly in the 77-83 range. With Putin's most recent threat to cut off the gas to Europe tomorrow, I would imagine we can expect some more wild fluctuations as the international banksters fight to keep the ratio around 80:1, while sovereign western European nations scramble to get their hands on more Rubles.
Here's where banksters need to hold the ruble at to maintain the illusory CRIMEX spot price, somewhere in the 79-80:1 range.
155,517/83 = $1873.70
155,517/80 = $1943.97
155,517/79 = $1968.57
155,517/74 = $2101.58
Assuming the spot price of gold maintains the $1950 range, any slippage in the ratio below 79:1 will cause another arbitrage opportunity for international traders selling gold into Russia for rubles, than trading their highly in-demand rubles for Euros or $USD. Last night there was nearly a $150/oz profit margin at 74:1.
For those interested, most of the online currency converters are static, not reflecting the wildly fluctuating rates right now. Here's a good currency conversion tracker that provides up-to-the-minute values if you click the "1M" chart view -> https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/currency
If the CRIMEX, CME, LBMA, etc. continue their shenanigans with MASSIVE SUPPRESSION of the precious metals prices in order to maintain the fiat $USD value deception, then gold is going to start flowing to Russia in never before seen amounts. And if they don't, then the spot gold price is going to start rising like never before. This could get interesting!
Could this be how "Gold destroys the Fed"? Inquiring minds wanna know.
How can they keep throwing paper money at gold and silver to suppress their breakout to the upside without killing themselves? Sure they can print more but it's too late for more printing.
The big banksters can invoke gold/silver contracts out of thin air, without needing any collateral on the CRIMEX. In the past year we've seen MASSIVE explosions in the total number of contracts being traded - to the tune or 100X+ what they've needed to suppress the markets in the past. So in short, there appears to be no limit to their ability to short the market.
However, what very few people talk about, for good reason, is that it's beyond obvious that all the big hedge funds, brokerage houses, mutual funds, etc. have CLEARLY all been given "an offer they can't refuse", to not purchase sizable amounts of gold/silver, lest they be, shall we say, not long for this world. This much is clear.
Warren Buffet purchased a sizable chunk of the silver market about 17 years ago. Not to long after, for no good reason, he unwound his position and nobody has dared do it again. The lesson was taught in 1980 when the Hunt brothers wisely cornered the silver market, only to see the SEC and COMEX change the rules on the futures markets in order to wipe the Hunt brothers out. Lesson learned.
The day the dam bursts is the same day us peon retail buyers will be forever closed-out of the market. It won't even take an hour. Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos could buy up the entire global retail gold & silver markets by themselves. Both retail gold and silver are minuscule markets in comparison to all the paper negotiable instruments out there. As Mike Maloney says, gold and silver will become "unafordium" and "unobtainium" for the majority. :)
1 million put-contracts at 1900 dollars + 950.000 call-contracts at 1850 dollars => down she goes.
Somebody is allowed to rollover .... finance, or find a well-intentioned FED window where some billions can be sourced.
However, there are only a couple of people who determine the price. Price discovery as mentioned above is a big big nono.
I agree that the question is valid: How long? We are moving into fiction economy territory.
It is strange. 30 years ago, the commie economy was a ghost and price discovery was impossible. Today we are at that point. Of course, one can expect the same outcome. A short but fast drop and a sudden stop.