Big players like major banks had bet heavily against gold and silver prices rising (called "short positions"), risking billions in losses as prices soared. To avoid massive payouts on expiring bets today, they (allegedly) manipulated markets to crash prices temporarily, saving their financial skins but at some short-term cost.
Here's how this could work, explained simply, plus the money involved.
Ways they might crash prices:
- Sell huge amounts of fake "paper" bets (futures contracts, which are agreements to buy/sell at future prices without real metal) during quiet overnight hours when few traders are active. This floods the market, drops prices fast, and triggers automatic sell orders from others (stop-losses) or forces them to sell because they can't cover loans (margin calls).
- Work with the exchange (CME, a big trading hub) to suddenly raise the cash required to hold bets (margin hikes, like 30%+ in January 2026). This squeezes people betting on price rises (long positions), forcing them to sell cheap and worsening the drop.
- Use tricks like fake buy/sell orders (spoofing) or super-fast computer trading to keep prices below key levels where bets pay out big (options strikes), so those bets expire worthless instead of costing the banks money.
- Make secret deals or claim emergencies (force majeure) to settle bets with cash instead of real metal, ignoring actual physical prices and letting paper markets diverge.
Costs they paid today to pull this off: To start the crash, banks had to risk more bets against rising prices, put up extra cash as guarantees (e.g., $25,000–$43,000 per silver contract amid hikes), and take temporary paper losses if prices bounce back. Specific estimates: JPMorgan faced $13.7 billion in potential silver losses before acting; TD Securities lost $2.39 million closing a bad bet. Overall, big banks might have spent $1–2 billion each on things like extra guarantees and legal risks, totaling $5–10 billion short-term across the group.
Savings from the price drop: Gold plunged about $500 per ounce (from $5,600 to $5,100), silver $30–40 per ounce (from $121 to $80–90). For their huge bets against rises: On silver alone (positions of 212 million to 4.4 billion ounces), they saved $6.4–176 billion total. Gold savings were similar in scale. Per bank: Bank of America and Citi (combined alleged 4.4 billion ounces silver) saved $132–176 billion from the $30–40 drop; others like JPMorgan, HSBC, UBS, Barclays, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, and TD (90–212 million ounces silver each) saved $2.7–8.5 billion apiece. Grand total savings: $100–300 billion across all, dodging even bigger forced payments or bankruptcy threats.
You didn't think it was organic, did you?
This is why FLYNN is bringing attention to Naked Short Selling right now.
These entities shouldn't exist in their current state if this is how they mainipulate the market.
We sometimes forget where the 'savings' come from. The 'big players' effectively STOLE all of this money from the average guy.
Imagine Joe, a normal guy, bought just ONE silver call option expiring today. He paid $8,000 for the right to buy 5,000 ounces of silver at $100 per ounce (strike price).
Before the banks smashed the price, silver was $121/oz.
If prices had stayed fair, Joe’s option would have been worth $105,000 at expiry ($21 profit per ounce × 5,000 oz = $105,000 payout; he keeps $97,000 profit after his $8,000 cost).
Instead, banks crashed silver to ~$85 in minutes, and his option expired completely worthless. Joe lost the entire $8,000.
Summary: Joe bet $8,000 → Should have won $105,000 (net +$97,000) Because of manipulation → Got $0, lost all $8,000.
Thank you for "splaining" that.
This is sickening.
Buy more gold while it is down cuz it will be going right back up again. All the forces and factors that have contributed to a strong gold & silver market are still in place and this engineered drop is only a temporary thing - the banks and investment dealers cannot continue to artificially invest billions of dollars each to continue to do this.
That's the best strategy. I didn't make money in the stock market until I accepted the fact tbat it's totally corrupt. If I see a huge run up on low volume for no reason on a stock I own, I sell. If a stock I follow drops for no reason, or BS from Yahoo and it's bots, I look at it as a chance to add shares.
hang on to the physical
The last gasp of a dying regime.
You just watch what happens next week.
The LBMA trading in the UK,opened one hour late. I suspect they eliminated all the buy orders,that provided a floor for the price.
To much coincidence.
Didn’t they open after the China markets close?
Opened an hour late.
Shenanigans for sure.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wallstreetsilver/comments/1qqs7l1/lbma_opening_late_due_to_tech_issues/
Better link.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/london-metal-exchange-resumes-trade-after-one-hour-delay-ce7e5bdfde80f521
https://nitter.poast.org/profitsplusid/status/2017386181466722688#m
What is a margin call if it’s raised to prevent margin calls? I wish these bankers allowed us to do that for our personal household.
Crime and fukery.
Business usual
These market manipulators need a swift punishment. For one, toss them out of any exchange they participate within and make them never even have a Webull or Robinhood account. These crooks are only trying to keep the life blood of the deep state flowing since President Trump has been cutting off other financial revenue avenues.
Wait until people figure out the Vatican, all governments, banks etc are ALL part of the same club... and any distinction is merely an illusion...
Bix Wier likes to bring up that comex price has nothing to do with physical "in reality" price. For instance once oil traded at $-40.
And notice that, as far as I can tell, most bullion sites are offline so there is no way to buy on the dip unless you can find a local coin shop to sell or buy.