Commercials Increase Net Silver Shorts Additional 19 Million Ounces

In early January, THE guru in silver, Ted Butler, told subscribers  It seems that the big commercial interests have come to learn the real silver story and they appear to want no part of the short side again.  While Butler is correct that the commercials had a near death experience in April, it appears that they are not ready to give up the naked short side of the silver market just yet.
After increasing net short positions by 4,639 contracts last week, the commercials increased their silver futures net short positions an additional 3,708 contracts (18.54 million ounces) in the week ending Tuesday 1/31/12.  This means that the commercials have increased their net shorts by 8,347 contracts (41.74 million ounces) since mid January during the run up from $30 to $34.50.

Silver COT Report - Futures
Large Speculators			Commercial		Total
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short	Long	Short
28,465	9,374	19,604	33,693	62,422	81,762	91,400
1,414	-1,560	-916	-1,590	2,118	-1,092	-358
Traders
70	30	40	37	44	125	99
	Small Speculators
	Long	Short	Open Interest
	19,985	10,347	101,747
	-186	-920	-1,278
	non reportable positions		Change from the previous reporting period
COT Silver Report - Positions as of				Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Silver COT Report - Futures & Options Combined
Large Speculators			Commercial		Total
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short	Long	Short
28,580	7,052	44,505	48,169	80,395	121,254	131,953
1,423	-1,227	-406	-616	3,052	402	1,420
Traders
78	36	60	38	46	140	121
	Small Speculators
	Long	Short	Open Interest
	23,256	12,557	144,510
	459	-559	861
	non reportable positions		Change from the previous reporting period
COT Silver Report - Positions as of				Tuesday, January 31, 2012