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With all the discussion on the Internet, some of it confusing, we thought a picture would be worth a thousand words.
Backwardation is when there is a profit to decarry the metal. This is the simultaneous sale of metal in the spot market and purchase of metal in the futures market. Selling is on the bid and buying is at the ask. So the spread one could earn is the decarry: Spot(bid) – Future(ask).
We normally quote this as an annualized percentage (the basis), but we thought we would show the raw numbers. This graph was made about 10:15am ET on March 4.
Sure enough, there is a 76-cent per ounce profit to be made decarrying gold. This is a small number compared to the price around $1600, and it could be easily missed. It is the actual profit one would make in the real market by this arbitrage (not including commissions and fees, which a bullon bank would not be paying).
It is fascinating that it persists. It’s been there for weeks! Does no one have gold to put towards this trade? Is there no attraction to a 0.3% annualized return on a risk-free trade maturing in less than 60 days?
Monetary Metals publishes the basis and cobasis with commentary every week (free registration required).
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…
Uronly: I think there are trust issues, but I wrote about temporary backwardation some time ago: https://www.monetary-metals.com/temporary-backwardation-the-path-forward-from-2008-3/
runeks: you need a (paid) realtime quoting service to see bids and asks; last cleared trade price is not sufficient. We are thinking about additional ways we could offer the information, but for right now we are doing the weekly basis letter (https://www.monetary-metals.com/basisletter).
danho: remember that someone owns every gold bar in the system. One of them ought to be tempted by this trade…