Goldrush said:
Interesting figures, ok so it looks like they are not directly converting their US Bonds(if indeed these figures are even accurate) into hard assets but I can tell you for a fact that they are buying up Australian mining assets which include Gold mines, one which I held until recently was FML. So they may not be using their US Bonds to buy these assets but they are still using Fiat currency and a lot of it to buy hard assets all over the world.
It's good to not just accept anything.
I ceased to do so, even for seemingly 'generally accepted' ones, after unveiling too much stories as misleading.
This is the most recent published data, for 12 successive months:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
This is older data, as an number of various files of various figures of a time, stored in a zip with a datestamp in its filename:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/ticarchives.aspx
The files in the zip are named like the most recent file, so here the 'mfh.txt' in each zip
IF you believe figures released by the Federal Reserve Central Bank.
I decided to do so, since the alternatives are at least much worse / less reliable, and contain many contradictions.
The only thing I believe more, are my own eyes. The Fed can publish that the sky is green, I'll take my own eyes for true instead.
The real question is not THAT they (Hong Kong) are buying gold related assets, it's the DEGREE in which they do so.
As calculated, 2013's total gold figure, combined with an average 2013 price (depends on which moments they bought of course, but we don't know that data and whenever it was, it won't change that much as total relative to other totals), was about 10 billion dollars.
What is 10 billion dollars?
Over the same year 2013, they bought 17.4 billion dollars extra US Treasuries.
Since 2008, they bought 105.6 billion dollars extra US Treasuries.
How much gold, on a net basis, did Hong Kong (and again: this is NOT what media reference as China, for what it matters since the very same happened there, and as ) buy/sell since 2008?
If one looks at the whole, this article is a movement of gold from US to Hong Kong. That's it. That's all.
What happened with the gold there?
Was it stockpiled at dealers/banks there?
Was, or will it, be sold to local buyers?
Was, or will it, be sold to foreign buyers?
One thing is for sure: they will eat it nor throw it into the ocean.
Often, gold imports are called 'consumption'. But that's just bullshit, it's stockpiling, and that makes a huge difference, since in the case of consumption, it won't reappear for sale at a zero cost (no recycling needed), while in the case of stockpiling, it will.
This all just says that the topics article is, in terms of price movement, a total nothingsayer.
What remains 'informational' from the topics article: a property shift from a former gold owner to a new gold owner.
And that throws up a completely different question: which of both will have made the best decision?
Two things are for sure:
1) a gold seller (here: US based) thought in january 2014 that the gold price will drop.
2) a gold buyer (here: Hong Kong based) thought in january 2014 that the gold price will rise.
The real question thus is: which of both was the smartest in january 2014?
In january 2014, the average gold price was USD $1244.80
In february 2014, it was $1300.97
In march 2014, it was $1336.08
In april 2014 so far, it has been $1299.69
And this brings up another crucial question: how relevant is the topics article TODAY?
It's 3 months ago.
The Hong Kong january 2014 purchases could have (helped) driving the gold price that $1300.97-$1244.80=$56.17 up.
But we don't know yet what it was in february 2014. And march. And this month april.
It is even possible that those Hong Kong based january 2014 buyers, in MEANTIME sold this month april 2014, and (helped) driving the gold price $1336.08-$1299.69=$36.39 down.
All this together meaning that the topics articles 'sentiment' can be lagging 3 months on todays reality.
Some say: "WOW that's impresive". To then take today as starting point for the years to come. Well WRONG. The starting point was end january 2014.
Why above?
To make clear that one should understand that, as tolly_67 (although I've no clue why he brought up central banks, there is not a single mentioning) said, that the whole of the market drives the price. What happenED in a part of it says nothing about the price movement then, and the price movement now. You're looking at an incomplete picture. It is possible that it reflects the rest too, but it's also possible that it doesn't, and indeed, any focus can be dangerously misleading.
And the zerohedgers and silverdoctors have a very ugly reputation on that focus aspect. Until some past (apparently in meantime they realized that their scam didnt work anymore) they touted out all bigger Comex depositories gold/silver inventory drops, and near to never an increase. One could see an increase of 1Moz every day for 10 days long, to then drop 10 Moz in a day, with the manipulators at zerohedge and silverdoctors being silent about the former, to then write an sensational article about a 10 Moz drop in a day while suggesting in every sentence shortages and price explosions.
Often people talk about manipulation and blame X Y Z, but that the very people that do so all the time, do it themselves, as to trick them into making decisions that benefit them (regardless whether wrong or not for the decision maker), they don't realize.
It's for this reason that I don't take anything of importance on this forum and others for true, until I verified it myself. And if not, I don't hesitate to bring it up, and contrary to the zerohedgers/silverdoctors/etc club that almost never actually link to original source articles (they DO link alot to eachother lol), I include them, so that one can just verify it himself the same way I did.
So, the bold in your "So they may not be using their US Bonds to buy these assets but they are
still using Fiat currency and a lot of it to buy hard assets all over the world.", is wrong. We'll only know when the USGS reports the following period upto today (april). In "investing in precious metals" (read: the money for nothing club) there are two major classes of misleading: incomplete figures, and wrong timeframes. No problem with reading articles here and there, they may provide a useful piece of data, but don't let them succeed in inflicting you a narrowview on the world, look around, then compare, as to recognize contradictions, then try to give them a place in a whole, and gradually you'll have constructed a whole that closes in on reality, gives you understanding, improving your ability to foresee, and make the better decisions.
This was Pirocco's Sundays Investigation and Morale Story. If you want to make yourself predictable and frontrunnable, zap to the Technical Analysis Rock Paper Scissors TV Channel instead, and Follow the Patterns there!
