Clearly, LTCM is going to remain on the front pages for weeks, if not months. It will have a big and untold knock-on effect, with both short-term and long-term implications. In the short-term the hedge funds that borrowed Gold like LTCM did ( short Gold, long Russian bonds, now there's a wise trade only two Noble laureate college professors could put together! ) will soon have to begin repaying those loans because many lenders of Gold will be unwilling to accept the credit risk. Consequently, we'll see a contraction in Gold lending much like after the Drexel collapse, which owed and failed to repay the Bank of Portugal 17 tonnes of Gold ( central bankers aren't much smarter than Nobel laureates! ) .
Think about these numbers for a minute. If covering a 900,000 ounce short position in 1985 led to a $50 rally that kicked off a new 2-year bull run, what will covering a number 100 times that weight of Gold will do to the Gold price today? Go ahead, let your imagination run wild for a minute.
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Love the way JTurk writes
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