The current all-time high in gold deliveries shows an unusual change in the way market participants are handling metal deliveries on the COMEX (aka the world's largest futures and options trading for metals).
Let's take a look.
Generally, most metal trades on the COMEX are made on the simple basis of a paper contract and the knowledge that the metal exists.
Buyers on the COMEX can ask for their traded metals to be delivered, but usually, less than 1% of traded metals actually go to delivery.
Because why trouble yourself with the logistics of physical precious metals if you can use a paper contract instead?
Well, this is where the change occurred...
Look at the chart below, it shows the price of gold (in yellow) and the number of physical deliveries from the COMEX (in blue).
Such an unusual change could very well be interpreted as a sign of worry for the financial system from an increasing number of market participants dropping paper contracts for actual physical gold.
