A new gold futures contract is being introduced by the Hong Kong Futures Exchange (two contracts actually).  The two contracts will be physically settled $US and CNH (offshore renminbi) gold futures contracts.   The key to this contract is that it requires physical settlement of the underlying gold, which is a 1 kilo gold bar.

The difference between this contract and the Comex gold futures contract is that the Comex contract allows cash (dollar aka fiat currency) settlement. The Comex does not require physical settlement.  In fact, there are provisions in the Comex contract that enables the short-side of the trade to settle in cash or GLD shares even if the long-side demands physical gold as settlement.

With the new HKEX contract, any entity that is long or short a contract on the day before the last trading day has to unwind their position if they have not demonstrated physical settlement capability.

The new contract also carries position limits.  For the spot month, any one entity can not hold more than a 10,000 contract long/short position.   In all other months, the limit is 20,000 contracts.   A limit like this on the Comex would pre-empt the ability of the bullion banks to manipulate the price of gold using the fraudulent paper gold contracts printed by the Comex.  It would also force a closer alignment between the open interest in Comex gold/silver contracts and the amount of gold/silver reported as available for delivery on the Comex.

To be sure, the contract specifications of the new HKEX contracts leave the door open to a limited degree of manipulation.  But at the end of the day, the physical settlement requirement and position limits greatly reduce the ability to conduct price control via naked contract shorting such as that permitted on the Comex and tacitly endorsed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

You can read about the new HKEX contract here – HKEX Physically Settled Contract – and there’s a link at the bottom of that article with the preliminary term sheet.

Will this new contract help moderate the blatant price manipulation in the gold market by the western banking cartel?  Maybe not on a stand-alone basis.  But several developments occurring in the eastern hemisphere and among the emerging bloc of eastern super-powers – as discussed in today’s episode of the Shadow of Truth – will begin to close the window on the ability of the west’s efforts to prevent the price of gold from transmitting the truth about the decline of the U.S. dollar’s reserve status and the rising geopolitical instability: