Barclays fined £26m by FCA for gold price manipulation
“Is the gold price really being manipulated?” readers have asked for many long years. Well now we all know. Last week the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays Bank £26 million for manipulating the London Gold price fix. According to media reports, they did this the day after they were fined for manipulating Libor – you couldn’t make this stuff up. In reality, this manipulation had been going on for a long time but it sure made for better headlines linking the headlines together. The trader concerned, a certain Daniel Plunkett, has since been banned from trading but the manner in which this was carried out suggest to me there’s a lot more gold manipulation going on.
The FCA report on gold manipulation said:
Mr Plunkett placed orders during the 3:00 p.m. Gold Fixing on 28 June 2012 with the intention of increasing the likelihood that the price of gold would fix below a certain level, preferring his interests over those of Customer A.
In particular, he placed a large sell order of between 40,000 oz. (100 bars) and 60,000 oz. (150 bars) with Barclays’ representative on the Gold Fixing, then withdrew it completely one minute later and subsequently placed another large sell order of between 40,000 oz. (100 bars) and 60,000 oz. (150 bars) two minutes after that.
These orders contributed to the price of gold fixing at a level which was lower than the Barrier specified in a digital options contract that the firm had previously entered into with Customer A. As a result, Barclays did not have to make a USD3.9m payment to Customer A.
In reality, customer ‘A’ it transpires complained to Barclays that the gold price had been manipulated and was paid the $3.9 million he was owed. How many others did NOT know and did not complain though?
Meanwhile gold remains in a very narrow price range. As I write, the gold price in sterling is hovering around £760 – 770.
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6 Comments
At £100 to double-you’re not really competing with large scale seasoned professionals.
Once you go down the doubling numbers you begin to compete in effect with institutions and or Goverment policy etc(as that kind of continual doubling becomes an Intrest to the other 7 billion people and stated Goverment)
As a result-after a handful of these ‘doubling’ moves…the ability and time and competing positions from other investors and said governments etc just make the ability a compounded hardness.
Hopefully as we become more sophisticated we can enjoy these posts but realise they are like any other headline….attention seeking!
I’m afraid that none of that is even remotely true, Gerry. Remember, DYWTAM was written by not one, but two, multi-millionaires using these very techniques. I suspect that you’ve been ripped off in the past by the many “get rich quick schemes” that are out there. That’s a real shame. Having done all of the fourteen levels myself, (and I watch others do the same every week), I feel highly qualified to disagree with every single one of your comments. If you’re not rich now then you have to change your thinking if you want to make serious money. Here’s the thing; “If you keep doing what you’ve always done – you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got”. Stop and think about that for a minute. I don’t know if you live in a two million pound house but if you don’t, here you are telling someone who does that this won’t work. Really? The DYWTAM Programme is a genuine no-nonsense guide on how to become a millionaire – and absolutely anyone can do it.
Barry, is it only 10 issues of Double your way to a Million? A friend of mine who is interested wants to know, thanks.
Yes. That’s correct. One a month for ten months.
hi barry i am interested in your horse racing course and your recommendation of using isiris,i understand kevin booth has resigned from isiris do you still recommend we use this company still thank you,and also i notice on your websitethat it is still dated 2017 .
Good question. I have not used the Isiris service recently. I had a brilliant 11 year run but eventually I got closed down by all the bookmakers. I guess that’s a real sign of success but it was fun to do and I actually miss it. I did not know that Kevin had actually retired but I understand that the results this year have been extremely good. Maybe regular readers who still use Isiris can update me on that one and let me know how they are doing.