Bullion Investors Versus the MachinesBy Clint Siegner Investors have seen this a thousand times before. The reaction in gold and silver markets was almost as predictable as the sunrise. When markets continually respond to highly managed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or some other bureaucracy in a machine-like way, you have to assume its because most of the trading is actually done by high frequency trading machines (HFTs). The algorithms calculated the Fed probably would not hike any time soon when employment missed expectations by a mile in early June. Precious metals rallied. Gold and silver prices stumbled the following month when the same report showed much better than expected data. It was rally time again in late July when the GDP data turned out to be a big disappointment. Now there is good news on jobs and the machines responded by selling. Its been going on for years. Actual humans grow tired of the constant whipsaw around Fed policy expectations and some ask more fundamental questions. For instance, do we have free markets when what matters most is government data and how the central planners at the Federal Reserve might respond to it? Bullion investors ask more philosophical questions and, unlike machines, they can be skeptical of the headlines. Fridays jobs report is a good example. In July, the U.S. economy lost more than a million jobs versus June according to the raw data. As is often the case, Seasonal adjustments by government economists turned far from stellar data into good news. People buy physical metal because they look past the headlines and ask more meaningful questions. They wonder what the consequences for all of this reliance on fudged data will be and why a tiny group of bankers with a dubious (and corrupt) track record is governing their money. Unfortunately, in the short run, the superficial Fed rate hike computer query the HFTs are constantly running has a big impact on metal prices. The questions bullion investors are asking wont always govern price discovery in metals until, suddenly, they are the only ones that matter. Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 Dealer of the Year in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs. The Federal Reserve is not going to be raising the interest rates. Other than dumping gold and silver contracts (paper gold silver) at key times into the market to suppress the price of gold and silver, speculation about a Fed rate hike is spread in the media. Agree with you there. The whole end goal is to get to negative interest rates, just like the criminally controlled nations of Europe already are, wherein it becomes a necessity to use digital transfers just in order to keep from losing the wages you do make that arent already stolen by taxes. I had this woman in Sweden who told me she has to pay a tax for just owning a TV, or a Computer. No kidding. It was like about $300 us a year. This whole crime ring these freaks got going is coming down. People are sick of these crooks. Im sick of them, how about you people, lets get rid of them and their bogus governments. lets get a government for the people instead of for the crooks. That might be a slight improvement. The zentral unfed b.s. bank of the Usurped States should be closed and nailed shut. 