And as I also mentioned in Saturday's column, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency updated their derivatives data for Q3/2025. I said I would have that for you in today's column -- and here it is...
The latest OCC Report for Q3/2025 was posted on their website on Friday, December 19 -- and it showed that the precious metal derivatives held by the four largest U.S. banks increased by $137.54 billion/24.4% from Q2/2025...up to $704.05 billion...which is a very hefty amount.
JPMorgan's precious metals derivatives rose from $358.5 billion, up to $437.4 billion from Q2/2025 -- and Citigroup's also rose...from $150.7 billion, up to $204.3 billion. BofA's increased by a tiny bit...from $44.7 billion, up to $47.9 billion -- and the derivatives position held by Goldman Sachs is a piddling and immaterial $614 million -- up from the equally piddling $219 million it held in Q2/2025.
But with JPMorgan holding 62.1% of all the precious metals derivatives... Citibank holding 29.0% -- and Bank of America about 7% of the total of the four reporting banks, it's only JPMorgan and Citigroup that matter.
But the caveat to the above would be the precious metals derivatives position held by Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley. The reason that their data is not included, is because they are not one of the USA's four largest banks by total derivatives held. But you can bet your entire net worth that they hold also hold a derivatives position in the precious metals that would choke a horse...Wells Fargo in particular.
This would indicate that these six U.S. banks held a derivatives position in the precious metals something north of $1 Trillion dollars at the end of Q3/2025 -- and is more than comfortably above that amount now.
But as I keep pointing out in this spot every weekend -- and mentioned just above...the OCC indicator is flawed for two very important reasons, as way back 10-15 years ago, this report used to include the top dozen or so U.S. banks -- and included the likes of Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, amongst others...that hold derivatives positions, both long and short, in the precious metals. Now the list is down to just four banks...so a lot of data is hidden ...which is certainly the reason why the list was shortened. On top of that, the list doesn't include the non-U.S. banks that are short and long the precious metals: British, French, German, Canadian -- and Australian.
Including all theirs, the derivatives/paper held in the precious metals...mostly on the short side...is an eye-watering multi-trillion dollar number as of the COMEX close last Friday.
The next OCC Report for Q4/2025 won't be due out until sometime around the end of March 2026.
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Ed Steer’s Daily Analysis of the Gold and Silver Markets
After eight years of writing about the precious metals for Casey Research, the folks at Stansberry & Associates—who just recently purchased controlling interest in the company—decided that my ‘niche market’ column didn’t fit into their plans.
Since the time that Casey Research was kind enough to offer me a stand-alone column, it became their most highly-rated blog almost from the outset—and has remained that way up to this date...