Free Local SEO Tools that Belong in Your Kit

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Free Local SEO Tools that Belong in Your Kit Posted: 13 Jan 2014 03:16 PM PST Posted by MiriamEllis Today I'm popping open my personal tool kit to share a list of my favorite free local SEO tools. The creators of these tools range from one-person shops to the United States government, and I'm grateful for the effort that went into developing these resources that make the life of any hard-working local SEO just a little bit easier and more effective. Here we go. Open Sesame! GetListed This best of all free local tools shows you where business listings exist for your company on key local platforms and where they don't. It helps you to determine exactly where you need to list your business next. Over the years, I've used this tool for local SEO more than any other. It surfaces five important pieces of data about your business: First, the tool shows you where you have missing listings. These are places your business should be profiled. Simply click the "create listing" button to be connected to the different platforms and begin rounding out your citations. Here, the tool has found an unclaimed listing and gives you the ability to claim it via the "claim listing" button. In the yellow box, you'll note that GetListed.org has surfaced a possible duplicate listing. This randomly chosen local business appears to be having NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency issues, due to a hotel and restaurant sharing an address and phone number but having different names. These types of issues can cause major ranking problems, so it's great that the tool provides a heads-up, alerting you to the fact that you've got some clean-up work ahead. Here, the tool shows you the listings it has found. You should take a look at each of the surfaced listings to be certain that your NAP is consistent and accurate. If not, you can edit the listings. The "reviews" tab pulls your reviews from a variety of platforms, helping you to get a sense of how frequently and how widely your business is being reviewed. While there isn't anything to do here, per se, it can be helpful to local SEOs trying to quickly gauge whether an incoming client is being actively reviewed. I think the "To Do" feature of this tool is terrific. For each listing, you are given a set of tasks you can accomplish in order to improve the status of the listing, such as adding categories, photos or earning reviews. GetListed.org is my go-to tool when business owners phone me out of the blue. I quickly find the zip code of the business, pop it into the tool along with the name, and seconds later I have a ton of information at my fingertips. As a first point of appraisal and analysis, there is no other free tool like it, and it makes it so easy for solo business owners to see where they are at, citation-wise, and where they need to go next. Google Places for Business Category Tool Local Search Ranking Factors 2013 cites correct categorization of your business in the Google Places for Business Dashboard as the number one factor! Type your service, product, and business model keywords into this Mike Blumenthal tool, and it generates a list of best-match pre-set categories from Google's category taxonomy. Really helpful for when you are creating Google+ Local pages for your clients. As you can see in the above screenshot, an attorney can type in a broad term and be shown all of the available, more refined categories that exactly describe his business. You can also type in partial words, with as few as three letter in them, if you're note sure how to categorize your business. For example, a dentist could type in "dent" to see variations like "dentist," "dental clinic," or "cosmetic dentist" appear. This tool does just one task, but it does it to perfection. Free Local Analysis Google Places Tool Enter your basic business information and this great little tool from 51 Blocks gives you a treasure trove of data about the optimization of your Google+ Local listing, the consistency of your NAP (name, address, phone number) as published on your website, a head count of your citations and links, and the ability to analyze your competitors' stats, too. Provides more rich data for local SEOs than almost any other free tool I've found! As a local SEO, I find this to be another great resource for getting an at-a-glance picture of where an incoming client is with their local search marketing. If the owner of this randomly-chosen business called me, I would be able to see, for example, that they don't have Schema markup on their website or basic keywords in the title tag of their Places landing page (good indicators that there is room for improvement in their on-page SEO). I can also compare them to other local businesses using the tool and see results like this: This overview can be step one in your competitive analysis. You will, of course, be digging deeper than this for any business you promote, but this is a great, free place to jump-start your appraisal and begin forming a to-do list for your marketing plan. Google Local Toolbox Also from 51 Blocks. Entering your basic business info into this tool generates HCard, Schema, KML Location Code and GeoTags. Explicit structuring of your business data on your website and elsewhere means you are making every effort to help the bots understand who you are, where you are, and what you do. While Google no longer supports Geo Sitemaps, this tool will give you the code you need to format your on-page NAP in either Schema or hCard (your choice) and to upload a KML file to your website's root directory. This tool is very speedy and easy to use. Generate local AdWords and Keyword Lists Tool Helpful for both PPC and on-page local SEO, this tool from 5MinuteSite.com lets you enter keywords and geographic data for the purpose of generating a list of terms you should consider targeting. The radius feature of the tool will be helpful to local search marketers working with service area businesses (SABs) that serve a variety of cities. If you do PPC, you now have an idea of tons of keyword permutations you might want to evaluate for targeting in your campaigns in your client's service radius. Another use for the output of this tool would be to give it as a list to your client as potential subjects to blog about in an effort to increase their organic visibility alongside their local results for their city of location. Review Handout Generator This nifty free tool from Whitespark enables you to enter your business data and create a PDF handout that can be given to customers at the time of service with the goal of encouraging them to review you online. Even lets you upload your business logo to totally customize the appearance of the handout. If you're having trouble launching a review acquisition campaign, this handy little printout can help your whole staff make an easy start. In recent times, Google has made it extra difficult for customers to leave a Google-based review. The user must have an account and this handout walks them through the process of both signing up and leaving a review. While not all customers will make the effort, there may be some who would be glad to, but who just don't "get" how to do it. This handout should make it simple for any interested party and, hopefully, grow your Google-based reviews. Remember that no business needs to get a ton of reviews at once. A slow, steady rate of acquisition is actually ideal. Offline Conversion Tracker Empower your phone staff to collect "how did you hear about us?" data and enter it into this form during phone calls. The data is then saved in a database so that you can view and analyze your statistics. The tool also fires the data over to Google Analytics using UTM tracking parameters, so that the data is tracked in Analytics as well. High marks for Whitespark for the creativity of this tool! Implementing simple best practices in the office, like asking how a customer found your business, can make such a difference in your ability to understand your market, your position in your community and the areas in which you need to grow your outreach in order to appeal to new customers. Approach this task in a really organized manor with this neat free tool. Schema Creator Employ best practices in your on-page local SEO by utilizing Schema markup to make your basic business data as clear as possible. This tool does just one thing: generates correct Schema markup. Local businesses should choose the "organization" link from the left-hand menu. My only peeve with this tool is that it doesn't provide a field for your phone number, a key component of your core business NAP (name, address, phone) which you'll be embedding into your website. A topic that I've been discussing recently with colleagues is the use of industry-specific Schema markup vs. general local business Schema markup when possible. At the bottom of this page you will find a list of specific businesses for which unique markup is available. Given that the main function of utilizing markup is to make data more explicit, it makes good sense to go with the most specific formatting you can. In other words, if you run a recycling center, you'll see that there is specific markup for this that will make your business data just a little bit clearer than it would be if you simply used the generic "organization" code. Google Gadgets Driving Directions Widget For Your Webpage Right from the horse's mouth, this nifty little Google widget generates code you can embed into your website so that your visitors can get customized driving directions to your place of business. A boon for any brick-and-mortar business model. You can customize the display of the widget, including making adjustments to size, color, and language. It is currently available in nineteen countries. USPS ZIP Code Tool Look up ZIP codes with this tool from the USPS. It's so important to be sure that your business is publishing a ZIP code identical to the one the post office officially assigns to your business. ExpressUpdate/Infogroup draws location date from the USPS an, in turn, feeds it to a host of other websites. I've seen confusion arising in the Google and Your Business Forum over zip code discrepancies, particularly in areas where town names or borders are fuzzy. Inconsistencies in address data are the root cause of so many Google ranking problems. Thanks to this tool, you can be totally secure that you're publishing your correct, official zip code. In the example above, the business has gotten it right. OSHA Standard Industrial Category Tool Especially helpful when listing your business at ExpressUpdate, this tool lets you enter keywords to determine under which official category your business falls. Recommended reading on this topic: Latest Local SEO Labyrinth - The New ExpressUpdate USA by Phil Rozek. If you don't know your Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) number, which must be entered into the tool along with your keyword, you can find a list of numbers here. Census.gov Tools Need to know more about the population and economics of a client's city in the USA? The government knows all and you can find a ton of useful statistical information from the census to help you fine tune your campaigns. Here's a screenshot from an XLS file, just packed with data: I haven't even scratched the surface when it comes to the amount of potentially useful statistics compiled by the census. The data you can dig up playing around with this resource could guide you in so many areas, including content development, SEO and PPC. Plagiarism Checker Want to be sure your local competitors aren't swiping your content? Simply cut and paste your copy into this tool from Small SEO Tools and it will surface usage of your text from around the web. I use this tool almost every day in my YouMoz editing work, and it's great for local businesses, too. The tool highlights in red any instances of potential plagiarism and these instances link to the search engine results where the matching text was found. In addition to being a good tool for helping you make sure that no one is stealing your content, it can be used to ensure that no one is offering you previously published text. Over the years, I've run into a number of scenarios in which a large web design company which builds industry-specific local business websites is publishing identical service or product descriptions across multiple client sites. This tool will help any business owner discover if that is the case with their provider. Also good if you allow guest blogging; be sure the submissions you're considering are truly fresh content. Best Darn Local SEO Client Questionnaire While not exactly a tool, this freebie from Local Visibility System will save you so much back-and-forth with your local SEO clients that I just had to include it. You can shoot this over to incoming clients in PDF format, have them fill it out and then know you've asked all of the right questions to surface problems and ensure consistent data. If you're somewhat new to Local SEO, I highly recommend using this questionnaire. All of the topics highlighted in the questions are almost guaranteed to come up in the course of planning and carrying out your tasks. If you have all of the answers ready-to-hand in one place, you can move forward with confidence and speed. I hope you've found a few new gadgets to add to your tool chest here. Isn't free stuff great? Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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GOOGLE GIVES BACK SOME KEYWORD DATA

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GOOGLE GIVES BACK SOME KEYWORD DATA Posted: 14 Jan 2014 03:09 AM PST oogle giveth and Google taketh away. Most of you will have noticed that the organic keyword data provided by Google Analytics has been gradually fading away and replaced by the token 'not provided'. This was introduced after Google announced that it was taking measures to protect personalised search, which basically meant that it would no longer be providing keyword data for users who were signed into Google. This all started towards the end of 2011, but began snowballing in August 2013. After looking at 5 of our clients (with websites of all sizes), it became clear that they all saw a similar increase in the percentage of 'not provided' results throughout 2013, with a steep rise between August and September. However, just as we were beginning to lose all hope for the future of keyword data in Analytics, Google launched an update in its Webmaster tools platform that appears to be giving some of our keyword data back. Google Webmaster Tools > Search Queries It is now possible to see your top keywords by exact impressions and clicks, as well as your top visited web pages with a drilldown to display the keywords that were used to find them. While some of this data has always been available, the significant thing about this update is that we can now see precise traffic volumes against the keywords, giving us a more accurate picture of what's going on. As you can see below, a black line has appeared in the search query timeline which represents the change, with a note "An improvement to our top search queries data was applied retroactively on 12/31/13" You can also see that by selecting the 'Top Pages' tab, you can expand each URL to show the keywords that users used to find that page (thanks to Barry schwartz for the images) On-Site Search There are other ways to extract keyword data from Google Analytics, and the on-site search feature is a great example of this. Many websites have their own internal search facility, allowing visitors to search through the content based on a keyword or phrase. While we often try to make it easy for users to find pages within sites by use of navigation, on-site search can help to fill in the gaps, and some of your users will naturally be drawn to carry out a search. GA provides us with the means to track keywords from on-site search, giving you access to some extremely useful keyword data that is exclusive to your website, so you can to tap into your visitors' search habits to find out exactly what they are looking for. Some of the Benefits This is useful for a number of reasons, as it allows you to: Find gaps in your content/categories or product range, where a search returns no results Get a better understanding of what search terms are used by your customers/visitors so that you can further optimise your pages to ensure they are as relevant as possible Test your search results based on your top keywords to make sure that they are relevant Spot common spelling errors and add in redirects to send users to the correct landing page or results page Control the user journey by tailoring the results based on specific keywords Tracking on-site search in Analytics is a feature that I find isn’t used enough, so if you don't have this enabled then make sure you add it to your to-do list. Setting up Site Search Tracking It's very easy to set up, but first you need to decide how best to provide your keywords to Google, and this may vary depending on your website functionality. There are two options to choose from: Option 1 Most websites use dynamic URLs to handle searches, which are unique URLs that include the keywords that were searched, associating them to a specific search parameter. In this case, we can simply add this search parameter to Google Analytics, which will point out the keywords that you want to track. For example, if I was looking for information on Council tax in Oxford, I would go to the oxford.gov website and use the on-site search facility to search for 'council tax'. Below you can see that the search page is displayed and the URL reflects my search. The URL includes my search query, which is assigned to the parameter 'sitesearch_search'. To capture this keyword data, simply open your GA account, Click the Admin Tab, and then under 'View', select 'View Settings'. Next, scroll to the bottom of the page and under 'Site Search Setting', set the 'Site Search Tracking' to 'On', and then enter your query parameter(s) into the box below. In the Oxford.gov case you would add 'sitesearch_search'. It is also possible to remove the parameters from the reports in GA, by ticking the 'Strip query parameters out of URL' box. If you want to go one step further, you can also enter extra parameters to allow Analytics to identify which search categories are chosen by your visitors. Again, you can opt to have the parameters taken out of your GA reports. Option 2 The next option may be more suitable for those of you who don't use dynamic search URLs. The content updates to reflect the search, but the URL remains the same. The keyword data can be captured by customising the tracking codes on your search results pages. This requires you to create a virtual page path within the code that includes the keyword that was searched and assigns it to a parameter, without needing to display it on the page or within the URL. For more information on how to set on-site search up, head over to Google Support. One last tip – you may or may not use dynamic URLs to handle your searches but, if you do, it's important to remember that whenever you have a unique URL, you potentially have a page that can be crawled and indexed by the search engines. Google doesn’t look too kindly on 'thin' content (pages with very little content that add no real value to the web), so it is advised that you prevent the search engines from indexing your results pages. This can be done via your robots.txt file; by placing the 'noindex' tag on all search pages, and even within 'URL parameters' under the 'Crawl' section in Google Webmaster Tools. By Sam Gooch The post GOOGLE GIVES BACK SOME KEYWORD DATA appeared first on White Noise.

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Seth's Blog : "Our biggest problem is awareness"

 

"Our biggest problem is awareness"

If that's your mantra, you're working to solve the wrong problem.

If your startup, your non-profit or your event is suffering because of a lack of awareness, the solution isn't to figure out some way to get more hype, more publicity or more traffic. Those are funnel solutions, designed to fix an ailing process by dumping more attention at the top, hoping more conversion comes out the bottom.

The challenge with this approach is that it doesn't scale. Soon, you'll have no luck at all getting more attention, even with ever more stunts or funding.

No, the solution lies in re-organizing your systems, in re-creating your product or service so that it becomes worth talking about. When you do that, your customers do the work of getting you more noticed. When you produce something remarkable, more use leads to more conversation which leads to more use.

No, it won't be a perfect virus, starting with ten people and infecting the world. But yes, you can dramatically impact the 'more awareness' problem by investing heavily in a funnel that doesn't leak, in a story that's worth spreading.

       

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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

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• Five Housing Headwinds; Mortgage Originations Lowest Since 2010; Refinancible Loan Percentage Collapses; Payment Shock
• France Collective Depression; Growing Demand for Protection from Immigrants; Only 35% Think EU is Good for France
• Gold Manipulation: Is it Illegal? Risk Free? What About JP Morgan?

Five Housing Headwinds; Mortgage Originations Lowest Since 2010; Refinancible Loan Percentage Collapses; Payment Shock Posted: 13 Jan 2014 09:01 PM PST Black Knight Financial Services, formerly LPS, released its latest Mortgage Monitor Forecast. Key Highlights Mortgage originations are at the lowest levels in almost four years Prepayment/refi activity indicates another drop coming Higher interest rates slow refinance activity Quality of loans originated in 2013 have made it the best performing vintage on on record. Home equity originations are up significantly since a year ago: total HE lending is up 70%, while volume on 2nd mortgages has more than doubled Population of "refinancible" loans continues to shrink - Only 5.9M loans meet broadly defined criteria for refinancing, down 4M since December 2012. Delinquencies continue to rise among HELOCs that began amortizing High risk of "payment shock" in the coming three years Here are some charts.  Anecdotes in red are mine. Click on any chart for sharper image. Origination Volume Lowest Since 2010 Refi Activity Collapses with Rising Rates 2013 Best Vintage on Record Home Equity Loans Up Refinancible Loan Percentage Collapses Payment Shock on HELOCs Key Takeaways Performance on 2013 origination is at record highs because of record low interest rates coupled with rising home values. If home prices stagnate or rates continue to rise, this could be as good as it gets. The Fed is fighting major headwind battles. Five Headwinds Rising rates Slowing economy Reduced values because of rising rates Reduce values because of rising home prices Demographics of retiring and downsizing baby boomers Some may dispute point number 2. Regardless, I think this is as good as it gets. If the economy does not slow (extremely doubtful in my opinion), rates will rise, further collapsing values. If the economy slows, demand for housing will slow with it. This may seem circular, and it is. But it all depends on where we are in the cycle. A "recovery" since 2009 is pretty long in the tooth, historically speaking. Even with the alleged recovery, originations are back to 2010 levels. What happens if the recovery falters? Values are already extremely distorted by Fed activity and all-cash purchases by the likes of Blackrock and equity funds. Home equity extraction is likely to decline as is the stock market. Those are my opinions, but they are backed up by valuation metrics and extreme sentiment including a bubble belief the Fed can do no wrong. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

France Collective Depression; Growing Demand for Protection from Immigrants; Only 35% Think EU is Good for France Posted: 13 Jan 2014 06:49 PM PST Les Echos reports "the distrust of politics has never been so high in France. This is one of the great lessons of the latest CEVIPOF annual poll". Distrust of politics is extremely high everywhere, but at least the US is not in a depression. Collective Depression Via translation, please consider The French fall into a "collective depression" The situation was already not good. And it gets worse again. Pascal Perrineau, director of the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (CEVIPOF), now talks of a "collective depression" in France. For the first time since 2009 - the date of creation of the barometer, "gloom" has a relative majority of 34%, up 9 points. Three-quarters of French youth believe their chances of success of are less than their parents. 60% of French - an increase of 5 points over one year - believe their financial situation will worsen over the next twelve months. Unions are in the barometer of CEVIPOF, with only 28% of French having confidence. This is a fall of 7 points in a year. Growing Demand for Protection Hardening of values is ​​found by the barometer ("there are too many immigrants") with for 67% in agreement. 47% of respondents - a jump of 17 points since 2009 - say France need "more protection". Only 23% want France to open more. Only 35% of French believe that belonging to the European Union is a good thing for France, a drop of 17 points since October 2011. That statement of opinion will influence the European elections next May. The National Front, with its europhobe speech was well received. 87% of respondents believe that politicians care little or nothing of their opinions (+6 points). 69% - an increase of 21 points - believe that democracy does not work. Key Stats Only 35% think the EU is good for France By a 24 percentage point margin (47-23), voters want more protection from immigrants  67% believe there is too much immigration 60% think their economic situation will worsen in 2014 87% think politicians "don't care" 69% think democracy does not work That is one heck of a change in sentiment since president Francois Hollande was elected. Once again I repeat my thesis Eventually, there will come a time when a populist office-seeker will stand before the voters, hold up a copy of the EU treaty and (correctly) declare all the "bail out" debt foisted on their country to be null and void. That person will be elected. Outrageous Predictions  Points 1-3 in the above "key stats" speak volumes about Saxo Bank 10 Outrageous Predictions for 2014 - Steen Jakobsen. Here is Saxo Bank prediction number 2. Anti-EU alliance will become the largest group in parliament: Following the May elections, a pan-European, anti-EU alliance, whose members will include the UK Independence Party, euro-currency sceptic Alternative for Germany, the National Front in France and Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, will become the largest group in parliament with a majority of more than 275 seats. Sweeping the traditional political groups out of power, the new European Parliament chooses an anti-EU chairman and the European heads of state and government fail to pick a president of the EC, sending Europe back into political and economic turmoil. One trade would be to long German Bunds versus short Spanish Bonos – looking for a 300-basis-point spread again. Unconventional Thinking Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank, is not afraid to speak his mind about trading ideas and back them up with sound logic that many would say is "unconventional thinking". I am very pleased that he is speaking at this year's conference. Wine Country Conference II The second annual Wine Country Conference will be held May 1st & 2nd, 2014. We have an exciting lineup of speakers for this year's conference. John Hussman: Founder of Hussman Funds, Director of the John P. Hussman Foundation which is dedicated to providing life-changing assistance through medical research Steen Jakobsen: Chief Economist of Saxo Bank Stephanie Pomboy: Founder of MacroMavens macroeconomic research David Stockman: Ronald Reagan's budget director, best-selling author, former Managing Director of The Blackstone Group  Mebane Faber: Co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management Jim Bruce: Producer, Director, and Writer of Money For Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve  Chris Martenson: Reknown speaker and founder of Peak Prosperity Mike "Mish" Shedlock: Investment advisor for Sitka Pacific and Founder of Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis In addition, we expect confirmation from a number of other highly respected fund managers and speakers. This year's event is two days and will include additional "break-out" groups. For speaker bios, please check out Wine Country Conference Speakers. This Year's Cause: Autism $100,000 of the money raised last year came from a generous matching grant from the John P. Hussman Foundation. Some of us in the industry who have done well are making an effort to make a difference. John Hussman is at the very top of that list. One of John's kids has severe autism. This year, all net proceeds will go to support autism programs. Conference Details For further details about the 2014 conference, please see Wine Country Conference May 1st & 2nd, 2014 Nothing Like It! This event is not just another "come and hear someone talk" kind of thing. Attendees and their significant others can expect an educational, fun, and relaxed time. Last conference, we arranged wine tours. They were a big hit. We will do so again. One of the wine estates we visited had a Bocce Ball court. On a couple of miracle shots, I won both games I played. Stay an extra day and golf or travel. I did. The conference hotel is a fun place in and of itself. Unlike many other conferences, you will have easy access to speakers. Want to chat with me, Steen, John, or anyone else at the conference? You will have an easy chance. Not only do we have an excellent lineup of speakers, you will have an opportunity to meet with them, have intimate discussions on important investment topics, with a lot of fun on the side, including wine tours and great wine. There's nothing like it in the investment business. And your money goes to a great cause! What can be better? Please Register Now! Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Gold Manipulation: Is it Illegal? Risk Free? What About JP Morgan? Posted: 13 Jan 2014 11:29 AM PST In the wake of the Gold Flash Crash six days ago in which prices suddenly plunged then recovered, numerous people have been wondering "who is the culprit". Will the Real Manipulator Please Stand Up? At the top of the heap in demanding an investigation is a guest post article on ZeroHedge, written by Russ Winter, Open Letter to Gold Investors: Will the Real Manipulator Please Stand Up. Winter maintains "The real debate should center on who is really conducting this gold attack activity. Financial journalists should be looking at this as well." I am amused by this kind of waste of time, but even more amused by the details that Winter disclosed. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's most recent banker participation report on positions as of Dec. 1 shows the U.S. banks as four participants. They are not identified by name, but historically and deductively, JP Morgan is the largest and most dominant participant. Over the last quarter this report has shown that the four big banks have continued to build a net-long position, now at 57,408 futures contracts, or 5.741 million ounces." So is JP Morgan the short manipulator of gold as some suggest? At one time perhaps, but now I believe the answer is unequivocally "no" and, in fact, the complete opposite. JP Morgan and the three other U.S. banks have a large net-long position equal to nearly 15% of Comex open interest. When Shorts Cover For years we heard from GATA and others "JPMorgan and the gold shorts will be blown out of the water and eventually forced to cover their shorts at higher and higher prices. Gold will go to the moon". What happened? Somewhere along the line, JPMorgan became net long as the price of gold plunged. Now we are in search of a different elusive force allegedly suppressing the price of gold. It's always someone. And the same ridiculous articles appear over and over, with fingers occasionally changing the direction of the "big point". What Happened? Clearly the JPMorgan conspiracy crowd was wrong about what would happen when JPMorgan covered. And with JPMorgan now net long where are the cries for JPMorgan to dump its now-concentrated net-long hoard of gold? Futures Math Market Makers (of which JPMorgan is one of the biggest), must take the opposite side of the trades of others. When big players are net long gold futures, then JPMorgan will be short. If someone else is massively short, then JPMorgan or another market maker will be long. In the futures game for every short future someone else is long. That is a simple mathematical statement of fact. Futures Math Corollary If market makers must (and they must take the other side of positions) then position statements and market-maker analysis as to who is long or short cannot and do not offer proof of manipulation. Yes, it is that simple. I propose the big players don't care one iota what direction something is headed. They are happy to make a profit in any direction. Finally, it is realistic to assume the entire time JPMorgan was net short, that it was hedged in some fashion (otherwise it would have been blown out of the water when gold hit $1900). Manipulation Risk Does manipulation occur? I am sure it does, in both directions. Is it illegal? I am not so sure. It depends on what one means by "manipulation". I asked my friend Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man Blog for his thoughts on the subject. Via email he replied ... Are there occasional attempts to influence prices in the short term by 'bombing' the market during periods of low volume? Yes, it happens. Once someone sold 2,000 contracts at market in the middle of the night at precisely the time when both trading volume and order books are at their smallest. The seller accepted a loss of at least $2 million as compared to what he could likely have gotten during more liquid hours. The only reason to do that is if one tries to artificially drive the price down. However, the opposite also happens on occasion, with traders trying to drive prices up in the wee hours. I suspect that the traders involved take options positions beforehand, but this kind of activity is not without risk. You never know for sure if you will succeed in triggering stops or if perhaps eager buyers or sellers are waiting for just such a move to strike. Mistakes can be very costly. Illegal? In a followup question on the legality of dumping or buying contracts at illiquid times Pater responded ... It may be a slightly dubious practice, but it is definitely not illegal. The people doing it take a pretty big risk actually. I personally don't waste much time thinking about market manipulation by private parties, since it always fails in the end anyway. All manipulations eventually fail, I only brought up 'private parties' because the one type of manipulation I do worry about is that by government bodies like the Fed, as it does economy-wide damage. GATA Hype There is no credible evidence of a constant force by any big players to suppress the price of gold. Every time I make such a statement I get sent a mass of GATA-hype, none of which amounts to proof of anything. Invariably, the alleged proof is nothing more than GATA allegations trumped up as facts. Looking for GATA hype? You can find it here: Where are the insider admissions about gold? Right here Looking for a detailed point-by-point rebuttal? You can find it here: Systemic Distrust and GATA Hype Once again, I am NOT saying manipulations Don't occur. Nor do I suggest JPMorgan is lily-white. Instead I repeat something I have said all along "There is no reason for the banks involved to continuously and purposely want to suppress the price of gold. Nor is there any real evidence they do so." And humorously, JPMorgan is now net long! Gold Fundamentals I suggest you throw these manipulation allegations in the ashcan where they belong and focus on something more important such as the fundamental driver for the price of gold. The fundamental case for owning gold has not changed. For details, please see Plague of Gold Bears Now Say "Gold Unsafe at Any Price"; What's the Real Long-Term Driver for Gold? Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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