A large order to sell gold or silver appears on the screen. Other traders see it and react.
But the trader placing it intends to cancel it from the start. The aim is to influence the price and execute another trade on more favorable terms.
The supply and demand guiding other traders’ decisions can be deliberately fabricated.
That is precisely the mechanism described by the U.S. Department of Justice in the JPMorgan case. Traders placed deceptive orders in gold, silver, platinum and palladium futures. The scheme involved tens of thousands of deceptive trading sequences over more than eight years. Two former traders were sentenced to prison in 2023.
No new mine production. No new bullion bar. Yet an attempt to change the price at which everyone else trades.
The scale of financial activity surrounding precious metals is staggering. According to LBMA data, average weekly London turnover over the 12 weeks ending September 11, 2026, reached:
- $935.08 billion for gold.
- $137.09 billion for silver.
These are weekly averages covering spot transactions, swaps, forwards, options, and loans, leases and deposits.
Even legitimate hedging can generate several transactions around a single batch of future production. A miner sells future gold through a forward contract, the bank offsets the risk through another trade, and positions are subsequently adjusted. Turnover grows without adding to the original ounces.
London’s turnover alone does not prove manipulation. Canceled spoofing orders are not executed trades and should not be confused with this trading volume.
But the documented JPMorgan case demonstrates something more troubling: to deceive the market, you do not need to deliver metal. You only need to convince others that you intend to buy or sell it.
That is why, when we follow the price, we also question how the supply and demand moving it were created.
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