Arbitrage is not a manipulation or shenanigans.
And I wager fraud and conspiracy happen every single trading day.
I'm sure they do. But arbitrage is not fraud or conspiracy.
You can pat yourself on the back for your contribution to it.
Pointing out stupid errors has not contributed to the "infection of our entire system". Not even a little bit.
It is a crucial part of this rigged shell game, and that is what it is.
I know you are "above" reading articles and things people post in threads, but at least you could have read the next paragraph after in the article Disambiguator posted. Let's post it here, just for everyone else (since you won't read it Todd):
The lynchpin that is holding this dynamic together and keeping the futures markets tied to the underlying cash market is the fact that the futures contracts are deliverable, and a trader can either deliver or take delivery of actual physical silver via his futures position.
Are we seeing a problem yet? The futures markets have lost their viability and trustworthiness because of the MF collapse and theft. At some point in the not-too-distant future, people everywhere are going to realize that the delivery mechanism is not reliable. Heck, just holding cash and/or positions in a futures account is no longer reliable. If the futures market itself is not reliable, traders will no longer attempt to arbitrage these basis spreads because the risk to the trader that the rug will be pulled out from underneath them is simply too great.
And in the metals markets, the delivery process itself is . . . um . . . shall we say, easily corrupted? When you ”take delivery” of physical metals, it doesn’t get sent to your house. All you get is a certificate saying that X number of ounces are being held in a certified vault somewhere with your name on them. After the MF collapse, that sounds like a joke, right? A CERTIFICATE with my NAME ON IT? Yeah. That really is how it works.
When the arbitrageurs finally lose all confidence in the markets, the cash market will decouple from the futures because no one will be willing to take the risk of having their money, positions and/or physical metals stolen/confiscated.
This is all built on dishonesty, greed, and lies.
Great system - until it collapses.