Discounts And Dividends In Gold Closed-End Funds

This series of articles does not aim to predict where precious metals prices will go, but to show investors where they can get more value for their money.
For more than 1 month gold price has stayed above $1200, the major pivot zone since 2013.

Gold price weekly chart (finviz.com)
Short-term price action is bullish, but seasonality is not supportive any more for precious metals. The short interest of commercial hedgers (who have quite well anticipated price moves in the last few years) is above its average since 2013, but well below the 2016 average. It seems that precious metals insiders do not want to make a strong bet on a big move, whatever the direction.
An increase in short interest by commercial hedgers is more visible in silver. It is even close to an all-time high:

Silver Commitment of Traders, weekly chart (finviz.com)
I am not sure of what it means, but in doubt I took gains on a position in a physical silver fund listed in Zurich, and let run a similar position in gold for now.
I don't know if it is a good time to buy precious metals as an investment, but there is no bad time to accumulate small amounts as an insurance. For this purpose, some closed-end funds are an alternative to GLD, SLV, PPLT and PALL The next table shows discounts, premiums, and real metal allocated for some Canadian funds on 3/1/2017.
Tickers
+Premium -Discount
Annual Fees
% of NAV in bullion*
Central Fund of Canada
CEF
-8.6%
... Read more

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