While it’s true banks own / control many hedge funds, the managers are actually that stupid. It could be argued they must ‘play the game’, and how would they store the physical, however only a moron goes back for a beating year after year, never mind day after day.
Of course in the big picture (their portfolios) they don’t care what they lose in their trivial SLV bets, which they view as a broad market hedge.
It’s peanuts for them, which is why they come back month after month — year after year.
If you don’t realize that…you could lose a lot of money in precious metals because they are not about to stop.
Cheers