See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. The Mathematics of Frexitology This was also a holiday-shorted week. As we write this, the big news comes from the election in France. The leading candidate is a banker named Emmanuel Macron, with about 24% of the vote in a 4-candidate race. The anti-euro Marine Le Pen came in second with just over 21%. From the sharp...
Read More »Gold-Silver Divergence – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. A Force Like Gravity This was a holiday-shorted week, due to Good Friday, and we are posting this Monday evening due to today being a holiday in much of the world. Gold and silver went up the dollar went down, +$33 and +$0.53 -64mg gold and -.05g silver. The prices of the metals in dollar terms are readily available, and...
Read More »Mea Culpa – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Input Data Errors Dear Readers, I owe you an apology. I made a mistake. I am writing this letter in the first person, because I made the mistake. Let me explain what happened. I wrote software to calculate the gold basis and co-basis (and of course silver too). The app does not just calculate the near contract. It...
Read More »The Balance of Gold and Silver – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Orders of Preference Last week, we discussed the growing stress in the credit markets. We noted this is a reason to buy gold, and likely the reason why gold buying has ticked up since just before Christmas. Many people live in countries where another paper scrip is declared to be money — to picture the absurdity, just...
Read More »Putting Pennies in the Fuse Box – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Careening from Crisis to Crisis Back in the old days, homes had fuse boxes. Today, of course, any new house is built with a circuit breaker panel and many older homes have been upgraded at one time or another. However, the fuse is a much more interesting analogy for the monetary system. When a fuse burned out, it was...
Read More »Technical vs. Fundamental Analysis – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Probabilistic Technical Analysis vs. the Mechanics of Arbitrage We talk about the supply and demand fundamentals every week. We were surprised to see an article about us this week. The writer thought that our technical analysis cannot see what is going on in the market. We don’t want to fight with people, we prefer to...
Read More »They’re Worried You Might Buy Bitcoin or Gold – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Bitcoin Mania The price of gold has been rising, but perhaps not enough to suit the hot money. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin has shot up even faster. From $412, one year ago, to $1290 on Friday, it has gained over 200% (and, unlike gold, we can say that Bitcoin went up — it’s a speculative asset that goes up and down...
Read More »The Gold-Silver Ratio Curiously Failed to Fall – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Gold Scarcity Intensifies Further Last week (a holiday-shortened week, as Monday was President’s Day in the US), the price of the dollar fell. In gold, it fell almost half a milligram to 24.75mg, and prices in silver it dropped 30mg, to 1.7 grams of the white monetary metal. Looks good… and since last week, costs...
Read More »Don’t Short This Dog – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Fundamental Developments Last week, the prices of the metals mostly moved sideways. There was a rise on Thursday but it corrected back to basically unchanged on Friday. This will again be a brief Report, as Monday was a holiday in the US. Below, we will show the only true picture of the gold and silver supply and demand...
Read More »Silver Futures Market Assistance – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Silver Is Pushed Up Again This week, the prices of the metals moved up on Monday. Then the gold price went sideways for the rest of the week, but the silver price jumped on Friday. Is this the rocket ship to $50? Will Trump’s stimulus plan push up the price of silver? Or just push silver speculators to push up the price,...
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