Why gold retains value? Interesting unknown gold facts “Prepare your jaws for a sizeable drop!” History, finite, rare and peak gold “It is beautiful to look at…” ‘Heavy metal’ – Thud sound of a gold bar (kilo) ‘Going for gold’ – Olympic gold medals to Chelthenham ‘Gold Cup’ Peak gold … “Hard work to get gold out of the ground…” How much an Oscar is actually worth? Importance of hiding gold creatively and securely if...
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 »Gold Sector Update – What Stance is Appropriate?
The Technical Picture – a Comparison of Antecedents We wanted to post an update to our late December post on the gold sector for some time now (see “Gold – Ready to Spring Another Surprise?” for the details). Perhaps it was a good thing that some time has passed, as the current juncture seems particularly interesting. We received quite a few mails from friends and readers recently, expressing concern about the...
Read More »Are Rate Hikes Bad For Gold?
Here are two different looks at Fed rate hikes since Volcker. The charts are the same, but one presentation is a lot funnier than the other. Federal Funds Target RateThe above image from the New York Times article A History of Fed Leaders and Interest Rates. - Click to enlarge Here’s an alternative view courtesy of @HedgeEye. - Click to enlarge Let’s take the fist chart and see what correlations exist between...
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,...
Read More »What is Good for the Dollar is Bad for Gold
Summary: The Dollar Index is powering ahead, moving higher for the eighth consecutive session. Over the past 100 sessions, gold and the Dollar Index move in the opposite direction more than 90% of the time. The technical condition of gold is deteriorating. The Dollar Index is extending its advancing streak today into its eighth consecutive session. It is at its best level since just before Trump’s...
Read More »Gold and Silver Divergence – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Gold and Silver Divergence – Precious Metals Supply and Demand Last week, the prices of the metals went up, with the gold price rising every day and the silver price stalling out after rising 42 cents on Tuesday. The gold-silver ratio went up a bit this week, an unusual occurrence when prices are rising. Everyone knows...
Read More »When Government Acts, “Unintended Consequences” Follow
In 1850, French economist Frédéric Bastiat published an essay that is misunderstood, or more often, unread, titled, “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen.” Bastiat brilliantly introduced the idea of opportunity cost and, through the parable of the broken window, illustrated the destructive effects of unintended consequences. Unfortunately, because of misplaced belief in government benevolence, even the most...
Read More »Silver Speculators Gone Wild – Precious Metals Supply and Demand
See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Silver Gets Frisky Last week, the prices of the metals had been up Sunday night but were slowly sliding all week — until Friday at 7:00am Arizona time (14:00 in London). Then the price of silver took off like a silver-speculator-fueled-rocket. It went from $16.68 to $17.25, or 3.4% in two hours. What does it mean? We...
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