I did have every intention of offering some type of yearend review today and I will try to fulfill that intent, but I must confess to being absorbed in the matter of the new OCC report which I wrote about on Sunday and followed up with a public article yesterday. Since there are some things not included in my original article to subscribers, I would suggest you read the public version as well. https://silverseek.com/article/another-stunning-occ-report I know the public version was widely-read, but did not generate hardly any commentary which I found unusual, not even the typical “Butler, give it up – you keep saying the same thing for decades, etc.” Over the years, I’ve developed a bit of a thick skin, learning to live with the near-universal acceptance of my main tenet – the COMEX silver manipulation – but at the same time with near-universal shunning of some other observations…

The holiday-delayed Commitments of Traders (COT) report published a short while ago, for positions held as of Dec 21, was, in a word, great. After four straight reporting weeks in which gold and silver prices got crushed to the tune of roughly $100 in gold and $4 in silver (Boo!), but over which time there was a net positioning improvement of 58,000 contracts in gold and 30,000 contracts in silver (Yea!) – this week’s results were highly welcomed as there was very little relative net positioning change (deterioration) on a pretty decent bounce in prices of as much as $40 in gold and 80 cents in silver at the reporting intra-week highs. Last Wednesday, I opined that there was likely heavy additional managed money shorting in both gold and silver on the first day of the reporting week as new price lows were established, quickly followed by just as heavy…

(Since there was some new information, in the form of the new OCC quarterly derivatives report, that I felt was worthy of timely dissemination, I am publishing this review today rather than tomorrow as planned. I do plan on separate COT report comments after the report is released tomorrow). Gold and silver prices rose over the holiday-shortened trading week ended Thursday, with gold ending $11 (0.6%) higher and with silver up by 55 cents (2.5%). It was the highest weekly close for gold in 5 weeks and the highest silver has been in 3 weeks. As a result of silver’s relative outperformance, the silver/gold price ratio tightened in by a point and a half to 79 to 1, the strongest silver has been relative to gold in 5 weeks – although silver is still much closer to the most undervalued it has been compared to gold over the last…

Hard as it is for me to believe, it’s been nearly 50 years since the introduction of that tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign for Miller Light beer, which featured a variety of skits in which characters argued what was better about the beer – the fact that it tasted great or was less filling calorie-wise. It was a clever ad campaign, but truth be told, I found it repetitive and somewhat annoying. Still, I’m reminded of the old ad campaign whenever I digest the different reasons for why investors choose to buy and hold silver. Some choose silver because they feel it’s a good hedge against inflation and the loss of purchasing power and I can certainly sympathize with that. Others choose silver as insurance against a systemic financial collapse or extreme distress in financial markets, also something hard for me to argue with. Still others choose silver because it has been…

After three weeks of declines, gold and silver prices finished higher this week, gold by $16 (0.9%) and with silver up by 15 cents (0.7%). As a result of gold’s continued relative outperformance (or silver’s underperformance), the silver/gold price ratio widened a bit to 80.5 to 1, essentially, still stuck at silver’s most undervalued level in a year. I’ll spare you my mantra about silver’s great value on both a relative and absolute basis. The slight turn-up in the weekly price levels, of course, overlooks the somewhat dramatic turnaround from the mid-week price lows achieved going into the latest Fed meeting on Wednesday, when all the key NY metals made new multi-month price lows and then reversed upward into Thursday’s close. Perhaps lost in the uniform price volatility was any notion of why all the metals seem to move in price-lockstep – when the fundamentals in gold, silver, copper, platinum…

I’m indebted to Mark Mead Baillie for the title of his recent article, in which he proclaimed that silver was a steal that had skidded in price senselessly, a word I wished I had come up with. And if “senseless” was appropriate before yesterday’s price skid, it is that much more applicable afterwards. https://www.gold-eagle.com/article/gold-stays-sedentary-whilst-silver-steal-skids-senselessly Of course, in matters of prices and markets, there is no such thing as senseless, as we’re not talking about inexplicable miracles or supernatural occurrences. Instead, when it comes to the price of investment assets (or industrial commodities), there are always buyers and sellers which determine the price – not unexplained cosmic forces.  However, I do suppose senseless seems appropriate when it’s hard to visualize why sellers would aggressively agree to sell silver when the logical motivation for doing so appears lacking. Take the price collapse and selling in silver and gold yesterday and into today,…