In a fitting end to the year as a whole, gold finished higher for the third week running, ending up by $8 (0.4%), while silver ended the week lower by 44 cents (1.8%). It was the second highest weekly close in gold and the highest yearly close in a history that dates back….well….to the origins of civilization, some 5000 years ago. For the year, gold ended $244 (13.3%) higher for the year, while silver ended lower by 27 cents (1.1%). For the week, the silver/gold price ratio widened out by nearly two full points to 86.3 to 1, while for the year the price ratio widened out by 11 full points to just about the highest yearly close ever –  meaning that at yearend, silver was more undervalued relative to gold than at any year end in history. I’d hate to think how much more undervalued silver could get if…

It seems to me that the forces at play in silver, both working for and against sharply higher prices, show no signs of letting up. However, common sense and logic dictate that such diametrically-opposed forces point to an eventual end to the stalemate – with the only real question being when. Since these opposing forces have been in play for 40 years, they have taken on a life of their own and the purpose of this review is a brief overview and summary. Let me start with the forces that have worked to suppress and manipulate the price of silver to be much lower than any objective analysis would suggest, both on an absolute basis and relative to just about any other commodity or asset, most specifically, gold. The direct cause of silver’s 40-year price suppression is collusive commercial (mostly bank) paper positioning on the COMEX, the world’s leading precious…

For a second week, gold and silver prices rose, with gold up by $31 (1.5%) and with silver ending higher by “only” 32 cents (1.3%), given its selloff yesterday after scoring fresh one-month price highs earlier in the day. As a result of gold’s slight relative outperformance on the week, the silver/gold price ratio widened slightly to just under 84.4 to 1. Given the actual developments in each metal, I can only shake my head at how completely and unreasonably silver is as undervalued to gold as it is. That sentiment is not intended as any suggestion that gold is extremely overvalued, despite this week’s price close being the second highest weekly close in….well, ever, and on track for its highest-ever yearly close and up by 12.5% year-to-date. All while silver has struggled to eke out what looks like a roughly unchanged finish to the year. Always trying to keep…

Although I had been following up regularly with the staffer in my local congressman’s office to see if any response had been received  from either the Securities & Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to my Nov 13 petition about the possible double-counting of the 103 million oz of silver in the JPMorgan COMEX warehouse and in the silver ETF, SLV, I found out this week that the S.E.C. had responded on Nov 27.  As a refresher, here’s my original petition – https://silverseek.com/article/answer-long-overdue I’ll summarize the S.E.C.’s response since it didn’t say much, but if anyone would like to read the actual response, just send me an email and I’ll forward a copy (only because it’s technically hard for me to include it here and the last time I attempted to do so, it turned out to be a royal pain). Simply put, the S.E.C.’s response was simply…

Gold and silver finished higher for the week, gold by $13 (0.6%) and silver up by 85 cents (3.6%), after last week’s price blast to the downside. As a result of silver’s relative outperformance, the silver/gold price ratio tightened in by around 3 full points, to just over 84 to 1 – about half the widening of the previous week. Yes, both absolute and relative silver prices have been quite volatile. The turnaround in prices this week has been universally credited to the Fed’s perceived easing stance late Wednesday and while it’s hard to argue with the timing of the statement and news conference, from my vantage point it looked like something else was afoot in gold and, particularly silver. While no one should be surprised at my labeling as the cause of the sharp price turnaround on Wednesday and into Thursday as COMEX paper contract positioning, there was an…

The two markets in question are the wholesale and retail silver markets, where it is “the best of times and the worst of times….it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”, to borrow a quote from Charles Dickens. I find the reference apt, because it’s quite unusual to see conditions in the wholesale (1000 oz bar form) physical silver market so tight and indicative of sharply higher prices, while conditions in the retail (smaller bars and coins) market so lackluster and dismal – particularly after quite strong demand and extremely high retail premiums not that long ago. To be clear, of the two physical silver markets, the wholesale market (in 1000 oz bars) is vastly more important when it comes to determining the price of silver, because by definition, the retail market prices off the wholesale price in terms of prevailing premiums. Silver in 1000 oz…