Silver Editorials & Commentary

No one, or at least hardly anyone, expects the U.S. economy is sliding into a recession, which would require two straight quarters of negative growth.

The current situation in Iraq is a modern tragedy. But in more practical terms it is a very stark illustration of the folly of central planning and the limits of state power in the face of entrenched traditions and proven history. Although the parallels aren't...

A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) entitled Global Public Investor 2014 discussed the investment strategies of 400 government investors split into 157 central banks, 156 government pension funds and 87 sovereign wealth...

Primary gold investors versus silver investors are not exactly alike. Swapping gold for silver is a trade always worth considering, especially when the ratio blows out as wide as it is now. Portability is one obvious reason for the reverse, as long as premiums match...

The stock market took off following Janet Yellen’s equity-friendly message last week. Thursday, James Bullard took to the streets to rein in bullish expectations a bit.

Oil; black gold. Oil is the global economy’s lifeblood. Without it, the global economy would probably return to the 17th century or worse. Oil demand just keeps going up. It is a constant battle to find new sources and keep what resources there are. Everyone is...

To paraphrase Scottish novelist Andrew Lang, some people use statistics like a drunk uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination. Numbers can be twisted and abused to support false claims, and even correct data is sometimes misinterpreted.

Briefly: In our opinion, no speculative positions are justified. Our intraday outlook remains neutral, and our short-term outlook is now neutral, following Tuesday’s intraday reversal.

The latest report on economic activity was released Wednesday; the news was not good.

A precious metal which has over 80% of its annual production coming from just two countries? Considerably rarer than its cousin, platinum – known by the Spanish Conquistadors as “little silver” - yet sells for a bit more than half as much? Like silver, a “two-doors...

Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), is continuing the financial war that he an

In late April of this year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it would start reporting a new data series as part of the U.S. national income accounts. In addition to gross domestic product (GDP), the BEA will...

Hypothetically, if we are earning 2.5% on a 10-year Treasury bond (IEF) and annual inflation rises to 3.0%, then our bond is producing a negative return on an inflation-adjusted basis. Thus, in a low interest rate environment, increasing inflation expectations tend...

As expected, the Fed tapered its purchases of mortgage-backed securities on Wednesday to $15 billion per month and its purchases of longer-term Treasury securities to $20 billion per month.

Briefly: In our opinion speculative long positions are still favored (with stop-loss at 1,910, S&P 500 index). Our intraday outlook is neutral, and our short-term outlook remains bullish:

Something extraordinary occurred this week. On Wednesday, the Fed made a routine announcement. That day, the price of silver was rising, but not out of the normal. Fireworks began on Thursday, and in 6 hours, the price of silver skyrocketed by 5%.

This is the mentality of our economic leaders- The consensus is that there hasn't been enough stimulus. It was a political thing. Too much headwind up against what they should have done.

Being short silver when the black line crosses above the red down trend line has proven to be a disaster. This has proven to be the time to buy!!

Speculation has turned up from the lowest level since 2003.

Current investing model favors equities and both the growth and energy sector are on major buy signals. Investors should stay invested and new money should wait for the 4 year cycle bottom in coming months.

While you have probably read countless bearish and inaccurate investing forecasts over the past 24 months, the objective of this article is not to fearmonger, but rather to cover some rational “that makes sense to me” concepts that may help investors mitigate, not...

The good news is: The blue chip indices closed at all-time highs on Friday and the NASDAQ composite (OTC) closed at a multi-year high. The negatives: The market is overbought. Most of the major indices have been up for 6 consecutive days.

The Federal Reserve’s dual mandate, established by Congress, is to maintain economic growth, while avoiding excessive inflation. It attempts to do so by shifting back and forth between tight money policies and easy money policies, hiking or lowering interest rates,...

With the Eurozone going to the extreme of negative interest rates and the IMF belatedly revising downwards their expectations of US economic growth, deflation is now the favoured buzzword. It is time to untangle myth from reality and put deflation in context.

Never in all my years as a market Observer Trader and Analyst have I ever seen so many People hanging so far out on a limb that is in danger of breaking OFF behind them.

The FOMC issued guidance at its Wednesday policy meeting to the effect that interest rates would remain low into the foreseeable future. It further lowered the pace of its monthly asset purchases by $10 billion to $35 billion per month. The Fed also said it...

The media appears to have misread the results of the Credit Suisse case as they did with the UBS case two years ago. Yes, the bank was fined a massive fine in the U.S. but this did not reach back into Switzerland. How come, you may well ask?

I hate being the bearer of bad news. I remember the one and only time in my life I agreed to umpire a Little League game behind the plate. My youngest son was on the mound, and his older brother came to bat. The count went to 3-2, and I realized I had a huge knot in...

The European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to charge a negative interest on overnight deposits is not going to lead to a higher targeted inflation rate, despite ECB President Mario Draghi's insistence that it will. Like all cases of central planning, this decision...

Regular readers know we are not big fans of attempting to forecast where the extremely complex organism, known as the market, is headed. If those sitting on cash take an “I am waiting for a better entry point” approach with stocks, that is a form of forecasting...

On June 5th, Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), announced a package of measures, including a policy of negative interest rates, aimed at encouraging or even forcing Eurozone banks to increase their lending to businesses.Although previously...

In order to understand the debate that is likely to take place within the Fed this week, it is important to understand what a “perfect world” interest rate cycle looks like from the Fed’s perspective

In 1946, an American singer, Merle Travis, recorded a song called "Sixteen Tons." The song told the story of a poor coal miner in Kentucky, who lived in a small coal mining town. The town's economy revolved entirely around the mine. The mining company owned a "...

Economic data in 2014 has aligned with “slow, but still positive growth.” It is easy to find blurbs in the press similar to the June 12 segment from The Wall Street Journal below

Governments are not engaged in a systemic conspiracy to alter economic data after it has been collected. To get a multitude of individuals agreeing on how to fudge information would be far too difficult to control. Instead, it is much easier for a small group of...

Briefly: In our opinion speculative long positions are still favored (with stop-loss at 1,910, S&P 500 index). Our intraday outlook is neutral, and our short-term outlook remains bullish

Our equity/bond model - This long term reliable investing model provides investors with simple decision making in the markets

Silver is on major sell signal since 2011. Short term is on a new buy signal. Speculation has turned up from the lowest level since 2003.

The good news is: All of the major indices were down last week, but the secondaries held up better than the blue chips and there was no significant build up of new lows. The negatives: New highs declined sharply last week, falling from 315 Monday to 104 Friday on...

Financial markets tend to focus on one or two big stories, which is similar to patterns found in popular culture. The latest obsession is Iraq.