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Category Archives: Gold Bubble

GOLD and SILVER – Is the Bull Exhausted Yet?

05 Tuesday Oct 2010

Posted by jschulmansr in banking crisis, banking crisis banks bear market bull central deflation depression economic trends economy financial futures gold inflation crash Markets precious metals price protection recession safety silver plati, banks, bear market, Bernanke, bonds, bull market, central banks, China, commodities, crash, Credit Default, Crude Oil, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, deflation, depression, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Dow Industrials, economic, Economic Recovery, economic trends, economy, Euro, Fed Fund Rate, Federal Deficit, federal reserve, Finance, financial, Forex, Fundamental Analysis, futures, futures markets, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, hard assets, How To Invest, How To Make Money, hyper-inflation, inflation, Investing, investments, Japan, Jschulmansr, Latest News, Make Money Investing, market crash, Markets, Moving Averages, oil, Options, PAL, Paladium, PALL, palladium, physical gold, platinum, PPLT, precious, precious metals, price, prices, Quantitative Easing, recession, risk, Risk Reversal, run on banks, silver, SLV, sovereign, Sovereign Debt, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, stock market, Stocks, TARP, Technical Analysis, The Fed, Treasury, U.S., U.S. Dollar, U.S. Government unfunded Debt, U.S. Treasury Dept

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banking crisis, banking crisis banks bear market bull central deflation depression economic trends economy financial futures gold inflation crash Markets precious metals price protection recession safety silver plati, banks, bear, bull, central banks, crash, Currencies, currency, deflation, depression, derivatives, economic trends, economy, Euro, Eurozone, financial futures, FXE, GLD, gold, gold to silver ratio, hyper-inflation, inflation, market, Markets, precious metals, price protection, printing press, QE2, quantitive easing, recession, safety, silver, SLV, SPY, UUP

Maybe…. Depending on who you are talking to. Today’s rally took me a little bit by surprise, thanks to Japan. The market totally shrugged off Moody’s potential downgrade of Irish Banks and Ireland.

The recently released report of the causes of the “Flash Crash”  showed that derivatives actually was one of the major causes of the crash. Well guess what? Right before the collapse of Lehman, and the ensuing crash and crisis; banks were holding all time record levels of derivatives. Currently once again, banks are holding all time record high levels of derivatives!

So today’s rally can be totally attributed to Japan’s central bank. The Japanese Central Bank while slashing interest rates to basically 0%, also announced that they would be buying Japanese assets (Bonds, Reits, Mortgages, Equities), thereby fueling speculation that the Fed would do the same thru QE2 here in the United States.

However, I think it’s about time for a correction in the GLD, SLV, FXE, SPY, UUP.
Looking at the charts this has all of the appearance of an exhaustion gap. Not that I don’t think that we have a real shot a $1500 Spot Gold by the end of this year.

So even though I was stopped out of my GLD puts this morning I am seriously thinking about jumping back in and buying more GLD and SLV puts. I will let you know on stock talks  (Seeking Alpha), when I do.

That being said, I don’t think the correction for GLD and SLV will be more than 5-7% before resuming their march to $1500 (Gold) and $25 (Silver). Another note: I expect Silver to perform even better than Gold. The gold/silver ratio is approximately 60/1, if we see a return to what used to be the norm of 30/1 gold/silver ratio; then Silver could potentially run as high as $35-$50/oz.

Finally, as they do another quantitative easing (QE2) here in the US (currently not official QE), this continues to put pressure on Europe and Japan to devalue their currencies  and keep the printing presses running. Long term this is going to create a very hyper inflationary climate long term. So being the Gold and Precious Metals Perma Bull that I am, I think that you should be buying and stockpiling (bullion, rounds,  coins; as much as you can get; to lock in the value of your money now. Events are truly starting to line up and set the stage for a potential worldwide collapse and depression.

===================================================

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Exposed! Five Myths of the Gold Market and find out:

  • · Who’s been driving this record bull-run in gold?
  • · What Happens When Inflation Kicks In?
  • · Why most investors are WRONG about gold…
  • · When and How to buy gold — at low cost with no hassle!

Get this in-depth report now, plus a gram of free gold, at BullionVault

====================================================

– Trend Analysis Revealed –

Substantial moves like the ones that we have recently witnessed present opportunities to succeed or fail in the markets.

Traders who stayed on the correct side of the trend were rewarded substantially.

Serious questions effecting your portfolio still remain:

– Have we seen the Indexes bottom or top?
– Is a reversal in the near future?
– Is it too late to go short?

Stay on the correct side of the market. Let our Trade Triangle technology work for you. It’s free, It’s informative, It’s on the money.

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Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

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It’s Jiffy Pop Time! Gold and Stock Markets Weekly Wrap Up

11 Friday Sep 2009

Posted by jschulmansr in 10 year Treasuries, 20 yr Treasuries, AUY, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, bilderbergers, bonds, central banks, China, Comex, commodities, Contrarian, Copper, crash, Credit Default, Crude Oil, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, deflation, DGP, DGZ, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Dow Industrials, economic, Economic Recovery, economic trends, economy, Fed Fund Rate, Federal Deficit, federal reserve, Finance, financial, follow the money, follow the news, Forex, Fundamental Analysis, futures, futures markets, G-20, gata, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, gold miners, Gold Price Manipulation, heating oil, how to change, How To Invest, hyper-inflation, India, inflation, Investing, investments, Jeffrey Nichols, Jschulmansr, Junior Gold Miners, Latest News, Make Money Investing, manipulation, market crash, Markets, mid-tier, mining companies, mining stocks, monetization, Moving Averages, NASDQ, natural gas, Natural Resources, oil, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, rare earth metals, resistance, run on banks, S&P 500, silver, silver miners, Silver Price Manipulation, SLV, sovereign, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, stock market, Stocks, Strategic Metals, Strategic Minerals, Strategic Resources, TARP, Technical Analysis, The Fed, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Today, Treasury, U.S., u.s. constitution, U.S. Dollar, U.S. Government unfunded Debt, U.S. Treasury Dept

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It’s Jiffy Pop Time and the Gold market is just starting to pop, pop, pop. The heat is being generated by the whirring printing presses at the U.S. Treasury; which are running full steam ahead, unabated, and with no prospect of turning them off. This forms the stove with Inflation, (soon to be Hyper-Inflation) are the burners, blazing red hot. Extra energy is coming from the falling dollar and rising prices/Inflation regardless of what the manipulated Government reports may say. True Inflation right now is approximately 18%+. The tin foil on the Jiffy Pop is starting to rise and Gold has closed today at an 18 month high. We are moving out of the deflation stage and into the inflation stage, if Bernanke is truly dedicated to saving the U.S. economy the he need to tell Geitner to turn off the presses now. We have already doubled, no almost tripled the amount of dollars in circulation now; just in the last 8 months.

The popping is growing louder and mmm- the smell of fresh popped Jiffy Pop Popcorn. The heat is high and I hope you are on the right side of the markets- especially Gold and Precious Metals and in Stocks. For Gold in the coming week I fully expect we will take out the $1033 high. I would not be upset if we built a base down here around $1000 –  $1015 during the next few days and closing out next week at $1025 – $1040. This thrust will take us up to $1075- $1100 Then a retracement to back to $1025-$1033 before taking out $1100; and then getting to $1250 – $1300 by the end of the year. We will see a futile attempt to prop up the U.S. Dollar but there is nothing they can do short of raising Interest rates which will sink the fledgling recovery. Oil wil come back and take out first $75 a barrel and then $100 a barrel by the end of the year.

On stocks, I made a mistake on the wave/formation pattern, I still feel we are in the process of creating a head and shoulders top, the exception is that we are still forming the head. I think we will top out the head at DJI 9750- 9800. From there it will be a vicious drop off the cliff preceded by a short right shoulder buildup. I think the big crash is going to occur very soon in the next few weeks. Keep your stops very tight and get ready to play the downside.

I initiated two positions Thurs late afternoon, I bought (DGP) at 2245 and I sold (DGZ) at $22.60. I am getting ready to buy Dec call options for (GLD) and (RGLD) on Monday. You can follow my trades on twitter right after I initiate them.

Have a Great Investing Day! –

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Exposed! Five Myths of the Gold Market and find out:

  • · Who’s been driving this record bull-run in gold?
  • · What Happens When Inflation Kicks In?
  • · Why most investors are WRONG about gold…
  • · When and How to buy gold — at low cost with no hassle!

Get this in-depth report now, plus a gram of free gold, at BullionVault

===================================================

Four Keys To Gold’s Next Move – Seeking Alpha

By Jeffrey Nichols of Nichols On Gold

Gold may have moved too high too soon . . . but whether or not the metal manages to recoup and hold onto recent gains near or above the $1000 an ounce level in the days immediately ahead . . . we are nevertheless looking for new highs (above $1032) in the closing months of the year with gold possibly at $1200 or $1300 before the New Year.

Key One: India

I’ve just returned from India, one of the most crucial markets for gold with a long history and big appetite for the yellow metal. What happens next for gold may depend most on the strength — or weakness — of Indian buying. And, Indian buying is both price sensitive and in sync with various holidays, festivals, and the wedding seasons.

With current rupee-denominated prices near historic highs, many are waiting either for a correction or evidence of staying power before returning to the market for new purchases. And while festival and wedding-related buying is expected later this month, the two-week period up to September 19th is considered inauspicious for gold purchases and many potential buyers will wait until later in the month.

If gold can remain near $1000 for the next week or two, giving Indians a sense of confidence that the price is not about to retreat, we can imagine stronger buying interest sufficient to get the price moving toward its previous historic peak and beyond into uncharted territory.

Key Two: China

Official — but unreported — buying on behalf of the central bank and possibly the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, is being joined by growing private-sector demand for both investment bars and jewelry.

Press reports suggest that the Chinese government has adopted a new — more positive — attitude toward private-sector buying of both gold and silver. With China now the number one gold-mining country, it is in their interest to see a higher gold price as long as demand can be satisfied by domestic mine production and scrap reflows. Additionally, it has been suggested that the new pro-gold policy is intended to channel speculative funds away from real estate and equity investments.

The recently announced agreement for the People’s Bank of China to purchase from the International Monetary Fund about $50 billion in SDR-denominated, IMF-issued interest-bearing securities has also contributed to the latest round of dollar selling . . . and, to the extent that dollar weakness is a plus for gold, this has also supported the early September gold rally.

Key Three: Barrick

Barrick Gold’s (ABX) smart move to buy back its gold hedge position provided a temporary booster shot that helped propel the yellow metal through the $1000 an ounce barrier.

If I remember correctly, as of midyear, Barrick — the world’s largest gold-mine producer — had about 168 tons of gold outstanding on its hedge book . . . and would have to buy back this quantity to regain full exposure to future gold-price moves.

Anticipating an announcement effect, Barrick most likely accelerated its gold repurchase program in the days leading up to the September 7th announcement and probably paused to let the market recover from the news and prices to back off a bit before it resumes its repurchase program. With another tranche still to be repurchased in the months ahead, I expect Barrick to buy into price weakness, helping to underpin the price at moments of weakness.

Key Four: Monetary Factors

Of course, clients and readers of NicholsOnGold know that we think U.S. monetary policy and money supply growth are the primary determinants of U.S. price inflation, U.S. dollar performance, and the future price of gold. Last weekend’s communique from the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was a reminder that monetary stimulus is likely to stay for some time. This — along with last week’s report from the United Nations critical of the U.S. dollar’s roll as a global reserve asset — has pushed the dollar lower in foreign-exchange markets to the benefit of gold.

If you haven’t already read the full text of my speech to the 6th Annual India International Gold Convention in Goa, India last week, I suggest you take a look for more about gold’s supply/demand situation, important changes in central bank gold policies, and implications of U.S. monetary policy.

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How to Trade Natural Gas, Crude Oil and Gold ETF Funds – Seeking Alpha

By: Chris Vermeulen of The Gold and Oil Guy

How to trade hot commodities like natural gas, oil and gold? We should see big moves in the coming weeks as gas bottoms, and oil and gold breakout or breakdown. A lot of money is going to be exchanging hands quickly and the key is to be on the receiving end of things. Below are some charts showing where these commodities are trading.

How to Trade Gold – Weekly Chart

How I trade gold is relatively straight forward. I use a simple trading model which allows me to identify the down side risk for a potential gold trade. I also use the same model for trading oil, gas and silver.

Beyond finding good entry points, it is crucial to know when to take some profits off the table. The weekly gold chart clearly shows gold trading at a resistance level which means there are going to be more sellers than buyers, hence the reason it is called resistance.

To trade gold I enter with my low risk entry points and sell half my position once I reach a resistance level. Thursday for example gold moved up into this long term resistance level and then started to head south. We took some profits off the table before gold dipped in the late afternoon for a healthy gain. Taking profits is a must or you’ll simply hold onto winning positions until they eventually turn into a loser.

Gold Resistance Level

How to Trade Crude Oil – Weekly Chart

Trading crude oil is exciting because it moves much faster than gold. How to trade crude oil with low risk can be done by using my simple trading model which is a combination of indicators like momentum, support & resistance, volume, price patterns and media coverage. All these things combined allow for highly accurate trades with minimal down side risk.

Crude oil looks ready to make a big move. The odds are pointing to higher prices because oil has a multi month bullish price action and the falling US dollar helps increase the price of oil. I can see oil breakout and rally into the $95 per barrel level if things go that way in the coming weeks.

Crude Oil Trading Newsletter

How to Trade Oil (USO Fund) – Weekly Chart

USO tracks similarly to the price of crude oil and it provides some great trades for both swing traders and day traders. I focus on trades that bounce off support with low downside risks, which occur on both the daily and weekly charts.

How to trade USO

How to Trade Natural Gas – Weekly Chart

Natural gas is looking ready to bottom here. If you go back to the early 90’s the $2-3 range is a major support level. While I don’t generally try to pick bottoms, there are some signature price patterns and volume patterns that have proven to be very profitable for catching sharp bounces.

How to trade Natural Gas

How to Trade Natural Gas – Daily Chart

The daily chart shows a perfect waterfall sell off with the price of natural gas dropping to a long term support level. This pattern combination shows panic selling which indicates a short term bottom is close.

The extreme panic selling and sharp decline in price, removes much of the down side risk. Scaling into a position over a few days, if the price continues to move lower, is important for this strategy to work its magic.

The black horizontal lines show my resistance levels for taking profits. If the price were to drop below $10 then I would exit the second half of the position to lock in the rest of the profit.

How to trade UNG

How to Trade Commodities Conclusion:

Trading commodities is very simple with all the ETFs and funds available. The energy funds like oil and gas have some issues with following the prices of their underlying commodity but I do not find it a problem with my style of trading.

I would really like to know the entire story about what is going on with the oil and nat gas funds which have crazy contango issues. Why do other commodity funds like GLD (gold bullion) and SLV (silver bullion) not have these issues? Why can’t they make a fund which follows oil and gas properly? All I know is that there are a lot of dishonest people in the financial industry taking honest hard working peoples’ money.

Visit The Gold and Oil Guy

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(9-11 Postscript): I salute the fallen hero’s of 9-11 – we will not forget you! Our prayers are still with the families of the fallen and the survivors. We will never forget…

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I will be starting regular daily posts next week especially since the markets are heating up- Like I said it’s “Jiffy Pop” time! – Have a great weekend-jschulmansr

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Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

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Why did Gold Drop After $1000 & Why It’s Going Back!

06 Friday Mar 2009

Posted by jschulmansr in 10 year Treasuries, 20 yr Treasuries, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, Brad Zigler, bull market, capitalism, CDE, central banks, China, Comex, commodities, Contrarian, Copper, Credit Default, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, depression, DGP, DGZ, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Economic Recovery, economic trends, economy, Fed Fund Rate, Federal Deficit, federal reserve, Finance, follow the news, Forex, Fundamental Analysis, futures, futures markets, gata, GDX, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, gold miners, Gold Price Manipulation, Greg McCoach, hard assets, How To Invest, How To Make Money, hyper-inflation, IAU, IMF, India, inflation, Investing, investments, Jschulmansr, Junior Gold Miners, Long Bonds, majors, Make Money Investing, manipulation, market crash, Markets, mid-tier, mining companies, mining stocks, monetization, NAK, palladium, Peter Brimelow, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, recession, silver, silver miners, Silver Price Manipulation, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, Stocks, The Fed, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, TIPS, U.S. Dollar, XAU

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Sorry for no post yesterday, was traveling. Just why did Gold Drop basically $100 oz after hitting the $1000 price level? Was it Mr. BooYah Jim Cramer giving his recommendation? That helped, but what was the real reason? Today’s articles give you the answer along with the reason Gold is heading right back. Gold closed over it’s 20 day moving average so 1st resistance gone, next big resistance around $980, then we are back to testing the all time high. I took this pullback as an opportunity to accumulate some more Mid-tier producers, two of my fav’s actually, (NAK) and (CDE). I chose (CDE) because everyone seems to have forgotten Silver and I personally think on a percentage basis will in the end bring greater returns than Gold. The other “forgotten metal is Platinum and (SWC) has been beat up so badly I couldn’t resist accumulating a little more. I will put out a special weekend edition so be on the lookout for that. You will be the first to know if you are following me on Twitter. Have a Great Weekend!- Good Investing! – jschulmansr

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A new site that is in pre-launch state that will become a virtual world – chat, shop, play, videos, etc. Anyways they are giving free shares (that should become actual company shares) to anyone who signs up and more shares if you refer people.

Here is where I buy my Bullion, get one free gram of Gold just for opening an account! Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

 

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Here is the answer to the question why Gold dropped $100 oz. I highlighted the section which explains why? As I mentioned in my post where I challenged Brad Zigler, my fear/concern came to fruition.

The Silly People- Le Metropole Cafe – GoldSeek.com

Source: GoldSeek.com

 

 

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By: Bill Murphy, Le Metropole Cafe, Inc., LemetropoleCafe.com

As veteran Café members know, it is my opinion the financial market press, who follow and comment on gold, rate at best mental midget status, as exhibited by this gold recap headline yesterday afternoon…

Gold Falls Most in Seven Weeks as Equities Rally; Silver Drops – Bloomberg, Mar 3 2009 3:18PM

***

HUH? The DOW closed at its lowest level since 1997.

A few of The Muppets on CNBC have been pointed to the copper and oil charts as potential indicators that the economy might be about to show some life and that the market may be ready for a rally … from extremely oversold conditions. In particular, they are referring to their rounding bottom formations, which were followed today by breakouts, especially copper…

April crude oil, $45.78 per barrel, up $3.73
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/CO/49May copper, $1.6940, up 8.95 cents.
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/QC/59So, gold is supposedly liquidated for “margin call” reasons, in a deteriorating economic scene all over the world, yet oil and copper are not. Makes a lot of sense.

Then, this morning the DOW, S&P and the DOG were all called a fair amount higher on this news…

Stocks Rise Around the World; Commodities Gain, Treasuries Fall

 

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Stocks rose around the world, commodity prices rallied and Treasuries fell on speculation China will broaden efforts to boost growth in the world’s third-largest economy. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped the most in four months.

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Alcoa Inc. added more than 2 percent as copper and aluminum climbed on optimism metals consumption in China will increase. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. surged 9 percent as a former statistics chief said China’s Premier Wen Jiabao will announce a new stimulus package tomorrow. Volkswagen AG, the biggest overseas carmaker in China, gained 3.9 percent.

The MSCI World Index added 0.3 percent to 707.74 at 1:23 p.m. in London. The deepening global recession, a third government rescue for Citigroup Inc. and dividend cuts at companies from General Electric Co. to JPMorgan Chase & Co. have sent the of 23 developed countries to a 23 percent drop this year, the worst start since the gauge was created in 1970.

“The Chinese are about to come up with another huge fiscal push,” said Philip Manduca, who oversees $1 billion as head of investments at ECU Group in London. “They are going to pump an enormous amount of money in. This will help in the long term,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview….

-END-

Perhaps coming Chinese economic stimulation is MORE than necessary as the true state of Chinese and Asian economic activity is not properly understood. The latest from my friend since 1980, Frank Veneroso…

Global Economy
Asian Black Hole Again
The Economic Collapse In Asia Points To A Deep Contraction In China

March 3, 2009

Executive Summary
    1. The industrial collapse on a global scale has almost no precedent. Why has it happened?2. The history of economic cycles tells us that industrial collapses like this one tend to be associated with two industrial excesses: massively excessive accumulations of inventories and manias in fixed investments.

     

    3. We have just gone through the biggest inflation adjusted commodity bubble in recorded world history both in terms of amplitude and duration. History tells us there was probably global goods hoarding; in other words, there may have been an inventory cycle of immense amplitude, much of it unrecorded, which is now being unwound violently. 

     

    4. If excessive inventory building and excessive fixed investment has been partly responsible for the amazing speed of decline in global industrial production, where in the world were these excesses concentrated? 

     

    5. China has embarked on a massive increase in its distribution chain. There was an associated massive inventory build in stores that remain void of shoppers. There may also have been a speculative accumulation of inventories. 

     

    6. China is also the economy where the world’s greatest fixed investment excess occurred. The ratio of fixed investment to GDP has been well above 40% for a half decade. No such investment excess ever occurred in any major economy since the onset of the industrial revolution. 

     

    7. We are now hearing stories about immense overcapacity in construction of all kinds. 

     

    8. Exports to China from China’s trading partners is all important, since it gives us some insight into the Chinese economy which the Chinese garbage statistics prevent us from seeing clearly. 

     

    9. Year over year exports for Japan have now fallen an amazing 46% in January. Exports to China fell at the same rate as overall exports, suggesting a contracting Chinese economy. 

     

    10. Japanese exports of capital goods to China have collapsed. German and Korean exports of capital goods to China have done the same. All this points to a sharp contraction in unsustainably high Chinese private fixed investment. 

     

    11. Taiwanese GDP fell an 8.36% rate in the fourth quarter non-annualized. I have never heard of an industrial contraction at such a devastating rate. 

     

    12. Exports were a cause. Taiwan’s exports fell at a 42.7% rate year over year in January. Exports to mainland China and Hong Kong fell at an even faster rate. 

     

    13. The odds are that Taiwanese firms operating in China have drastically curtailed their fixed investment on the mainland – another indication of a bust in unsustainable private business fixed investment in China. 

     

***Neither commentary is mutually exclusive. If the Chinese go all out here because they are in such a mess, they will need a lot of oil and copper, etc. Better their people have shovels than guns.

This is a roundabout way to get into covering my field, gold and silver. Gold was bombed for 7 days in a row … from top to bottom $100+. Two weeks ago the world was falling apart and it was THE safe haven play. By yesterday the price drop had many of its advocates stumbling and the press was quickly ready to pan it as a GO TO investment.

This really is silly people stuff. Twenty to Thirty years from today people won’t believe the garbage reasons offered for gold doing what it does … emanating from the press and The Muppets. In a bigger picture sense it is equivalent to those who thought the world was flat some 500 years ago.

Gold is more a safe haven play than ever and the price is going to the moon, along with silver. The only reason we have seen and endured a stunning 10% drop in the price of gold in 7 days is because the US Government/Gold Cartel ordered the price down. Once they set the fall in motion, it led to normal technical selling by funds, as most follow money management/stop loss principles. The Gold Cartel has been feeding on these folks and the likes of momentum trader Dennis Gartman for the 10½ years The Café has been open.

Gold is now in its 9th year of making new highs; and still, many pundits and Muppets are questioning it as an investment because it has no yield. Another huh? Yep, and it has no counterparty risk either, nor has it lost 50% of its value like the DOW over the past 12 years.

There are so many dingbats out there who relate back to the 1980 gold high and say it has gone nowhere, or little to nowhere, which is more silly people stuff. Tell that to those who bought the DOW over the past 12 years, who are at best even, with most EVERYONE losing money, while gold has soared.

Silly, silly, silly.

On that note, veteran Café members will remember Neal Ryan (had not heard from him in 6 months or more) who spearheaded the Blanchard & Co. lawsuit against Barrick and JP Morgan. He just checked in with CP and me this morning. Forget the mental midget, Muppet gold commentary. This is the real deal and the main reason for gold’s $100+ price drop…

Gents,
hope all is well on your end. I must profess that I haven’t kept track of things in the metals markets much recently, but did some quick work for a friend who was looking to invest and asked about bank selling. Just an FYI since I was trying to explain to him why when central bank activity ramps up it’s the time to buy….Euro CB’s have dumped over 220 tonnes of gold on the market in the last 3 weeks…ie. they’ve met nearly half their yearly selling quota in 3 weeks. Hadn’t seen anybody mentioned anything like that in any news lately, though hadn’t been looking either. It’s always the interesting stuff that no one in the mainstream media seems to notice.

keep up the good fight!
Neal

Neal, who is so well connected and really knows his stuff, what? … the press getting to the gold truth? Explaining it to the bewildered public?

Oh well what fun!!! From MIDAS yesterday (referring to JB’s ECB selling numbers)…

“But the key point of the note is that this 38 tonnes of selling is dwarfed over a two month period by the 249 tonnes GLD has supposedly bought over the same period of time (see Adrian below). Hmmm.”

Which if Neal’s info is correct, means The Gold Cartel dumped 211 tonnes SURREPTITIOUSLY as part of their gold price suppression scheme and was THE real reason gold fell like it did. It all fits.

Oh, so many of the mainstream gold world folks is a bunch of shallow nincompoops!

CNBC’s Jim Cramer was jumping up and down about silver last night. It was quite a lengthy segment on silver. However, as bullish as he was, he said that gold and silver were going DOWN first, so buyers should scale in at intervals on the downside. Silver popped early to $13.17 but gradually fell apart, while gold was smothered for no apparent reason again, except for The Gold Cartel’s reasons. Gold roared early up to $922.30, then was nailed by the bums to $905 before stabilizing. We have witnessed this pattern (the cabal slams gold after an early burst) over and during the past (now) 8 days of successive losses. Perhaps we have a double bottom above $900. With so many buyers lurking out there between $880 and $900, that would not be a surprise. Then again, there is a horrendous US jobs report coming on Friday and gold is always nailed around that report. Perhaps that was part of what this takedown was all about and the major damage has been done already.

Silver was aided in the morning by the VERY firm copper and oil prices. The hoopla over the Chinese stimulus comments didn’t hurt either.

The gold open interest only fell 2,071 contracts to 365,271 (not much liquidation there), while the silver OI went up a slight 15 contracts to 93,051.

The yield on the 10 yr T note is 3%. The dollar fell .73 to 88.57. The dollar/gold relationship has taken on an entirely new dimension for the time being.The CRB came back from the dead, gaining 7.78 to 211.45.

 

AM gold goodies from John Brimelow…

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM (S15.63) PM ($8.79) with world gold at $913.58 and $911.80. Basis Delhi – well below legal import point. After a soft start, the rupee managed a rally at last, closing at $1 = R51.35 (Tuesday R51.95). This had a notable effect on the PM premium situation. The stock market also managed an up day. Closing 0.23% above Tuesday.

A rally in the rupee could have an important influence on world gold at this point.

In a somewhat confusing development, The Gartman Letter today speaks of cutting another unit of gold from its model portfolio, by my reckoning eliminating its position. But the portfolio summary reflects neither today’s nor yesterday’s action.

Nevertheless, the attitude towards gold now held by this well-informed and influential commentary is clearly unenthusiastic.

Of interest is that MarketVane’s Bullish Consensus for the S&P, which is normally very sticky, slipped a point last night to 32%.. In the past couple of years it has been lower only 3 days, October 8-10 last year, when it bottomed at 29% (and then saw a 10 point rally. On some reckonings (Hays), that remains the “internal low” of the market.

Since very recently selling in gold appears to have been linked to stock market weakness, this could be important to gold’s friends.

***

MIDAS note: there will be JB evening input (more gold goodies) between 5 and 7 Eastern Standard Time unless otherwise notified. 

And here it is…Tuesday’s deep $34 intraday Comex sell-off and down $26.40 loss (2.8%) saw only a minor fall in open interest. Only 2,071 lots were shed (0.6%). In the first instance this implies there continues to be a substantial short interest in the market, and that the widely reported long-liquidation is exaggerated, at least as far as Comex is concerned.

Today a promising early Comex rally was reversed on heavy volume – by 10am 62% of the day’s estimated volume had traded and gold was $10 off its high. Gold then drifted down to a floor close loss of $6.90. Only 99,266 lots were estimated to have traded – switch effect 8,734.

A great deal of attention is now being paid to the slack Asian demand/scrap reflux situation with wider discounts on kilo bar being reported, especially in the Far East (50c HK, 75c Tokyo). See

http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-38330720090304?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

On the other hand, a survey of US coin and bullion dealer sites this afternoon suggests that US premiums have widened slightly, and remain very high.

MarketVane’s Bullish Consensus for gold slipped a point to 74%.

The GLD ETF achieved a fifth day running with reported gold holdings static at 1,029.29 tonnes.

While this is the 8th down day in a row for Comex gold, the bears cannot be said to have really pressed their advantage, with volume fading away once the early rally attempt was blocked. Neither the HUI (down 0.94%) nor the XAU (up 0 02%) lost their curious gains of yesterday. Some will see the apparent exit of The Gartman Letter as a positive sign.

The market remains interesting.

================================

Now we know Gold has come roaring back but I couldn’t agree more “Very Interesting”!-Jschulmansr

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Gold: Entering an Accelerated Trend Channel – Seeking Alpha

By: Olivier Tischendorf

 

Gold has history on its side. It is a proven way to preserve one’s wealth over time. It acts like an insurance and it is highly unlikely mankind’s behavior during the last 6,000 years is going to change anytime soon. Some things never change. Two of those things are human nature and gold’s capacity to preserve one’s purchasing power.

That said gold has recently reached new highs in various foreign currencies. The chart of gold in Euro terms tells the story of what is to come. Don’t take this lightly. This is an important event as new highs typically attract more buying. If the Europeans start allocating more funds to physical bullion demand will increase drastically and gobble up supply. It is reasonable to expect additional upward pressure for the price of gold. Physical accumulation is accelerating on a worldwide basis. Keep in mind gold is a very tiny market compared to the equities market. A change in asset allocation resulting in a small increase to bullion exposure could easily double worldwide demand for gold bullion investment purposes.

A story hitting the wires recently is that: Greenlight Capital’s founder, David Einhorn, is finally taking his grandfather’s advice. The $5.1 billion hedge fund is buying gold for the first time amid the threat of inflation from increased government spending. Einhorn fund’s recent decision to invest in physical gold bullion is testament to increased awareness of gold’s bullish long term trend and it looks like this is only the beginning to added buying pressure for gold bullion.’ For full coverage of the story click here.

It looks like the price of gold in US Dollar terms is merely lagging other currencies as the US Dollar has been very strong lately. It is still early to draw conclusions as the US Dollar could stay stronger than most people expect but the new accelerating trend channel looks to be a valid one.

So what it all comes down to is that worldwide accumulation of physical gold is accelerating. Hence the odds the gold price is going to accelerate as well are rather high.

If you haven’t built a physical bullion position yet now is a good time to think about doing so. I typically recommend holding at least 5% of one’s liquid net worth in gold bullion held in your own possession. Increasing that percentage up to 20% isn’t that bad an idea either. Although the markets look like they might want to stage some kind of rally right now taking a longer term perspective indicates the gold trend is going to make you more money than buying the S&P500 via the SPY.

Gold should reach new highs in US Dollar terms soon following the lead of foreign currencies like the Euro, the Canadian Dollar, the Australian Dollar, the Swiss Franc and the British Pound Sterling to name a few. As long as the lower trend line of the new dotted trend channel is not breached ‘the trend is your friend’ and you should hold on to your gold bullion position. You could use that level to protect your position with a stop loss.

If you want to be more aggressive you should consider buying silver bullion. The silver market is much smaller than the gold market so the market is considered to be a riskier one. But once the public is going to stress silver’s monetary significance as opposed to viewing it simply as another commodity silver prices will increase significantly and should ultimately outperform gold. I recommend closely watching the gold – silver ratio for clues. Historically the ratio has showed to be lower than the actual one. Watch for the ratio to go back to the 55 level and overshooting to the downside as soon as silver garners more interest.

You can easily keep track of the three charts and how they evolve over time by visiting my public list.

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My Note: Remember even with the $100 oz drop Gold came nowhere close to breaking out of even it’s upward accelerated channel! Patience my friends!

! Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

===============================

Greg McCoach: Gold $2000/oz by Year’s End? – The Gold Report 

Source: The Gold Report

Successful entrepreneur turned bullion dealer Greg McCoach brings more than 20 years of business experience, a vast network of mining contacts and his unique precious metals industry insights to the mining investment newsletter he launched in 2001, The Mining Speculator. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Greg outlines the ‘new’ criteria for junior miners, explains why he favors the juniors over more senior producers and advises a combination of both physical metal and stocks for investors to protect themselves in today’s market.

The Gold Report (TGR): In your January newsletter, there’s a table that shows how the HUI Gold BUGS Index over 10 years was the top asset class. Can you talk about gold as the top asset class compared to these others?

Greg McCoach (GM): We see by the statistics that the HUI Index, which is a measure of gold and silver precious metal stocks, has performed better than any other asset class in the past 10 years. Now what’s interesting is that we’re still in the process of watching this gold bull unfold. In terms of the four stages of a bull market, we are probably past the midway point and heading into the latter stages. This is where the parabolic moves in the precious metals will start to happen. And with all that is unfolding in the world economic scene, it’s not difficult to see why gold will soon be soaring.

TGR: So you definitely think this bodes well for the next phase of the gold bull market; there will be a parabolic move?

GM: Yes. This is where you’re going to see gold really go to levels that people can’t even comprehend. Up to this point, gold has been a surprise to many in the mainstream media. What investors need to understand about the bull market in gold thus far is that the numbers that we’re dealing with, $960 an ounce gold right now, is nowhere near the 1980 high in gold of $875 an ounce.

You have to inflation-adjust those 1980 numbers for 28 years of true inflation. If you did that, the $875 high in gold would have to be $6,500 an ounce in inflation-adjusted terms. For silver, it’d be $400 dollars an ounce. So when you see silver at its current rate of $14 an ounce and gold at $960 an ounce, in real inflation-adjusted terms, those prices are still dirt cheap, relatively speaking, compared to where they’re going to be going.

As we see the world financial system continue to unravel, the dollar along with all fiat currencies will just implode leaving gold as the currency of last resort. Gold, and silver will go into the stratosphere as this happens. People need to remember that what took gold and silver to their all-time highs in 1980 pales in comparison to what we are dealing with now. The world has never witnessed the likes of the financial destruction that is now underway. It is truly frightening.

 

TGR: You say in your “Greg’s Crystal Ball” section that you think the mania phase is going to start happening sometime next year, in 2010.

GM: I think by the end of this year things are going to be so bad worldwide that gold is going to become headline news and that will become the driving force towards the parabolic moves. What’s happening right now is that the big money is still playing the paper game of musical chairs. “Paper musical chairs,” I call it. When the music stops, people run from one chair to the other chair looking for safety. They run from bonds to dollars to Euros, etc., trying to find the safest place. But they’re not finding it. Why? Because the paper system as we’ve known it is unraveling. So people are trying to chase safety. Well, they can’t find it because it doesn’t exist. They go into dollars, and they feel comfortable there for a little while; then suddenly the dollar tanks again, and then they run out of the dollar to another paper currency.

Ultimately, when the music stops, they’re not going to run to a chair; they’re going to run for the exits. When that happens, they’re going to discover the asset class known as gold. That’s when these parabolic moves are going to happen. As that happens of course, the select precious metal mining stocks will move up accordingly. The leverage investors can get will be phenomenal during such a scenario.

TGR: You say the key is to own the physical metal, as well as the stocks. What do you recommend as far as percentages in a portfolio?

GM: Right now my personal portfolio is 25% cash, 25% physical metals. I take physical delivery of gold and silver. I have 35% in select precious mining stocks, junior mining stocks mostly, and then the balance is in Canadian oil and gas trusts that pay a monthly dividend check.

TGR: You favor the juniors over the more senior producers simply because of the growth potential?

GM: Yes. The leverage is better. For me, personally, I’m willing to take the extra risk with the juniors because I feel like I know what I’m doing and I’m confident about it, so I feel comfortable in being able to identify the juniors that are going to perform very well. The seniors will do well, but they won’t do as well on a percentage basis. In other words, there’s not as much leverage with the seniors as there is with the quality juniors. But the big problem for the average investor is trying to understand what a quality junior is. There’s so many of these companies out there, 80% of which are nothing but moose pasture, and it’s very difficult to sort through all the promotions and scams to find the real jewels. That’s my job as a newsletter writer; that’s what I do. I travel the world trying to sort through all the garbage to find the real opportunities that can deliver the big returns.

TGR: What do you see right now with the juniors? Some of them definitely are climbing back up.

GM: I think it’s nice to see them recover a little bit. This is a very good learning situation for investors of mining stocks. Look at the companies that are rebounding. If we have another implosion, which companies do you want to buy? The ones that rebounded the quickest and the most in the past several weeks, months.

Since the bottom in late November, early December, we’ve had companies that have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled if you had enough courage, or any cash, to buy back then. But there are other companies that haven’t moved at all, and they’re just stuck in the mud. So, obviously, you have been given a great opportunity to see the companies that are more quality oriented, that have the value, that have what the market is looking for, and those companies are the ones you want to really pay attention to.

Since a lot of the stocks on our list bottomed out, the top 10 list, in particular, has had some of the stocks do quite well. Some of them have doubled, tripled, and have bounced back quite nicely from the bottom. Unfortunately, most of us probably bought at a higher level and so we’re not even up to the point where we’re at break-even again. Obviously, we’re still waiting for higher levels.

Now what I’ve been saying is that, unfortunately, with the severity of the world economic events, up to this point our mining shares have been sucked down the drain, so to speak, when world stock markets sell off. Every day that the world stock markets have had a bad day, the mining stocks have had a bad day as well. What we’re looking for is the precious metal prices to help us disconnect from that activity. It hasn’t happened yet. I’m still worried that the next downturn in the world markets could affect our junior mining stocks again. I’ve been looking for this key disconnect moment, where the precious metal prices take us into another realm and help protect and insulate our select junior mining stocks. You have to use ‘select’ because so many of the juniors are going nowhere. It’s only the select companies that are going to be protected or insulated from other market activity that’s going in the wrong direction. So I’m looking for that moment our quality junior stocks start to move on their own accord.

TGR: Can you give us an overview of what you consider a select company? What is the criteria?

GM: The criteria is this. They have to exceptional management. In other words, out of all the management teams that exist out there, there’s probably only a small handful that really have the quality background and experience to do what they say they’re going to do. Most of these other people are just managers or lawyers who don’t have experience or are hoping to get involved with a hot sector. They’re highly promotional, and most often are only looking out for themselves.

So you look for the people that have the right resumes, the ones who have worked for the majors for 10, 15, 20 years or more and have the experience (paid their dues so to speak), learned the business, understand what they’re doing and what they are trying to accomplish. Do they have experience in doing this specific task such as find gold? Did they mine gold or silver before? If they were mining for uranium their whole career and they jump into gold, well, that doesn’t sound too good to me.

So you have to have the experience and the knowledge base. That’s key. The way we’ve been playing this market the last eight years is no longer as valid as it once was. We need to adjust to the new rules on how to play this game and win.

What the market is looking for is very specific. If you make a good gold discovery, it has to be in an existing mining camp. It has to be in an area where the development costs aren’t very large. If you make a big gold discovery, and it’s in an area that’s out in the middle of nowhere, the development costs are going to be too high. No one’s going to fund it; no one’s going to finance a project like this with the new market environment. It doesn’t matter how good the results are.

So you have to find these discoveries in good jurisdictions that have short permitting times that have existing infrastructure. If it doesn’t have those things, forget about it. There are plenty of great discoveries that I know of. They’re just in the wrong area. Some examples would be Romios Gold Resources Inc. (TSX.V:RG), Copper Fox Metals Inc. (TSX:CUU), who have tremendous discoveries but are unfortunately in the wrong area. It takes too much money to develop such a desolate area as we have seen with NovaGold Resources Inc. (TSX:NG) (AMEX:NG) in their effort to get the Galore Creek deposit in production. The cost overruns were so enormous, they had to shut the whole thing down. Well, the market’s not interested in those kind of projects anymore. I choose to invest in areas that have what the market wants.

Look in the areas that have plenty of existing mines and infrastructure. This is where plenty of experienced mining people already live and juniors who can make a discovery will most likely be bought out by a major who is in the area.

Now certain jurisdictions are better than others. The political risk now is more intense than it was. Political risk is always a big factor, but the political risk now is just amazing, so you have to be very careful where you’re willing to invest your money. For me, I’m getting to the point where there are only a few jurisdictions that I’m willing to look at. Certain parts of Canada where there’s existing mining camps, certain parts in the United States, and Mexico which still looks very good. That’s about it. Everything else is no longer as attractive as it once used to be.

We’re also looking for higher-grade resources vs. lower grade. We’re looking for low-cost development situations vs. high-cost development situations. We’re looking for economic deposits that can be financed.

Here’s another situation—within mining, the different kinds of discoveries. A large copper-gold porphyry system is known to house large amounts of gold and silver,; but, unfortunately, it’s also known to have very high development costs. Who’s going to finance that? I’m not as interested in those kinds of stories as I once was. You’re better off looking for the higher grade— “epithermal”—smaller vein, higher grade, near-surface deposits that will have an easier time of actually going the whole distance and getting into production.

TGR: Let’s talk about some of the companies on your top 10 list. Pediment Exploration Ltd. (PEZ:TSX) (PEZGF:OTCBB) (P5E:FSE) is at the top; can you give us an update?

GM: Since they bottomed, Pediment has more than doubled. They’re hanging around the dollar trading range, which some people have been disappointed with. But what I say is, look, Gary Freeman, the CEO, is just weighing his options right now. He’s not making much in the way of news. That’s okay. He’s lying low, he’s looking at his options right now, and this is a company that is about to release a new 43-101 that will have more than 2 million ounces of gold in the ground. This is a verified situation. That’s a significant number because once a company, a junior, crosses the 2 million ounce gold mark, it gets on the radar screens of the majors.

Gary has a lot of things he’s weighing out. After the market meltdown, he decided to reduce costs, get things trimmed down, and get the burn rate really low to conserve cash. So, in the last few months there has not been much in the way of news. The company is lying low for now, but I think you’re going to see that change as PEZ announces their new 43-101 resource calculation. At that point I think you’re going to see Pediment start to have a lot of news flow, which should be very good for the share price.

He’s got the Baja property we just talked about that’s going to have the new 43-101. I don’t see how it’s not at least 2 million ounces based on my back-of-the-envelope calculations, but you never know with these things until they actually come out. I would guess it’s going to be over 2 million and there’s plenty more to be discovered there In my opinion, this deposit could be greater than 3 million ounces before all is said and done. Well, that’s a major discovery. It’s in the right jurisdiction, with very low development costs and it’s in an existing mining area, so it should do very well.

Now, Pediment also has a project called La Colorada that could be a near-term producer. It’s the old open pit that El Dorado Gold Corporation (ELD.TO) (AMEX:EGO) produced from, which really made El Dorado Gold what they are today—what launched them—that discovery and putting it into production. Pediment now controls it and other people are interested in it. Should Gary vend it out to somebody else, take the cash and run, or should he develop it himself? He has lots of options. He has lots of cash. He has lots of great properties. Gary has many different things he can consider at this point, so I think he wisely just stepped back, started to look through everything that he has and what options are available. We’ll see what happens but the prospects for the company look very good..

I’m sure there’s been interest by majors already on the Baja Project. He’s probably gotten plenty of calls, where the majors are already saying, “hey, look, what if we just take you out at this price?” Is it high enough? Is it worth taking the money now and running, letting somebody else deal with it? Or is it better for the company to go down the road a little bit further, develop it themselves in the hopes of getting a much higher price later on? These are things we all have to weigh out. Is it better for us as shareholders to take the money and run right now, even though we might get a lower price for it? Or should we wait a little bit longer, and get a higher price when they develop it? These are things we have to look at. So, with that being said, in my opinion, as we see these higher gold prices and with the news that’s about to come out, I think Pediment’s a two dollar stock in the next six to eight weeks.

TGR: Capital Gold Corp. (TSX:CGC) is also on your list, correct?

GM: Yes, and as Capital Gold runs up to the 90 cent level—it was recently in the 80 cent range—as it gets close to 90 cents Canadian, I’m telling people to start selling, start taking some profit. What’s going to happen is the company is going to do a reverse stock split, which is going to be a minimum 4:1 stock split. These stock splits are always negative for current shareholders. Let’s just say they decide to do the reverse split at a dollar. They’ll reduce their outstanding shares by 75% and the stock would be at four dollars at that point, which would get them their AMEX listing (which is a good thing), and that’s why they want to do it. But, typically, what happens, after they do a reverse split, the stock gets hammered. The four dollar share price gets leveled and it usually retracts to a level that is very damaging to current shareholders. So this is why I’m saying take some profit as Capital Gold gets over 90 cents, hold the cash.

I think Capital Gold is worth holding in the portfolio, but wait ‘til after the reverse split and the detrimental effects that reverse splits typically have on share prices. Wait for the share price to retract, and then buy in again because I think Capital Gold will be a good company to hold. I just think you should take some profits at this point.

TGR: What about SilverCrest Mines Inc. (TSX.V:SVL)?

GM: Silvercrest is a great story. Their production scenario at Santa Elena in Mexico is a high-grade silver-gold kind of scenario. They just came out with their resource update. The resource is growing and the project should be in production by the end of 2009. Things are looking very good so I’m going to keep the company in my portfolio. This resource should grow with time. It’s got all the things that the market’s looking for—precious metals-oriented in Mexico, near-term production and the company should have cash flow.

TGR: Riverside Resources Inc. (TSX:RRI) just joined your top 10 list, right?

GM: Yes, they made their entry into the top 10 because they have shown me that they know how to manage the prospect generator model with success. The CEO, whom I like very much, really watches and guards the treasury and watches out for shareholders. He’s managing his properties very well, and I think he’s got not just one but possibly multiple discoveries. And this is what you want with a junior exploration stock. Some people say, “Greg, don’t you want to have people who have a production cash flow?” Yes. We’re going to have some of those in the portfolio, but the exploration companies—the good ones that can make the discoveries—is where you get the biggest leverage of all. And I think Riverside is in that category. So they are now number nine on our top 10. I like them very much and I think it’s a good play.

TGR: Can you talk about another from your top 10 list— Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (TSX:ANV) (ANV)?

GM: Allied Nevada is a good story because they’re getting the Hycroft mine back into production. It’s going very, very well. The stock price has rebounded very nicely, and I think it’s probably poised to make a new high. Now we saw some selling pressure, some people were taking profits in January and early February as the stock was recovering; but now I think that selling pressure is gone and the stock is back up over the $6 level again. With higher gold and silver prices, I think you’re going to see Allied make a new all-time high and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the stock at $7 or $8. So there could be a profit opportunity on that one coming up here.

TGR: Now Vista Gold Corp. (TSX:VGZ) (AMEX:VGZ) is not on your top 10 list, but you cover them, correct?

GM: Yes, I like Vista Gold. Allied Nevada and Vista used to be one company before they did the split. The better properties I thought went with Allied Nevada, but Vista Gold still has plenty of good situations. Their model of acquiring cheap gold ounces in the ground, increasing the value of them in a market where gold prices are going higher, is a very valid market. They have a good share structure, they have cash in the bank, and they’re a very well-managed company with top management talent. So, with higher gold prices, that model should do very, very well.

They’ve got multiple projects with big gold deposits in Australia at the Mt. Todd deposit, which is a 6 million ounce gold resource. They’ve got the Awak Mas property in Indonesia that is a very large holding of gold. And higher gold prices make these kinds of projects worth more and more. They’ve also got some great projects in Mexico next to Pediment’s project on the Baja. They have the Paredones Amarillos Project, which is kind of waiting on a permit situation that they thought was already done years ago that seems to have had a little glitch there, but that’ll get worked out. And they’ve got some other good projects in Idaho and one other one (I can’t think of it off the top of my head), but it’s a good scenario and that model should work well. If you believe in higher gold prices, Vista Gold should do very well.

TGR: Greg, this has been great. We appreciate your time.

Greg McCoach is an entrepreneur who has successfully started and run several businesses the past 22 years. For the last eight of these years he has been involved with the precious metals industry as a bullion dealer, investor, and newsletter writer (Mining Speculator). Greg is also the President of AmeriGold, a gold bullion dealer.

Greg’s years of business experience and extensive personal contacts in the mining industry provide unique insights that have generated an impressive track record for The Mining Speculator since its inception in 2001. He also writes a weekly column for Gold World.

Want to read more exclusive Gold Report interviews like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you’ll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Expert Insights page.

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! Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

A new site that is in pre-launch state that will become a virtual world – chat, shop, play, videos, etc. Anyways they are giving free shares (that should become actual company shares) to anyone who signs up and more shares if you refer people.

 

Follow Me on Twitter and be notified whenever I make a new post!

 

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Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

 

     

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A Challenge! What is Gold going To Do?

27 Friday Feb 2009

Posted by jschulmansr in 10 year Treasuries, 20 yr Treasuries, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, Barack Obama, Brad Zigler, bull market, capitalism, China, Comex, commodities, Contrarian, Copper, Credit Default, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, depression, DGP, DGZ, economic, Economic Recovery, economic trends, economy, Fed Fund Rate, Federal Deficit, federal reserve, Finance, financial, Forex, Fundamental Analysis, futures, futures markets, gata, GDX, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, gold miners, Gold Price Manipulation, hard assets, How To Invest, How To Make Money, hyper-inflation, IAU, IMF, India, inflation, Investing, investments, Junior Gold Miners, Latest News, majors, Make Money Investing, manipulation, Market Bubble, market crash, Markets, mid-tier, mining companies, mining stocks, monetization, oil, palladium, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, recession, risk, run on banks, silver, silver miners, Silver Price Manipulation, small caps, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, Stocks, TARP, Technical Analysis, The Fed, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Today, U.S., U.S. Dollar, warrants, XAU

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This morning  I posted a challenge to Brad Zigler of Hard Assets Investor, I asked him point blank, “Pontificating aside, where do you stand in relation to Gold? Both short term and long term? No charts or arguments just a simple statement I believe Gold will…”. This was in relation to the 1st article below and comments (included); our answers back and forth (highlighted).

Today Gold is trading currently up $4.40 at $947 (April Contract). It has been as high as $17 up and as low as $946 currently trading at the lower end. We have strong support at the $930 level and if we close above $950 today then I believe next week we’ll see a return to test the $1000 level again.

The 2nd article is from GATA and government intervention/supression of Gold prices. Read my comment after Brad’s article for my short to long term call for Gold. I am getting ready to re-enter my DGP trade again and will be watching the market closely. If we do break resistance here then I will actually go short (buy DGZ) on the Gold market for a very short term trade as I think (if the resistance is broken) then we will go back and test support at $925 and then $880-$890 level. If we close above the $955 level then I will go long for the test of the $1000 level then the next test at $1033 all time high.

Disclosure: I am long in a couple of Precious Metals Mutual Funds, long Gold and Silver Bullion, and many of the Tier 1, 2, and junior mining stocks. Otherwise,as you can see I use DGP or DGZ for the short term moves in gold. 

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Here is where I buy my Bullion, get one free gram of Gold just for opening an account! Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.comNow the article by Brad…

 

 

 

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Gold’s Devilish Advocate – Seeking Alpha

By: Brad Zigler of Hard Assets Investor.com

In certain circles I’m known as a curmudgeon. Yeah, that’s right. Crusty, irascible and cantankerous. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
The funny thing is that people on both sides of the hard assets spectrum share that point of view. To so-called gold bugs, my under-exuberance for wildly optimist gold forecasts is anathema. Monetarists, on the other hand, grouse about my metering of the dollar’s value against bullion.
No matter what side you line up on, you can’t have ignored the $300 rally in gold prices since late October. For the February COMEX contract, that amounts to a 46% increase; pretty much a replay of the run-up that ended last March. That should prompt you to wonder about the odds of gold topping out again.
No doubt, the answer to that depends upon your gold Weltanschauung. But let’s play devil’s advocate for the moment. What factors argue for a gold sell-off? Or, at least, for keeping a lid on the metal’s ascendance?
The Dollar/Gold Dyad
This year, the dollar’s provided as much refuge for worried investors as gold. Ordinarily, there’s an inverse relationship between gold and the dollar. In the current global disinflationary environment, though, the greenback is proving to be the best nonmetallic haven for global capital. Rising dollar interest rates will enhance the buck’s attractiveness. At least until a cyclical reflation of the currency. Yes, there will be a lot of dollars out there. But right now, there are a lot of representations of the dollar-bills, notes and bonds-awaiting redemption.
The dollar’s prior inflationary pace was braked well before the price of gold peaked last March. We’ve yet to see the leading edge of reflation.

U.S. Monetary Inflation And Gold

U.S. Monetary Inflation And Gold

Dollar interest rates bottomed just before the Obama inauguration and have steadily gained ground since then. Rising rates are like lipstick: A judicious dose can enhance the beauty of a currency; too much, and it looks tawdry. There’s nothing tawdry, though, about the 18-point rise in the dollar LIBOR over the last month. It’s sustainable and makes the buck even more attractive.

Dollar Interest And Gold Lease Rates

Dollar Interest And Gold Lease Rates

Gold Liquidity

The gold lease market belies the shortage scenario played up by many market pundits. Gold lease rates have been falling precipitously as the contango reflected in forward rates has been rising. Contango exists when supplies are plentiful. The current oil market provides testimony of that. The gold market – at least the commercial gold market – gives every indication of being well-supplied.

Overbought Market

Relative strength in gold futures crossed into overbought territory when the spot contract topped $1,000 last week. The peak, if not exceeded, would represent an interim double top and confirmation that the March 2008 high is likely to hold.

COMEX Futures Open Interest

COMEX Futures Open Interest

Speculative Aggressiveness

Commercial hedgers are still driving gold futures pricing. Aggressiveness on the part of large speculative buyers has actually waned as prices moved higher. Over the past month, net long speculative positions rose 34% while commercial net shorts picked up 40%.

Essential Question

Think back to the events surrounding gold’s March 2008 peak and ask yourself this: “Have economic conditions improved or worsened since then?” I think it’s fair to say our financial troubles have deepened. If that’s true, and if gold is a safe haven, why hasn’t the metal made new highs?

This is by no means an exhaustive analysis, but it does raise essential questions that gold bulls should be prepared to address when making their case for higher prices.

Don’t expect to hear the answers in the late-night infomercials hawking gold, though.

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Comments:

 

 JudeJin

 

 

 

    • Comments
    • one cannot decipher a puzzle without having all the pieces.i think you lack a lot of other data to put together a whole picture of where gold stands.there are quite a few people in the world who have collected the all pieces of the puzzle and deciphered the truth behind gold! you are obviously not one of them.i think either you purposely hand-pick the set of charts with very limited time frame to drive your point home or ……    

       

       

    Feb 27 06:10 AM
     
    • Brad Zigler
    • 60 Comments
    • Website
    Look at the article’s premise: to play devil’s advocate against a widely held bullish sentiment.
    Feb 27 07:13 AM |Report abuse| Link | Reply
    +30

    You’re offering a complaint, not a refutation. What, specifically, is wrong with the arguments advanced?

    On Feb 27 06:10 AM JudeJin wrote:

    > one cannot decipher a puzzle without having all the pieces.
    >
    > i think you lack a lot of other data to put together a whole picture
    > of where gold stands.
    >
    > there are quite a few people in the world who have collected the
    > all pieces of the puzzle and deciphered the truth behind gold! you
    > are obviously not one of them.
    >
    > i think either you purposely hand-pick the set of charts with very
    > limited time frame to drive your point home or ……

  •  
    • doubleguns
    • 123 Comments
    JudeJin—– I would be interested (very interested) to hear all of the pieces if you would please. If you are one of those people please enlighten us.
  •  
    • huangjin
    • 310 Comments
    I would add the deflation/economic contraction argument. People have less money to spend and they will spend less on everything, including gold.
  •  
    • manya05
    • 11 Comments
    I do not have all the pieces of the puzzle, and I am no expert either, but a few things catch my eye and beg an explanation (or maybe they are the explanation). I see all fiat currencies devaluing, all at the same time more or less, and all for different reasons. For instance, the dollar and euro are devaluing as governments print money like there is no tomorrow, while the yuan and yen devalue to keep the economies from drowning as exports shut down. So everyone is sinking to the bottom. You would expect in that scenario that “something” would retain value. I see why gold bugs may think it is gold (finite amount in existence, finite production, and no use whatsoever other than financial instrument). And that is the clincher, why would something with no other use keep value? how about things that are useful and very much needed? shouldn’t those be appreciating? water, food, energy…why are they not? Sometimes I feel we are all watching the wrong movie and trying to interpret what is happening through the wrong lens…I think this is a systemic readjustment as the value/remuneration among nations in a globalized economy takes its course…but that is the subject for another post…..
  •  
    • craigdude
    • 6 Comments
    Brad- your article really opens my eyes- but I am not clear on a few things and I hope you will school me- you say at the Gold top a few days ago that there were signs the price would drop after the high- you said gold futures were in overbought territory- how did u know this and how do people know to sell at this high? I certainly want to learn how to sell my gold before it turns down? What do you mean the peak if not exceeded- double top etc? does it mean that gold will hold at this high? Please explain how a person can know gold will drop after reaching the $1000 price. Also I have noticed that gold has not dropped enough for me to buy back in if I sell at today’s price- I have to sell at $950 to be at least even and then I have to believe gold will go higher in order for me to buy back in. Where do you think gold will go in the next 6 months as Obama’s money plan reveals itself to be a failure-? If Jim Rogers thinks gold will continue higher because of fundamentals- what do you think of the fundamentals in a 1 or 2 year time frame?
  •  
    • craigdude
    • 6 Comments
    Brad- could gold be controlled by governments leasing gold and selling to keep lid on prices?–please explain double top and overbought
  •  
    • scotty1560
    • 155 Comments
    Brad.. listen gold has held up better than any commodity like oil or
    and any equity or real estate investment.

    It could drop.. I’m not that smart to predict.
    IMO the drop is after the economy recovers and that could take years at
    this point. It’s a safe haven and a trade against the dow.. I see the dow
    much lower.. so gold should at minimum hold it’s ground and perhaps
    rise towards 1500-2000, based on historical trends.
    In troubled times we humans tend to get religion and go back to
    ancient methods of survival.. gold fits that scenario.

    • Alex Filonov
    • 397 Comments
    • Website
    Couple more data points:

    1. NYMEX open interest for April exceeds open interest for all other months. ETF effect?

    2. India is not importing gold anymore. Regular buyer of 30% physical gold is out of the market.

  •  
    • jschulmansr
    • 7 Comments
    • Website
    Brad; Pontificating aside, where do you stand in relation to Gold? Both short term and long term? No charts or arguments just a simple statement I believe Gold will…

    Thanks!

    Jeff Schulman Sr aka jschulmansr

  •  
    • Brad Zigler
    • 60 Comments
    • Website
    No one, of course, “knows” gold will drop or rise from any particular price level. T

    here are, however, technical indicators such as the Relative Strength Index and stochastics which identify certain market levels as overbought or oversold.

    A double top is a price level reached a couple of times by a market as it attempts to rally higher but can’t be hurdled. The failure sets up a decline.

    About gold leases. Often, nefarious intente is ascribed to central bank swap activity. But leasing can be simply a way to garner a return on an otherwise sterile asset as well as a way to stimulate lending and investment activity.

    Outright borrows of bullion by bank customers tend to increase when bearish sentiments prevail. In essence, the borrower doesn’t want to face the prospect of buying back gold at a higher price to close out the loan.

    With that in mind, the market may already favor shorts BEFORE leasing.

    On Feb 27 09:25 AM craigdude wrote:

    > Brad- could gold be controlled by governments leasing gold and selling
    > to keep lid on prices?–please explain double top and overbought

  •  
    • jschulmansr
    • 7 Comments
    • Website
    Brad;
    Ps- I guess I should have added I think your articles are very well written and thought provoking. I make mention of and use your stuff on my blog quite often, but recently I have not heard your outlook for Gold. I do agree we are at a crossroads here, we may see more retracement. I think we are about to see Gold go and test it’s all time highs. Failure there I think will mean a retracement potentially as low to $880 to $890. If we clear due to manipulaton and where the short interest got in at there will be sttrong pressure to bring down prices at the $1050 level. If that hurdle is cleared I think that the banks who are short will give up and cause a very violent spike upwards “shortcovering rally”. After all they can afford to give in now as they figure they can get their money back thru Government stimulus, TARP, and bailout funds. Long term however, I do feel with inflation runnng a tad higher than what you are currently stating,and the fact that the monetary printing presses are running full steam round the clock; that longer term we will see inflation even hypr and/or stagfaltion. In other words get your wheelbarrow to haul your money around to go shopping for a “loaf” of bread. I truly think that prices of $2000 to $3500 oz are not unrealistic given the aforementioned scenario. What is your opinion in regards to this? Maybe even a special article?- Thanks Again- Jeff Schulman Sr aka jschulmansr
    Feb 27 11:29 AM |Report abuse| Link | Reply
    +10
  •  
    • Brad Zigler
    • 60 Comments
    • Website
    Don’t read too much into the large open interest in April futures. There are certain delivery months for gold that are traditionally more active than others. April is one of them (February, June, August, October and December are the others).
    Feb 27 11:31 AM |Report abuse| Link | Reply
    +10

    As February’s expiry approached, open interest rolled to the next active month in the cycle–April. Yes, some of that is ETF interest (namely, DBG, the PowerShares DB Gold ETF). It doesn’t, however, include the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) or the iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU). These trusts hold physical metal, not futures.

    On Feb 27 10:31 AM Alex Filonov wrote:

    > Couple more data points:
    >
    > 1. NYMEX open interest for April exceeds open interest for all other
    > months. ETF effect?
    >
    > 2. India is not importing gold anymore. Regular buyer of 30% physical
    > gold is out of the market.

  •  
    • TexasER
    • 21 Comments
    Speculating on the price of gold has always been risky, never more so than now. If you’re in this trade to turn a quick profit, you have more guts or brains than me.
    Feb 27 11:48 AM |Report abuse| Link | Reply
    +10

    But as “melt-down” insurance, gold has performed exactly as advertised. I see no indication that it will somehow stop acting this way. If the markets fall off another cliff, obviously gold will do well.

    Diversification has always been a prudent strategy. That hasn’t changed, but gold’s importance to a diversified portfolio has changed. Some investors have recognized this out of prudence, not panic, and acted accordingly.

    I’m long, but if gold goes to $500 from here, you won’t hear me whining about it.

  •  
    • jschulmansr
    • 7 Comments
    • Website
    Brad; Thanks for your answer, I am sure you are aware of GATA, that is really were one of my main concern lies. The continued manipulation of prices by both governmental and banks. It will be very interesting to see what the CFTC and Comex are going to do with their investigations in both the Silver and Gold markets. Also long term I think we have a couple of big plays coming up with Silver and Oil. That’s what I love about the markets, sheer boredom puncuated by moments of either sheer elation or sheer terror! Thanks again! – Jeff Schulman Sr aka jschulmansr
    Feb 27 12:03 PM |Report abuse| Link | Reply
    +10
  • ========================================
    Now to “Market Price Manipulation…
    Ex-Treasury official Confirms Gold Suppression Scheme – Gata
    Source: Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (Gata)
    Home » Daily Dispatches

    Ex-Treasury official confirms gold

    suppression scheme

    Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2009-02-24 22:13. Section: Daily Dispatches

    5p ET Tuesday, February 24, 2009

    Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

    In an essay published today at Counterpunch.org, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts confirms that the U.S. government has been leasing gold to suppress its price and support the dollar. The admission is made in the last paragraph of the essay, which is appended.

    CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
    Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

    * * *

    Doomed by the Myths of Free Trade: How the Economy Was Lost

    By Paul Craig Roberts
    Tuesday, February 24, 2009

    http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02242009.html

    The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried 6 feet under.

    America’s 20th century economic success was based on two things. Free trade was not one of them. America’s economic success was based on protectionism, which was ensured by the union victory in the Civil War, and on British indebtedness, which destroyed the British pound as world reserve currency. Following World War II, the US dollar took the role as reserve currency, a privilege that allows the US to pay its international bills in its own currency.

    World War II and socialism together ensured that the US economy dominated the world at the mid-20th century. The economies of the rest of the world had been destroyed by war or were stifled by socialism [in terms of the priorities of the capitalist growth model: Editors.]

    The ascendant position of the US economy caused the US government to be relaxed about giving away American industries, such as textiles, as bribes to other countries for cooperating with America’s cold war and foreign policies. For example, Turkey’s US textile quotas were increased in exchange for overflight rights in the Gulf War, making lost US textile jobs an off-budget war expense.

    In contrast, countries such as Japan and Germany used industrial policy to plot their comebacks. By the late 1970s, Japanese auto makers had the once dominant American auto industry on the ropes. The first economic act of the “free market” Reagan administration in 1981 was to put quotas on the import of Japanese cars in order to protect Detroit and the United Auto Workers.

    Eamonn Fingleton, Pat Choate, and others have described how negligence in Washington aided and abetted the erosion of America’s economic position. What we didn’t give away, the United States let be taken away while preaching a “free trade” doctrine at which the rest of the world scoffed.

    Fortunately, the U.S.’s adversaries at the time, the Soviet Union and China, had unworkable economic systems that posed no threat to America’s diminishing economic prowess.

    This furlough from reality ended when Soviet, Chinese, and Indian socialism surrendered around 1990, to be followed shortly thereafter by the rise of the high speed Internet. Suddenly American and other First World corporations discovered that a massive supply of foreign labor was available at practically free wages.

    To get Wall Street analysts and shareholder advocacy groups off their backs, and to boost shareholder returns and management bonuses, American corporations began moving their production for American markets offshore. Products that were made in Peoria are now made in China.

    As offshoring spread, American cities and states lost tax base, and families and communities lost jobs. The replacement jobs, such as selling the offshored products at Wal-Mart, brought home less pay.

    “Free market economists” covered up the damage done to the US economy by preaching a New Economy based on services and innovation. But it wasn’t long before corporations discovered that the high speed Internet let them offshore a wide range of professional service jobs. In America, the hardest hit have been software engineers and information technology (IT) workers.

    The American corporations quickly learned that by declaring “shortages” of skilled Americans, they could get from Congress H-1b work visas for lower paid foreigners with whom to replace their American work force. Many US corporations are known for forcing their US employees to train their foreign replacements in exchange for severance pay.

    Chasing after shareholder return and “performance bonuses,” US corporations deserted their American workforce. The consequences can be seen everywhere. The loss of tax base has threatened the municipal bonds of cities and states and reduced the wealth of individuals who purchased the bonds. The lost jobs with good pay resulted in the expansion of consumer debt in order to maintain consumption. As the offshored goods and services are brought back to America to sell, the US trade deficit has exploded to unimaginable heights, calling into question the US dollar as reserve currency and America’s ability to finance its trade deficit.

    As the American economy eroded away bit by bit, “free market” ideologues produced endless reassurances that America had pulled a fast one on China, sending China dirty and grimy manufacturing jobs. Free of these “old economy” jobs, Americans were lulled with promises of riches. In place of dirty fingernails, American efforts would flow into innovation and entrepreneurship. In the meantime, the “service economy” of software and communications would provide a leg up for the work force.

    Education was the answer to all challenges. This appeased the academics, and they produced no studies that would contradict the propaganda and, thus, curtail the flow of federal government and corporate grants.

    The “free market” economists, who provided the propaganda and disinformation to hide the act of destroying the US economy, were well paid. And as Business Week noted, “outsourcing’s inner circle has deep roots in GE (General Electric) and McKinsey,” a consulting firm. Indeed, one of McKinsey’s main apologists for offshoring of US jobs, Diana Farrell, is now a member of Obama’s White House National Economic Council.

    The pressure of jobs offshoring, together with vast imports, has destroyed the economic prospects for all Americans, except the CEOs who receive “performance” bonuses for moving American jobs offshore or giving them to H-1b work visa holders. Lowly paid offshored employees, together with H-1b visas, have curtailed employment for older and more experienced American workers. Older workers traditionally receive higher pay. However, when the determining factor is minimizing labor costs for the sake of shareholder returns and management bonuses, older workers are unaffordable. Doing a good job, providing a good service, is no longer the corporation’s function. Instead, the goal is to minimize labor costs at all cost.

    Thus “free trade” has also destroyed the employment prospects of older workers. Forced out of their careers, they seek employment as shelf stockers for Wal-Mart.

    I have read endless tributes to Wal-Mart from “libertarian economists,” who sing Wal-Mart’s praises for bringing low price goods, 70 per cent of which are made in China, to the American consumer. What these “economists” do not factor into their analysis is the diminution of American family incomes and government tax base from the loss of the goods producing jobs to China. Ladders of upward mobility are being dismantled by offshoring, while California issues IOUs to pay its bills. The shift of production offshore reduces US GDP. When the goods and services are brought back to America to be sold, they increase the trade deficit. As the trade deficit is financed by foreigners acquiring ownership of US assets, this means that profits, dividends, capital gains, interest, rents, and tolls leave American pockets for foreign ones.

    The demise of America’s productive economy left the US economy dependent on finance, in which the US remained dominant because the dollar is the reserve currency. With the departure of factories, finance went in new directions. Mortgages, which were once held in the portfolios of the issuer, were securitized. Individual mortgage debts were combined into a “security.” The next step was to strip out the interest payments to the mortgages and sell them as derivatives, thus creating a third debt instrument based on the original mortgages.

    In pursuit of ever more profits, financial institutions began betting on the success and failure of various debt instruments and by implication on firms. They bought and sold collateral debt swaps. A buyer pays a premium to a seller for a swap to guarantee an asset’s value. If an asset “insured” by a swap falls in value, the seller of the swap is supposed to make the owner of the swap whole. The purchaser of a swap is not required to own the asset in order to contract for a guarantee of its value. Therefore, as many people could purchase as many swaps as they wished on the same asset. Thus, the total value of the swaps greatly exceeds the value of the assets.* [See footnote.)

    The next step is for holders of the swaps to short the asset in order to drive down its value and collect the guarantee. As the issuers of swaps were not required to reserve against them, and as there is no limit to the number of swaps, the payouts could easily exceed the net worth of the issuer.

    This was the most shameful and most mindless form of speculation. Gamblers were betting hands that they could not cover. The US regulators fled their posts. The American financial institutions abandoned all integrity. As a consequence, American financial institutions and rating agencies are trusted nowhere on earth.

    The US government should never have used billions of taxpayers’ dollars to pay off swap bets as it did when it bailed out the insurance company AIG. This was a stunning waste of a vast sum of money. The federal government should declare all swap agreements to be fraudulent contracts, except for a single swap held by the owner of the asset. Simply wiping out these fraudulent contracts would remove the bulk of the vast overhang of “troubled” assets that threaten financial markets.

    The billions of taxpayers’ dollars spent buying up subprime derivatives were also wasted. The government did not need to spend one dime. All government needed to do was to suspend the mark-to-market rule. This simple act would have removed the solvency threat to financial institutions by allowing them to keep the derivatives at book value until financial institutions could ascertain their true values and write them down over time.

    Taxpayers, equity owners, and the credit standing of the US government are being ruined by financial shysters who are manipulating to their own advantage the government’s commitment to mark-to-market and to the “sanctity of contracts.” Multi-trillion dollar “bailouts” and bank nationalization are the result of the government’s inability to respond intelligently.

    Two more simple acts would have completed the rescue without costing the taxpayers one dollar: an announcement from the Federal Reserve that it will be lender of last resort to all depository institutions including money market funds, and an announcement reinstating the uptick rule.

    The uptick rule was suspended or repealed a couple of years ago in order to permit hedge funds and shyster speculators to ripoff American equity owners. The rule prevented short-selling any stock that did not move up in price during the previous day. In other words, speculators could not make money at others’ expense by ganging up on a stock and short-selling it day after day.

    As a former Treasury official, I am amazed that the US government, in the midst of the worst financial crises ever, is content for short-selling to drive down the asset prices that the government is trying to support. No bailout or stimulus plan has any hope until the uptick rule is reinstated.

    The bald fact is that the combination of ignorance, negligence, and ideology that permitted the crisis to happen still prevails and is blocking any remedy. Either the people in power in Washington and the financial community are total dimwits or they are manipulating an opportunity to redistribute wealth from taxpayers, equity owners and pension funds to the financial sector.

    The Bush and Obama plans total 1.6 trillion dollars, every one of which will have to be borrowed, and no one knows from where. This huge sum will compromise the value of the US dollar, its role as reserve currency, the ability of the US government to service its debt, and the price level. These staggering costs are pointless and are to no avail, as not one step has been taken that would alleviate the crisis.

    If we add to my simple menu of remedies a ban, punishable by instant death, for short selling any national currency, the world can be rescued from the current crisis without years of suffering, violent upheavals and, perhaps, wars.

    According to its hopeful but economically ignorant proponents, globalism was supposed to balance risks across national economies and to offset downturns in one part of the world with upturns in other parts. A global portfolio was a protection against loss, claimed globalism’s purveyors. In fact, globalism has concentrated the risks, resulting in Wall Street’s greed endangering all the economies of the world. The greed of Wall Street and the negligence of the US government have wrecked the prospects of many nations. Street riots are already occurring in parts of the world. On Sunday February 22, the right-wing TV station, Fox “News,” presented a program that predicted riots and disarray in the United States by 2014.

    How long will Americans permit “their” government to rip them off for the sake of the financial interests that caused the problem? Obama’s cabinet and National Economic Council are filled with representatives of the interest groups that caused the problem. The Obama administration is not a government capable of preventing a catastrophe.

    If truth be known, the “banking problem” is the least of our worries. Our economy faces two much more serious problems. One is that offshoring and H-1b visas have stopped the growth of family incomes, except, of course, for the super rich. To keep the economy going, consumers have gone deeper into debt, maxing out their credit cards and refinancing their homes and spending the equity. Consumers are now so indebted that they cannot increase their spending by taking on more debt. Thus, whether or not the banks resume lending is beside the point.

    The other serious problem is the status of the US dollar as reserve currency. This status has allowed the US, now a country heavily dependent on imports just like a third world or lesser-developed country, to pay its international bills in its own currency. We are able to import $800 billion annually more than we produce, because the foreign countries from whom we import are willing to accept paper for their goods and services.

    If the dollar loses its reserve currency role, foreigners will not accept dollars in exchange for real things. This event would be immensely disruptive to an economy dependent on imports for its energy, its clothes, its shoes, its manufactured products, and its advanced technology products.

    If incompetence in Washington, the type of incompetence that produced the current economic crisis, destroys the dollar as reserve currency, the “unipower” will overnight become a third world country, unable to pay for its imports or to sustain its standard of living.

    How long can the US government protect the dollar’s value by leasing its gold to bullion dealers who sell it, thereby holding down the gold price? Given the incompetence in Washington and on Wall Street, our best hope is that the rest of the world is even less competent and even in deeper trouble. In this event, the US dollar might survive as the least valueless of the world’s fiat currencies.

    *(An excellent explanation of swaps can be found here.)

    —–

    Paul Craig Roberts was assistant secretary of the treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of “The Tyranny of Good Intentions.” He can be reached at PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com.

    * * *

    Help keep GATA going

    GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at http://www.gata.org/.

    ====================================

    Have a Great Weekend! Keep your eyes open for a special weekend post. Good Investing! jschulmansr

    Follow Me on Twitter and be notified whenever I make a new post!

    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    ========================================

    Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    The Noose Tightens

    26 Thursday Feb 2009

    Posted by jschulmansr in 10 year Treasuries, 20 yr Treasuries, Austrian school, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, bull market, Comex, commodities, Copper, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, depression, DGP, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Fundamental Analysis, futures markets, GDX, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, gold miners, Gold Price Manipulation, How To Invest, How To Make Money, hyper-inflation, IAU, inflation, Investing, investments, Jschulmansr, Junior Gold Miners, Latest News, Make Money Investing, manipulation, Market Bubble, market crash, Markets, mid-tier, mining companies, mining stocks, palladium, Peter Grandich, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, silver, silver miners, Silver Price Manipulation, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, Stocks, Technical Analysis, The Fed, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, TIPS, U.S. Dollar, Uncategorized, XAU

    ≈ 2 Comments

    Tags

    ANV, Austrian school, AUY, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, Bollinger Bands Saudi Arabia, Brian Tang, bull market, CDE, central banks, China, Comex, commodities, Copper, Currencies, currency, deflation, Dennis Gartman, depression, DGP, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Doug Casey, economic, economic trends, economy, EGO, Federal Deficit, financial, Forex, FRG, futures, futures markets, gata, GDX, GG, GLD, gold, gold miners, hard assets, HL, hyper-inflation, IAU, India, inflation, investments, Jeffrey Nichols, Jim Rogers, Keith Fitz-Gerald, majors, Marc Faber, market crash, Markets, Michael Zielinski, mid-tier, mining companies, monetization, Moving Averages, NGC, NXG, PAL, palladium, Peter Grandich, Peter Schiff, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, protection, recession, risk, run on banks, safety, Sean Rakhimov, silver, silver miners, SLW, small caps, sovereign, spot, spot price, stagflation, Technical Analysis, TIPS, U.S., U.S. Dollar, volatility, warrants, XAU

    As I write Gold down $3.00 to $366 oz (April Contract). Things are getting very interesting, Japan’s exports drop a new record level. The Wall Street Journal has a quick article about investors wanting Gold in Hand (taking Delivery). As I wrote a few days ago the fastest way to create a short squeeze is to take delivery. Especially on Comex in both Gold and Silver. Is the noose getting tighter? Gold is in a consolidation pattern getting ready to take off? Some say yes other’s in fact a majority are saying no it’s time for a correction. As I mentioned yesterday when most of the crowd is saying one thing the market usually does exactly the opposite. We will see as I am keeping a very careful eye on the Gold market and will let you know via this blog and Twitter when I am getting out of the Long DGP trade. Finally! Cramer has finally decided to give Gold some coverage after a $200 rally, quick excerp below. Let the fun begin! Good Investing! – jschulmansr

    Follow Me on Twitter and be notified whenever I make a new post!

    Here is where I buy my Bullion, get one free gram of Gold just for opening an account! Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    ================================

    Cramer’s Mad Money- The EGO Has Landed (2/25/09) – Seeking Alpha

     

    Source: SA Editor
    Miriam Metzinger

    Good As Gold: Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), Eldorado (EGO), SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), Yamana (AUY), Goldcorp (GG), Newmont (NEM)

    In spite of gold’s dip from $1,000 to $950, Cramer thinks the uncertainty in the U.S. and in Europe will be good news for the traditional hedge. The question is how to invest in gold. One way is to buy bullion or gold coins, but Cramer prefers stocks. SPDR Gold Shares is a good way to track the price of gold. Cramer would buy a fourth of a position at $90, another at $88, then $85 and $82. He reminded viewers that gold stocks have unique metrics; production growth, sensitivity of earnings to changes in gold prices and price-to-net-asset value. Two gold stocks worth looking at are Agnico Eagle Mines and Eldorado. Agnico has an impressive 344% growth rate, with Yamana at 56% and Eldorado at 27%. Eldorado keeps production costs very low at $286 per ounce: Goldcorp’s expenses are $397, Yamana $411 and Agnico is $483. Even though Agnico’s production costs are at the top, Cramer says they are going down. However, EGO is less sensitive than gold prices than AEM. According to the price-to-net-asset value, AEM is the most expensive, with EGO and Newmont behind. In short, Agnico has an impressive growth rate, but Eldorado might be a better value.

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    Worried Investors Want Gold on Hand – Wall Street Journal

    Source: WSJ Online

     

    Some investors are so worried about the prospect of economic collapse that they are buying gold and having it delivered to them, rather than holding the precious metal in the form of futures contracts or other securities.

    The global recession and worries about the stability of the financial system have sent the price of gold to $1,000 an ounce. But more surprising is that buyers are taking the unusual and expensive step of taking possession of it.

    “We’re having some of our strongest months ever,” said Scott Thomas, president and chief executive of American Precious Metals Exchange, a precious-metals dealer …

    =====================================
    Oil, Dollar and Gold – Peter Grandich’s Blog
    Source:  Peter Grandich’s Blog

    One’s bottoming, one’s topping and one’s consolidating. Can you guess which is which?

    Give yourself a cigar if you said oil, U.S. Dollar and gold.

    The 50-Day Moving Average is just pennies away ($42.50). A close above it could bring in some technical buying. Some early signs of peak supply is showing up and with more people believing OPEC is living up to its quota’s, the mid $30’s look more and more like the bottom.

    We’re at one of the more critical technical points in quite some time. We either have a triple top just above 88 or a major breakout above 90. Because I’m so bearish long-term, I’m currently positioned on the short side. A break above 90 will cause me to rethink my position. Stay tuned.

    The magical $1,000 level has for now proven to be just a news story. I, myself, received several requests for interviews and comments last Friday on $1,000 gold from media people who don’t normally cover gold. This suggested to me that we got a little ahead of ourselves. The $925-$950 area should be the limit to this consolidation. Don’t be surprised if we shoot above $1,000 in the coming days.

    ================================

    Late Flash: They’re trying to manipulate the Gold market again or else the traders are trying the push. I have been stopped out of DGP @ $958. Nice trade. I will now be looking at my next entry point to jump back in again. Gold currently $943.60 (April Contract). I think the lowest April will correct to will be $925 oz (April Contract) and then we are back to challenging $1000 and the all time highs again. Remember 3’s a charm! Good Investing! – jschulmansr

    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

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    ====================================

    Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

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    Is the Glitter Fading?

    25 Wednesday Feb 2009

    Posted by jschulmansr in Austrian school, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, bull market, capitalism, China, Comex, commodities, Contrarian, Copper, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, deflation, depression, DGP, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Doug Casey, economic, Economic Recovery, economic trends, economy, Fed Fund Rate, Federal Deficit, federal reserve, Finance, financial, Forex, futures, futures markets, GDX, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, gold miners, Gold Price Manipulation, hard assets, How To Invest, How To Make Money, hyper-inflation, IAU, India, inflation, Investing, investments, Jschulmansr, Junior Gold Miners, Latest News, majors, Make Money Investing, Market Bubble, market crash, Markets, mid-tier, mining companies, mining stocks, monetization, oil, palladium, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, run on banks, safety, silver, silver miners, Silver Price Manipulation, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, Stocks, TARP, Technical Analysis, The Fed, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Today, U.S., u.s. constitution, U.S. Dollar, volatility, warrants, XAU

    ≈ 1 Comment

    Tags

    ANV, Austrian school, AUY, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, Bollinger Bands Saudi Arabia, Brian Tang, bull market, CDE, central banks, China, Comex, commodities, Copper, Currencies, currency, deflation, Dennis Gartman, depression, DGP, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Doug Casey, economic, economic trends, economy, EGO, Federal Deficit, financial, Forex, FRG, futures, futures markets, gata, GDX, GG, GLD, gold, gold miners, hard assets, HL, hyper-inflation, IAU, India, inflation, investments, Jeffrey Nichols, Jim Rogers, Keith Fitz-Gerald, majors, Marc Faber, market crash, Markets, Michael Zielinski, mid-tier, mining companies, monetization, Moving Averages, NGC, NXG, PAL, palladium, Peter Grandich, Peter Schiff, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, protection, recession, risk, run on banks, safety, Sean Rakhimov, silver, silver miners, SLW, small caps, sovereign, spot, spot price, stagflation, Technical Analysis, TIPS, U.S., U.S. Dollar, volatility, warrants, XAU

         As I write Gold is down $3.00 at $966 (nearest futures month). It is still holding around the $960 to $965 support levels. However, I want to assert this, Gold is in a long term upward trend. The only thing that would change my thinking would be a close under the $880 which represents the bottom level of the long term uprward channel. We may however in the short term see a correction downward to even as low as $900 to $910. I will be watching very closely as this may be a “bear trap” in an upward market. One thing however I am somewhat of a contrarian. Last week almost every analyst under the sun was touting Gold as the ONLY investment. When I see that I get very nervous and know that a correction is about to happen.  For those who remember the day silver hit $50 oz., Walter Cronkite announced on his evening new that “It’s time for everyone to go out and buy some silver”! The very next day the silver market tanked like a lead balloon. So a little downside action here will be a good thing to shake out the “nervous nellies” and “johnny come lately’s” out of the market. Because I have seen it time and time again as soon as that happens “Kaboom” the market takes of and does not look back. I will be watching very carefully here and will let you (those who have subscribed to this blog and are following me on twitter), when I get out of the DGP trade. I got in at $890 oz and think a little patience here will pay off.  Given the current state of things Gold could still easily hit $1050 this week as well as have a price correction. Be sure to subscibe in the top right corner and/or follow me on twitter to be kept up to date…

         The best investment in my opinion right now is to continue accumulating the Junior and Mid-tier Gold and Precious Metals mining companies. Once again there are many still selling at or near book value levels. Remember to choose companies who currently have production or are about to start producing. One exception might be those companies who have made some big strikes,  are sitting on huge “proven” reserves, and have plenty of cash and financing to bring those reserves into production in the future. Another play is to investigate “Warrants” which give you the right to buy a stock at a given price for a certain timeframe. There are many out there which could give your portfolio a couple of “home runs” gains of 2-3000%. Either way do your own good due diligence, check the companies out, their balance sheets, prospectus/s  and consult your own financial advisors before making any trades.- Good Investing! -jschulmansr

    ==========================

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    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    =============================

    Panic=Gold – Seeking Alpha

    Source: Hard Assets Investors

    It’s axiomatic that gold has a role as safe haven for many investors. That this is largely a matter of collective psychology is irrelevant – it has worked for centuries, and it’s unlikely to stop working tomorrow.

     But lately, gold been more than a mere market hedge; it’s been a panic hedge.

    Current Gold

    Gold briefly nudged over the $1,000 mark to $1006.43 on Friday, February 20, before settling back down to close at $993.25. It was the first time since last March that gold crossed the insignificant but satisfyingly round $1k level. Technical geeks would point out that it’s still below the high of $1012.55 hit March 18th, but that’s splitting hairs.

    Of course, gold didn’t stay above $1,000/ounce for long last March; it quickly reversed course and traded down all year, before bottoming at $712.41 on November 20th. Since then, gold has risen 39.4%; it was up 13.4% in January alone.

    The last time I wrote about gold (Demanding Gold) was just before that November bottom. Back then I discussed the underlying demand for gold – because one of the great things about commodities is that ultimately, they’re always about supply and demand. And with the gold-bug’s most important supply and demand report out for 2008, it’s the perfect time to revisit the subject. (The full link to the World Gold Council’s Supply and Demand Statistics for Q4 and Full Year 2008 report is here.)

    Looking At Demand

    Gold demand can be broken into three main areas of interest – jewellery, which accounted for roughly 58% of identifiable demand in 2008, industrial and dentistry demand, and finally identifiable investment demand.

    On the whole, gold saw demand grow 4% from 2007 to 2008, but the picture is a bit more complex than just that.

    Not everything was rosy for gold in 2008. As we predicted, jewellery demand was down significantly. In 2007 around 68% of gold demand was attributed to jewellery consumption. In 2008, that number dropped to 58%.

    At the end of December, The World Gold Council released a report entitled “What Women Want: Global Discretionary Spending Report 2008“. In it, the WGC details the values and significance different countries attribute to gold jewellery and why people buy it. One new thing the study uncovered is that gold jewellery is now competing with items such as cell phones and other everyday items for discretionary spending.

    The report also states that “confidence that gold will hold its value has waned,” reflecting in part the volatility gold prices have experienced in the past year. With gold rising and falling by 30% in a single year, it’s no wonder people are feeling less comfortable with it as a store of value.

    Demand on the jewelry front appears to be price elastic. In India, the largest consumer of gold jewellery, demand in the fourth quarter more than doubled compared to Q4 of 2007. While this would seem to buck the year-long numbers, it’s likely due to the fact that lower gold prices occurred precisely at the time of the Diwali festival – a peak gold-buying time in India. In 2007, gold prices were high during the festival, which depressed demand. For the full year of 2008, jewellery demand in India dropped 15%.

    China was one of the only countries that posted an increase in demand for jewellery, up 8% from 2007. Much of this demand was for 24-karat jewelry, which commonly implies jewellery purchases that are doubling as investments.

    The Big Stick: Gold Bugs

    According to the World Gold Council report, gold demand for investment rose from 663.7 tonnes in 2007 to 1090.7 tonnes in 2008 – a somewhat staggering year-on-year increase of 64.3%. Retail investment – things like bar hoarding, official coins, medals/imitation coins and other kinds of retail investment – almost doubled, going from 410.3 tonnes in 2007 to 769.3 tonnes in 2008. That gives some credence to the wide scale anecdotal evidence throughout the year that gold coins were virtually impossible to obtain in many countries.

    Exchange-traded funds and similar products also showed a large increase, from 253.3 tonnes to 321.4 tonnes (a 26.9% increase). This trend has continued into 2009. The SPDR Gold ETF (NYSE: GLD) – the largest physical gold trust – now has 1,028.98 tonnes in its vaults. This is a trust that started 2009 with 780.23 tonnes, meaning its gold horde has risen 31.9% in less than two months. To put that in perspective, 249 tonnes is over 10% of the total amount of gold mined in all of 2008. This acceleration happened almost entirely in a dramatic surge mid-February.

    Net-net, however, if you offset the huge rush in gold investments with the significant drop in jewelry demand, the net gain in tonnage terms was just 4%.

    There is, however, another way to look at things. When viewed through the (occasionally depressing) lens of the dollar, gold demand seems endless:

    Gold Supply in Flux

    With the demand part of the picture in hand, it’s time to turn to supply. The third quarter of 2008 saw a huge supply deficit with demand far outreaching supply. In the fourth quarter, supply rose 19%, almost entirely due to an increase in gold scrap. Yes, that’s right: Those late night commercials offering to buy your old tangled gold necklaces were on to something, and people were selling.

    Scrap sales for 2008 ended up 17% higher than 2007, and that along with slightly higher total mine supply just about offset lower central banks sales so that in the end, 2008 ended the year with only 1% less total supply than 2007 – practically even.

    The moral of the story is simple: supply and demand remain incontrovertible laws. The unbelievable demand vs. the stagnant (mine) and dwindling (central bank) supply created a vacuum, and a new source came on line to fill the need. Thus, at least indirectly, gold went from the scrap heap into brand new shiny gold coins, just when the market needed them the most.

    Which brings up the question: how long can consumers fill their own demand through scrap? And what price level is needed to support the tremendous scrap levels already in place?

    =================================

    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    ==================================

     Five Weeks of Silver Backwardation – Seeking Alpha

    By: Trace Mayer of Run to Gold.com

    During an interview with Contrary Investors Cafe on 24 February 2009 I discussed both gold backwardation and silver backwardation. After the interview I was asked why more commentators are not discussing this issue. I do not know.

    Regarding money there are two competing views: (1) money is determined by the market or (2) chartalism which asserts that ‘money is a creature of law.’ Governments can only manage money if they create it. Obviously, the market determines money because money existed before governments were created.

    Regarding gold there are two competing paradigms: (1) gold is a commodity and (2) gold is money. Paradigm (1) asserts that gold is a hedge against inflation and there is no monetary demand for gold. On the other hand, paradigm (2) asserts that gold is a hedge against currency collapse and the primary demand for gold is monetary. I subscribe to the second paradigm and assert that at all times and in all circumstances gold remains money.

    WHAT IS SILVER’S ROLE

    Under which paradigm does silver fall? Is silver a commodity or is silver money? For a commodity to be money its primary demand must be monetary.

    Like gold, for thousands of years silver functioned as money in the market. The term dollar, as used in Article 1 Section 9 Clause 1 and the Seventh Amendment of the US Constitution, is defined as 371.25 grains of fine silver under Section 9 of the Coinage Act of 1792. Governments stockpiled billions and billions of ounces. However, on 24 June 1968 the United States government defaulted on their silver certificates. Over the decades, silver, like gold, has been demonetized in ordinary daily transactions. Supposedly there are large stockpiles of gold in central bank vaults. Unlike gold there are no reported large above ground stockpiles of silver stashed in central bank vaults. Additionally, a large portion of silver demand is industrial as it is used in cell phones, refrigerators, dental equipment, computers, etc.

    Therefore, it appears that silver is confused about its role. In other words, silver functions as a commodity and as quasi-money.

    FIVE WEEKS OF SILVER BACKWARDATION

    While similar, there are differences between future and forward contracts. For example, future contracts are traded on exchanges, use margin and are marked to market daily. In contrast, forward contracts are generally traded over-the-counter (OTC derivatives) and are not marked to market. Therefore, forward contracts are subject to greater counter-party risk than future contracts.

    Because the primary reason backwardation arises is counter-party risk and because forward contracts are impregnated with greater counter-party risk than future contracts, therefore it is highly likely that backwardation would appear in the forwards markets before the futures markets.

    This is precisely what has happened. While the COMEX silver futures contract have not been in backwardation the LBMA Silver Forward Mid Rates have been in backwardation for five consecutive weeks. Of particular interest is the 6 month contract.

    SO WHAT?

    What does all this mean? Well, I think the backwardation reflects the market’s uncertainty of silver’s role as money. The chronic silver backwardation began on 8 December 2009, the same day I wrote about gold in backwardation, and silver was priced about $9.60. Currently silver is trading about $13.82. Predictably, the gold/silver ratio is narrowing. If the backwardation persists it will be interesting to see if silver’s price in illusory FRN$ continues rising.

    In my opinion, as the great credit contraction grinds on and intensifies, the commodity silver will reassert itself as money and eventually currency. As I mentioned during the interview with Contrary Investors Cafe what would be really interesting is if the central banks decide to start hoarding silver!

    In the meantime it may behoove those who are bullish towards silver to increase the pressure on physical silver delivery. For example, I purchased some beautiful Austrian philharmonics at the Cambridge House Investment Conference and Silver Summit over the weekend. The beautiful coin cost $20 which was an amazing $5.50 over spot.

    While there are cheaper ways to purchase physical silver bullion, like GoldMoney, these huge premiums over spot beg the question: What is the real silver price? With the specter of counter-party risk driving silver into backwardation if there is a failure to deliver then it will likely cause the silver price to shift from the COMEX just like a failure to deliver would cause the gold price to shift from the COMEX.

    Bottom line: Do not get caught with your paradigms down!

    ===============================

    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    ================================

    Doug Casey: What to Do in “The Greater Depression” — Seeking Alpha

    Source: The Gold Report

     

    Bullion and oil appear in the lineup of power players that Doug Casey thinks investors can count on as the world slips deeper and deeper into what he calls the “Greater Depression.” Despite the raging economic storm and Doug’s doubts that Western civilization’s governments will take the actions needed to quell it, though, the Chairman of Casey Research is nowhere close to calling the game. In fact, he sees silver lining in the clouds of crisis—opportunity—and expresses optimism that technological advances, coupled with capital rebuilding once over-consumption runs its course, will prevail eventually. The Gold Report caught up with the peripatetic author, publisher and professional international investor between polo matches in New Zealand, one of several nation-states he calls home from time to time.

     

    The Gold Report: You’ve been discussing what you’re calling “crisis and opportunity,” and in fact have a summit by that same name coming up in Las Vegas next month. Could you give us a high-level overview of what you foresee?

    Doug Casey: We’ve definitely entered what I describe as the Greater Depression. It’s not coming; it’s here. It’s going to get much, much worse as far as I’m concerned and unfortunately, it’s going to last a long time. It doesn’t have to last a long time, but the root cause is government intervention in the economy and everything they’re doing now is not just the wrong thing, it’s the opposite of what they should be doing. It’s almost perverse.

    The distortions and misallocations of capital and the uneconomic patterns of production and consumption that have been going on for over a generation need to be liquidated and changed, but everything the government’s doing is trying to maintain these patterns. So it’s going to be horrible. In addition, the government is necessarily directing more power toward itself with all of its actions. If I were you, I’d rig for stormy running for a good long time.

    TGR: By “a long time,” do you mean a couple of years, a decade, a generation?

    DC: This is, in some ways, uncharted territory. Let me say that for the long run I’m very optimistic. Why? Two things act as the mainsprings of progress. Number one is technology and that’s going to keep advancing, so that’s very good. Second is capital and savings. Individuals will solve their own problems and, therefore, they will stop consuming more than they produce, which is what they’ve been doing for years, and they’ll again start producing more than they consume. The difference is savings; that builds capital.

    So technology and capital are going to solve the depression. But the government can do all kinds of stupid things to make it worse. Look at the Soviet Union. They suffered a depression that lasted 70 years from its founding. Look at China. The whole reign of Mao was one long economic depression. That could certainly happen in the U.S., too, where the government misallocates capital in such a way that technology doesn’t advance as it could and people can’t build individual capital the way they would. I’m optimistic, but anything can happen.

    TGR: But didn’t China and the Soviet Union have governmental structures very different from those in Western Europe and the U.S., and those structures allowed for more intervention? Are you projecting that we might slip into an era where Western civilization will allow their government to run themselves like the Soviet Union and China did?

    DC: It seems to be going in that direction. Of course, Europe is going to be hurt much worse than the U.S. Europeans are much more heavily taxed and much more heavily regulated. The average European is much more reliant upon the state psychologically as well as economically. So it’s all over for Europe and this doesn’t even count the problems that they’re going to have in the continuing war against Islam, which are much more serious for Europe than they are for the U.S. So, no, Europe is fated to be nothing but a source of houseboys and maids for the Chinese in the next generation.

    TGR: So do you think that societies in Western Europe—and even the U.S.—will allow themselves to be governed in the same fashion as the Soviet Union and China were during their depressions?

    DC: Oh, totally. I don’t see why that would not be the case. Even Newsweek says we’re all socialists now. That seems to be the reigning ideology. In addition, psychologically, the average American—just like the average European—looks to the government to solve things. This is very bad. Most people are unaware that Homeland Security, which is one agency that should be abolished post-haste, is building a 400-acre campus in southeast Washington, D.C., where initially they’re going to put 25,000 employees. That’s as many as the Pentagon has and with 400 acres, Homeland Security has a lot more room to grow. Ironically, the property is at the site of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the first federal insane asylum in the United States. Once a bureaucracy has a piece of real estate and builds buildings, it’s game over. They’re just going to accrete and grow and grow, so that’s one indication. The trend is clearly in motion.

    It’s all over for the U.S. In fact, let me say this. America doesn’t exist anymore. What is left is not even these United States. That was decided in the 1860s. It’s the United States. America, which is basically an idea, a concept, is dead and gone. The United States is just another of 200 awful little nation-states that have spread across the face of the earth like a skin disease. There’s no longer any difference that I can tell between the U.S. and any other country.

    TGR: How would you describe the concept that America was based on that is now gone? And is there another country in the world embracing that concept? Will there be a new America?

    DC: No, there is no other place. I’ve been to 175 countries and lived in 12. My feeling is that the best thing that you can do is set your life up so that you’re not to be considered the property of any one government. You might have a passport or several passports and, therefore, that government thinks they own you. But if you don’t spend time in a country, practically speaking, there’s nothing they can do about it.

    So, no, there is no real haven for freedom in the world today. The best you can do is go where the governments are so unorganized that they can’t control you effectively. That’s one reason I like to spend time in Argentina. They have an incredibly stupid government, but they’re also very inefficient and ineffective. So it’s wonderful as a place to live. I also spend time in Uruguay, because it’s a tiny little country with no ambitions to conquer the world. The nice thing about New Zealand, where I am now, is that it’s a small country, only 4 million people, lots of open land. It’s got some severe problems, but it’s pleasant. I think the U.S. is going to be the epicenter of a lot of problems in the years to come.

    TGR: Few of our readers are probably in positions where they could live in 12 different countries, but they have amassed assets here in the United States. What advice would you give them to safeguard those assets?

    DC: The key is to remember that we’re going to have a long and deep depression, so most things that worked well over the last 20 years are unlikely to work well in the future. I’d been predicting the real estate collapse for a long time. It’s still got a way to go, too, because a lot of real estate debt remains that has to be liquidated. There’s a lot of leverage out there and there’s been a huge amount of overbuilding. So it’s far too early to get into real estate, at least in North America or Europe.

    It’s also way too early to get into the general stock market, for all kinds of reasons. Dividend yields are still extremely low. Earnings are going to collapse. Government bonds are perhaps the worst single thing to be in, because with the government printing up money literally by the bushel basket, the dollar is going to start losing value radically and interest rates are going to start going up radically at some point. So you have to rule out most stocks.

    I’m afraid that the most intelligent thing you can do is to own a lot of gold, preferably gold coins in your own possession. And I think speculation in gold stocks makes sense at this point, because gold stocks are about as cheap as they’ve ever been relative to other assets, really, in history. Now is an excellent time to do that as well. But that’s in terms of speculation.

    Investment risk is tough enough, but the biggest problem is political risk. That’s what you have to watch out for. That means you have to diversify internationally. This is harder for most people, harder psychologically, and it takes more assets to make international diversification viable. But if you’re in a position to do it, it’s the most important thing you can do.

    TGR: Since you mentioned having coins in your own possession, should we assume you’re not a big fan of the ETFs or some of these other paper gold promises, if you will?

    DC: ETFs are okay for the convenience that they offer and for significant amounts of money, but gold coins should be first on your list, no question about that. If you’re only talking about $50,000 or $100,000, or $200,000, coins are fine to keep in your own possession. They won’t take up much room and you can put them in some safe place (which, incidentally, is not a bank safe deposit box).

    TGR: Are you recommending putting all of your investment in gold into the bullion or are you also recommending some portion in producing junior and explorations?

    DC: Both, but look at the stocks as being speculative. Most of your money should be in gold with a bit of silver, too. Silver is basically an industrial metal, but it has monetary characteristics. Now is the time to be very overweight in the metals and I think owning gold stocks is a good idea. They’re very cheap.

    TGR: Anything else investors can do to preserve whatever may remain of their wealth?

    DC: Owning real estate in some foreign countries is a very good idea—from a lifestyle point of view, an asset diversification point of view, and a possible capital gains point of view, too. They can’t make you repatriate foreign real estate. Having some U.S. dollar cash while we’re going through this deflationary period is very wise as well, but that’s not going to last. Eventually the U.S. dollar is going to reach its intrinsic value.

    TGR: Not that you have a crystal ball, but how would you see the rest of ’09 playing out?

    DC: Nothing goes straight up or straight down, but it seems that ’09 is going to see much higher gold prices and much lower stock prices and much lower bond prices, too. But remember, the worst is yet to come.

    You haven’t heard an awful lot about people losing their pensions yet, but that’s going to happen because what are pensions invested in? They’re mostly invested in stocks and bonds and commercial real estate. All three of those things are disaster areas, and bonds are the big disaster area yet to come. So I think it’s going to be nothing but bad news in 2009. What happened in 2008 was just an overture to what I think is going to happen in ’09 and ’10.

    TGR: Even into 2010?

    DC: Yes. This isn’t going to be cured overnight, mainly because of what the government’s doing. As I said, it’s perversely exactly the opposite of what they should be doing, which is abolishing all the agencies and freeing up the economy. They’re passing lots of new regulations, they’re going to have to raise lots of taxes eventually, and they’re inflating the currency. So it has to last, at least into 2010. It’s going to be quite dismal, actually.

    TGR: And what happens with the unfunded Medicare liabilities?

    DC: They’re not going to be funded. They’re going to be defaulted on and, actually, that’s the best thing that could happen. That’s one of the things that should be done now; the U.S. government should default on its debt. This is shocking for people to hear, but it wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. government has done that. It did that almost at its founding in continental days.

    This debt represents a tax liability that’s being foisted off on the next generations who have no moral obligation to pay and should not pay. I think as an ethical point, the U.S. should default on this debt. It’s impossible to pay it back, and it won’t be paid back. It’s more honest to acknowledge that bankruptcy now as opposed to pretend it’s going to be paid back. Defaulting even might forestall runaway inflation in the dollar, which would be a catastrophe of the first order. So it’s the smart and moral thing to do, and it’s going to happen eventually anyway. All the real wealth will still be here; a lot of it will just change ownership. The big losers will be those who lent to the State, thereby enabling its depredations, and they deserve to be punished.

    But even a default tomorrow will do no good unless you put the U.S. government into reverse and disband all of these ridiculous, destructive agencies that have grown like a cancer for years. Taxes should be cut 50% to start with, just out of hand. And the defense establishment—it’s a misnomer; it’s not defense at all but rather foments wars around the world—should be cut hugely. Not with a butcher knife; but a chain saw. But none of this is going to happen; in fact, just the opposite. That’s why I’m so pessimistic now that the tipping point’s finally been reached.

    TGR: Are we at the tipping point?

    DC: Yes, we’ve absolutely gone over the edge. The consumer is no longer in a position to consume. Everybody is going to cut consumption to the bone and hopefully find something to produce instead. It would be better for people to start viewing themselves as producers than consumers. That would be a step in the right direction to get them psychologically more in line with reality.

    TGR: In last fall’s meltdown, gold held up, but the stocks didn’t. Quite a few producers and soon-to-be producers, and some companies making discoveries, seem to have bottomed out in November and December. But worry persists in the market. Suppose another shoe drops or another black swan appears? Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters) and others have been talking about the Dow going down to 5,000. What would that do to the gold stocks?

    DC: Gold stocks are also stocks, and the best environment for gold stocks historically has always been when both gold and the stock market are going up. But since the last gold stock bull market came to an end, I think it’s entirely possible to see a bubble develop in gold stocks with all the money being created. I certainly hope so. I’m actually optimistic for gold stocks just because they’re so cheap relative to everything else.

    TGR: They have been beaten down.

    DC: Yes. And that fact, along with the waves of money being printed around the world and the much higher gold prices we are going to see, could cause a speculative mania to develop in the gold stocks. Nobody’s even thinking about that possibility right now, because they’re so battered. But this is the time to get into the right ones because it’s likely to happen in the future.

    TGR: The ’29 crash—which was really the preamble, because ’30, ’31, ’32 and ’33 were certainly bigger—is when gold stocks such as Homestake did their best. How do you see that playing out this time around? Is it different this time or do you expect a similar pattern?

    DC: You know what they say, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” I think that, first of all, the gold mining industry is a much worse industry now than it’s ever been in the past, because just as all the easily defined light sweet oil basically has been discovered, all the easy-to-find high-grade gold basically has been discovered. Most mines that are going into production are low-grade, which means that you have to move a lot of dirt, which means that they’re much more capital-intensive than in the past. So gold mining’s a worse industry from that point of view.

    Also, politically speaking, with the rise of the green movement, there are people who don’t want any oil burned, any dirt moved, any trees cut. They don’t want to see anything happen. This makes it much harder to do gold from a permitting and political point of view. We’re in a much higher tax environment than in the past. So it’s a tough industry. It really is. It’s just a 19th century choo-choo train type of industry that interests me only as a speculative vehicle. You’ll notice that gold went from lows of about $300 to highs of about $900 and none of these gold companies are making any money because their costs actually went up faster than the price of gold. So I’m not saying gold mining is a great business. It’s not. It’s a crappy business. Still, we could have a bubble in the stocks. I’m hoping we do.

    TGR: Aren’t we going to see a change in that in ’09? Oil, which is one of the large components of that cost, has come down dramatically. A lot of these producers must be locking in oil at these lower prices. Won’t that translate into year-over-year earnings increases for the gold producers?

    DC: That’s possible. The producers actually may show increases for the next couple of years. I don’t doubt that. But I don’t think oil will stay where it is. I think oil’s eventually headed back to $150 a barrel or more.

    TGR: So why wouldn’t you own oil as well as gold?

    DC: It’s a good idea, but we weren’t really talking about oil. I’d say that oil is a good thing to own. Oil is a real buy now. It’s as good a buy at $40 as gold is at $900 right now. Maybe a better buy; who knows?

    TGR: If we go into worldwide depression, will oil continue to be a good buy or will it self-regulate around this $40 a barrel?

    DC: I am bullish on oil. Although I’m philosophically not very sympathetic to the peak oil theory, I think it’s a geological fact. Also, China and India and the other developing parts of the world don’t use a whole lot of oil now. As they develop, they will to want—and almost need—to use a lot more oil. That’s going to keep pressure up on the demand side. But the supply side actually finally is constrained, so it’s going to mean higher prices. In a depression-type environment, U.S. and Western oil consumption could drop a lot, but the third world would take up most of that slack. So I have to be bullish on oil.

    TGR: Are you bullish on any other sectors or commodities?

    DC: I’m bullish on agricultural commodities. They ran way up last year and then collapsed again. I think a good case can be made that most of the soft commodities are quite cheap and will go higher, so I’d look at those, too. I think gold definitely, oil in the years to come has the potential to go much, much higher, and the agricultural commodities have a lot of potential.

    TGR: Gold appears to be uncoupling from the dollar. Historically, when the dollar was strong, gold would be weak. But we’ve had a couple of recent instances in which both the dollar and gold have been strong. Obviously, we’ve seen a total decoupling of gold from oil. It used to be when oil was running, gold was running and vice versa, but that no longer seems to be the case. Is that just an old wives’ tale or is something going on?

    DC: I’ve never seen any necessary relationship between gold and oil, just like there’s no necessary relationship between rice and natural gas, or nickel and soybeans. All these commodities tend to move together, all the currencies tend to move together and stock markets tend to move together, but they all have their own dynamics. I think it makes sense to compare the relative prices of various commodities and see what may be cheap or dear relative to other things based on the fundamentals.

    On any given day, somebody may have to buy or somebody may have to sell a huge amount of almost anything. It’s unpredictable and you can’t tell what constraints are out there in the market. I don’t even pay attention to day-to-day fluctuations because they’re just random noise. I watch the big trend. It’s been shown that if you just made one correct trade and stuck with it at the beginning of every decade for the last four decades, you would have realized something like 1,000 times on your money. To me, this is the proper approach to the markets, not to try to second-guess from day-to-day what’s going to happen. That’s foolish because you get chewed up with commissions and bid-ask spreads and double-thinking your own psychology and so forth.

    I really just like to look at long-term trends. In terms of long-term trends, you’ve got to be long gold, long silver, long oil; you’ve got to be short bonds. I think that’s really all you need to know. The other things we mentioned such as agricultural commodities and so forth are worthy of attention. But, as I said, I’m not a day-to-day trader. I think that’s very foolish.

    TGR: Are these the themes that you and your group of speakers will focus on in Las Vegas?

    DC: They are. I certainly want to invite anybody who reads this interview to join us. We put on very small, very classy seminars. They’re not gigantic mob scenes, so it’s possible to get to know individual speakers and fellow attendees in a very collegial atmosphere. I think it’s something that anybody who’s seriously interested in these kinds of things should consider.

    The Casey Research Crisis & Opportunity Summit, will be held March 20 – 22, 2009, at the Four Seasons Resort in Las Vegas.

    A citizen of the world in more ways than most of us can imagine, Doug Casey, Chairman of Casey Research, LLC, is the international investor personified. He’s spent substantial time in about 200 different countries so far in his lifetime, living in 12 of them (currently New Zealand and Argentina). And Doug’s the one who literally wrote the book on crisis investing. In fact, he’s done it twice. After The International Man: The Complete Guidebook to the World’s Last Frontiers in 1976, Doug came out with Crisis Investing: Opportunities and Profits in the Coming Great Depression in 1979. His sequel to this groundbreaking book, which anticipated the collapse of the savings-and-loan industry and rewarded readers who followed his recommendations with spectacular returns, came in 1993, with Crisis Investing for the Rest of the Nineties. In between, his Strategic Investing: How to Profit from the Coming Inflationary Depression (Simon & Shuster, 1982) broke records for the largest advance ever paid for a financial book. Bill Bonner (The Daily Reckoning) describes Doug as “smart, hard-working, and extremely knowledgeable” with “an instinct about investments that has made him and many of those around him very rich.”

     Doug, who now spends more time as an expatriate than he does on American soil, has appeared on NBC News, CNN and National Public Radio. He’s been a guest of David Letterman, Larry King, Merv Griffin, Charlie Rose, Phil Donahue, Regis Philbin and Maury Povich. He’s been the topic of numerous features in periodicals such as Time, Forbes, People, US, Barron’s and the Washington Post – not to mention countless articles he’s written for his own various websites, publications and subscribers.

     ==================================

    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    That’s all for Today- Enjoy! jschulmansr

    Follow Me on Twitter and be notified whenever I make a new post!

    ================================== 

    Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

     

     

     

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    Support At the Pit Stop

    24 Tuesday Feb 2009

    Posted by jschulmansr in banks, bull market, Comex, Currencies, currency, Currency and Currencies, deflation, depression, DGP, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Economic Recovery, economic trends, economy, Federal Deficit, federal reserve, Finance, financial, Forex, Fundamental Analysis, futures, futures markets, GLD, gold, Gold Bubble, Gold Bullion, Gold Investments, gold miners, Gold Price Manipulation, How To Invest, How To Make Money, hyper-inflation, IAU, inflation, Investing, investments, Junior Gold Miners, Latest News, majors, Make Money Investing, Market Bubble, Markets, mid-tier, mining companies, mining stocks, oil, palladium, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price, price manipulation, producers, production, silver, silver miners, spot, spot price, stagflation, Stimulus, Stocks, Technical Analysis, The Fed, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, U.S. Dollar, Uncategorized, XAU

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    ANV, Austrian school, AUY, Bailout News, banking crisis, banks, bear market, Bollinger Bands Saudi Arabia, Brian Tang, bull market, CDE, central banks, China, Comex, commodities, Copper, Currencies, currency, deflation, Dennis Gartman, depression, DGP, dollar denominated, dollar denominated investments, Doug Casey, economic, economic trends, economy, EGO, Federal Deficit, financial, Forex, FRG, futures, futures markets, gata, GDX, GG, GLD, gold, gold miners, hard assets, HL, hyper-inflation, IAU, India, inflation, investments, Jeffrey Nichols, Jim Rogers, Keith Fitz-Gerald, majors, Marc Faber, market crash, Markets, Michael Zielinski, mid-tier, mining companies, monetization, Moving Averages, NGC, NXG, PAL, palladium, Peter Grandich, Peter Schiff, physical gold, platinum, platinum miners, precious metals, price, price manipulation, prices, producers, production, protection, recession, risk, run on banks, safety, Sean Rakhimov, silver, silver miners, SLW, small caps, sovereign, spot, spot price, stagflation, Technical Analysis, TIPS, U.S., U.S. Dollar, volatility, warrants, XAU

    Gold is resting today, taking a quick pitstop allowing people to jump in on the next rally to $1033 and then if clear that $1050+. All of this talk of the Gold bubble. Bubble or not there is some serious money to be made here- even at these levels. Have some stories to tell your Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren of how you “caught” the Gold Bull.  Get in now or you will regret it!  Gold currently holding above the key support level of $985. Gold needs to clear the $1026 to $1033 level to be sustained in it’s upward rally. A note of caution if it fails at $1033, retracement back down to $900 is possible, I would put in a trailing stop to protect your current profits.  I recommend a 20-25% trailing stop so you don’t get caught in a whipsaw market action. Stay tuned as I am still long DGP and will tell you when I am getting out. Good Investing! – jschulmansr 

    ps- Follow Me on Twitter and be notified whenever I make a new post!

     Here is where I buy my Bullion, get one free gram of Gold just for opening an account! Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    ==========================================

    Protecting Yourself from a Gold ETF Bubble- Seeking alpha

    BY: Tom Lydon of ETFT Trends

     

    Are gold ETFs entering a bubble? More and more people seem to think so.

    Last week, we noted a story that contained 12 reasons to short gold. Barron’s raises the question, too, now that gold is priced above $1,000 an ounce. The price is equivalent to more than 25 barrels of oil, a ratio that has rarely been exceeded in the last 35 years, says Michael Santoli for Barron’s.

    There are two sides to the argument:

    Owning gold seems logical now, given that the turmoil has gone completely global. Gold has also been rising, even as the U.S. dollar is gaining strength, too.

    On the other hand, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) is now routinely turning over $2 billion worth of trading each day, which might give investors pause. Is it becoming a herd mentality?

    Meanwhile, Brett Arends for The Wall Street Journal gives the ins and outs of gold investing, including that gold is volatile and no one knows its true worth. For that reason, the mania is to be taken with a pinch of salt, he says.

    While gold can be a volatile metal, right now, the trend is there. You can’t fight it. But if you’re in gold, have an exit strategy at the ready (we get out either 8% off the recent high or when it falls below the 200-day moving average). This will help protect investors from further losses, and may even preserve some gains that might have been made.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     =================================

    My Note: The reason I put my stops at a greater percentage than 8% is from my days as a futures trader. Traders on the floor love tight stops of 5%, 10%, and even 15% and will often bid a commodity down 10%-15% to catch people’s stops and then let the market rise and pocket the money. This happens especially on days of lower volumes of trades. Watch carefully and his idea about exit after a close below the 200 day moving average is sound, remember though that it is a daily close (end of day) below the moving average not intraday trading. For those who already know this remember I have readers who are newbies and don’t know all the ins and outs, this is for them as I care about all my readers! – jschulmansr

    =================================

    Next Here is the Article mentioned above…

    Gold: Where to Invest and What to Avoid – Wall Street Journal

    Source: Brent Arends of WSJ.com

    Great news. The next bubble has already begun!

    We’re still in intensive care from the stock market, housing and credit bubbles, but a gold bubble is now underway.

    The precious metal crossed $1,000 per ounce on Friday, as investors around the world rushed to “shelter” their money from financial meltdown and spendthrift governments. And many people think it may rise to $2,000 or even $3,000.

    Ordinary investors are jumping aboard. They’re buying gold coins or the gold exchange-traded fund, GLD.

    I’m not against investing in gold-mining stocks. I recommended them here a few months ago — just before they began skyrocketing. It could certainly make sense to put 5% or 10% of a portfolio in the right precious metals fund. I have one suggestion below.

    But look out before buying actual coins, bullion, or the ETF. This is risky.

    First: Gold is incredibly volatile. It can halve, or double, in short order. This is not like a normal mutual fund.

    Second: No one really knows what gold is worth, because it generates no cash flow. Any numbers are pure guesswork.

    And third: Investing directly in gold violates the old adage that you should never get into bed with anyone crazy. Gold fanatics are far-out nuts. No kidding. If you met these people you’d run a mile.

    Even some intelligent, and otherwise sensible, people aren’t immune from the madness. They will pound the table and insist gold is the only “real” money because it’s been coveted since ancient Egypt, if not before.

    Please. Ancient superstition is no argument. People around the world used to think only a monarchy could be a “real government”. Sorry, I’m not buying the Divine Right of Gold any more than I buy the Divine Right of Kings.

    Ancients coveted gold for three reasons. It was pretty. It’s really soft, so it was easy to manipulate with primitive tools. And they didn’t have many other material things worth desiring, like split-level oceanfront homes or flat screen TVs or first-class tickets to Hawaii. The ancients were short on opportunities for retail therapy.

    The world has changed since, so take gold mania with a certain pinch of salt.

    [How to Invest in Gold] Associated Press

    Gold ingots from Switzerland, America and Germany are shown on display at The Coin Broker store, in Palo Alto, Calif.

    Nonetheless gold has some value. So do other precious metals. (I think the long-term case for platinum is stronger – but that’s another column.)

    Every government on the planet is printing money in the trillions to stave off a prolonged depression, and they’re going to continue to do so until it works. Precious metals cannot be manufactured in the same way. So you can expect them to rise in price.

    Shares in the big gold miners, like Barrick and Newmont, have been booming for a few months.

    But the smaller ones are still looking very cheap – especially compared to the gold price. (See chart.)

    These stocks got absolutely crushed last year, along with gold prices and small company stocks.

    Although they have started rallying too, they have much further still to go. Ordinary retail investors haven’t started buying them – yet.

    Don’t go it alone. Investing in gold minnows is tricky.

    One mutual fund worth a look: US Global Investors’ World Precious Minerals Fund. It’s one of the few to focus mainly on smaller gold stocks.

    Manager Frank Holmes, a 20-year industry veteran, agrees the juniors are comparatively cheap. And he sees takeovers starting as well. “Eventually the seniors will have to gobble (the juniors) up,” he says. “They can’t find enough gold to replenish their production.”

    Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

    ====================================

    My Note: What Have I been telling you about the juniors? Remember as a general rule I buy those junior miners which currently are producing or are about to start production in the very near term. These companies I believe are the ones who will be the most attractive takeover candidates. My disclosure: I am Long GLD, UNPWX, along with many of the juniors too-jschulmansr

    Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online – Get 1 gram free just for opening account– just click here and then again on the Gold Bar!, no minimums – Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! – Bullion Vault.com

    =========================================

    Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. –  jschulmansr

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