Precious metals soaring. Silver is taking the lead.

[Atash Hagmahani]

KITCO gold:

SPOT MARKET IS OPEN
closes in 20 hrs. 12 mins.
Feb 21, 2011 21:03 NY Time
 Bid/Ask    1406.50    -    1407.50
 Low/High    1393.40    -    1412.10
 Change    -0.10         -0.01%
30daychg    +64.10         +4.78%
1yearchg    +289.40         +25.91%

Up 25.91% for the year.

   Change
 Silver    34.00    +0.09
 Platinum    1849.00    +2.00
 Palladium    856.00    +1.00
 Rhodium    2,400.00    0.00

KITCO Silver:

Bid/Ask    33.89       33.95
Low/High    33.02       34.38
Change    -0.02       -0.06%
30DayChg    +6.36       +23.10%
1YearChg    +17.60       +108.04%

Up 108.04% for the year, and we're only in February.

Mike, high-five: 

We were right. The question was not "does silver have a monetary role?", but rather, "does a metal in an imbalance of supply and demand favoring higher price hold its value against electronic digits with no intrinsic value".

I expect price volatility. The reason is that we will have both recessions AND inflation AND supply problems, that will all fight for attention. The trend is stagflation.

[silverseeds]

  So far its been doing more then holding its value. It seems to be beating inflation for the time being...... Forget gold, if you want PMs imo get silver. Unless your loaded then gold might be better, a couple hundred k in silver wouldnt be easy to have around....

[darwinslair]

The general volatility of everything is spreading.  There are things I do need to get done in the next two months but are dependent on other factors.  <sigh> hope I get it all done.

Tom

[offdalip]

If you needed to relocate permanently gold may be a better idea.

if you stay put silver may be a better idea.

Have you ever tried to pick up 500 oz silver, 1000oz or 2000oz?

it gets real heavy fast

[darwinslair]

<smile> the people I know that have it in real quantity have it in drop safes.  But if you had to transport it, a wheelbarrow maybe?

[offdalip]

But if you had to transport it

my point, if You had to relocate fast

[Atash Hagmahani]

Personally, I like to diversify my metals.

For one thing, they don't all go up at the same rate at the same time. You can take advantage of this fact by buying whichever one(s) is/are "cheapest" at any given time.

Palladium was a screaming buy a while ago. Problem was actually taking delivery; its not that there was a lot of Palladium available (Palladium is quite rare, I think more so than Platinum which is why it is an odd choice for substituting for Platinum, but that is indeed its use), it's that they were manipulating the market.

Then yes there is the issue of concentration of buying power per amount of weight. Platinum packs even more punch than gold, and it doesn't scratch as easily.

[offdalip]

Silver just made another 30 year high, It just blew past $37.25, not taking much of a breather.......

[silverseeds]

  i like diversity to atash, but Im not really a trader best able to position within such things. Mobility isnt an issue in my case. In studying it when i bought in and since, I think silver was the best choice for me, and its far outpaced gold since, not that this cant change. Its industrial uses are legion, and with the price I got in at, very little could happen that could end up a downside for me. I also live in an area where LOTS of silver is traded, and little to no gold.

Ultimately i intend to trade for some gold when the silver gold ratio is 30to1 or 25 to 1 range. I think the ratio will get much better then that towards silvers side, but I figure that ratio is likely a given, and trading isnt exactly my expertise to say the least. If that all works out I will have gotten my gold at a steep discount compared to the amount i would of gotten with my initial inlay...

[offdalip]

Personally, I like to diversify my metals.

LOL!


then I must be pretty well diversified since I have pretty much every metal out there!

31 year high, $37.42

this will easily take out its old high

 

[Eddie]

Supposedly QE2 is coming to an end mid June and either interest rates will be allowed to smidge higher or QE3 will come in effect sometime shortly afterwards.

I thought I might wait before buying any more Gold till around then since there could be a major pull back. Any thoughts on this?

[offdalip]

I've been rotating out of stocks and mostly into Au Ag on pullbacks of 8-10%

[Eddie]

It's possible that there could be a temporary 20% or more pullback at that time.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Eddie, I don't know what the markets will do. For one thing, I suspect they're somewhat scripted. Even tsunamis do not seem to have as much impact as one would think (or the impact is relatively temporary--despite rising radiation levels...hmmm...). And I don't rank high enough to get a copy of the script.

So, I react to whatever happens, regardless of the official reason it's happening.

So when gold pulls back because "flight to safety of the dollar" (which does not make sense), or whatever the official reason is, I ignore the party line and buy.

I don't worry about catching the bottom of corrections, because I don't know where they're going to be. I buy some, if it goes down I buy some more...

It's all heuristic.

Offdalip, yes, you are very diversified in metals. But the rest of us would have little sense of what to buy or how to take delivery of it. I had a heck of a time taking possession of Palladium. I would not know how to obtain rare earths.

One thing I would like to hoard is fertilizer. It would take massive quantities though. :(

[offdalip]

One thing I would like to hoard is fertilizer. It would take massive quantities though

carp and seaweed are a renewable resource