by Theodore Butler
Silver Seek
What has been occurring in the gold and silver markets is nothing short of extraordinary. In the face of all objective and measurable conditions in the physical markets pointing to higher prices, instead prices have collapsed over the past six months by amounts comparable to the sharpest selloffs in history. From the price top of March 8, gold has fallen as much as $450 (22%), while silver has fallen by as much as $10 (36%) in recent dealings.
Yet, all visible signs point to extreme physical tightness, the likes of which I have never seen, in everything from the most persistent retail premiums in silver in history, to surging wholesale physical demand in India and China – all with no notable increase in actual supply. To an extent never witnessed before, the past six months have featured the sharpest divergence between surging physical demand and a steep and highly-counterintuitive historical price collapse. To any believer in the free market law of supply and demand, it has been the strangest (and most trying) time ever – or at least the strangest time in my near 50-year experience.