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What's Driving Silver Prices? (Thoughts?)
Vanity ^ | 8/8/11 | OB1

Posted on 08/08/2011 1:33:39 PM PDT by OB1kNOb

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To: Scythian
Sure, Silver is worth nothing, it will always be worth nothing.

How does one conclude that?

21 posted on 08/08/2011 2:01:23 PM PDT by OB1kNOb (Obama will heretofore be known in history as the downgraded President.)
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To: OB1kNOb

Personally, I believe it is the likes of Soros and Buffet wanting to panic the “little” guys out of it so they are the ones that make the killing if you will. Silver is much easier to manipulate than gold. IMHO. I am not an expert in this by any means.

Ravenstar


22 posted on 08/08/2011 2:03:14 PM PDT by Ravenstar (Reinstitute the Constitution as the Ultimate Law of the Land)
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To: GranTorino

I’m up to date on those investments. ;-)


23 posted on 08/08/2011 2:03:34 PM PDT by OB1kNOb (Obama will heretofore be known in history as the downgraded President.)
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To: OB1kNOb

You will not see a steep drop in the price of silver unless there is also a steep drop in gold. Silver will always be purchased by investors if the ratio to gold is greater than 45. For example, if gold is selling for $1700 an once then silver should be worth at least 37.77oz (1700/45). In this scenario if the price of silver is less than 37.77 then you should consider buying some silver coins. If the price of silver jumps to $50oz then you should consider buying gold coins if the ratio to gold is less than 45.


24 posted on 08/08/2011 2:03:55 PM PDT by Flavious_Maximus
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To: Jim Noble

I’m confused. You mean silver dollars are not money—esp the ones 90% purity?


25 posted on 08/08/2011 2:06:40 PM PDT by famousdayandyear
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To: OB1kNOb

So, when QE3 is done, is money “loaned” to the government from the government? Or is it simply more money being printed?


26 posted on 08/08/2011 2:10:26 PM PDT by Terry Mross (I'll only vote for a SECOND party.)
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To: Flavious_Maximus

That’s good to know. What’s the underlying factors driving the ratio of 45?


27 posted on 08/08/2011 2:11:00 PM PDT by OB1kNOb (Obama will heretofore be known in history as the downgraded President.)
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To: Scythian

Silver used to have industrial demand -photographic film, xray film, dental fillings. No more. With the advent of composite ceramic fillings and digital photography, silver has very few industrial uses.


28 posted on 08/08/2011 2:11:25 PM PDT by CholeraJoe (Prepare for Armageddon! Buy brass and lead!)
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To: OB1kNOb
The 45 ratio is a number that has been used successfully since the 1970’s. There was a time when a 16 ratio was considered a fair value until the British tried to manipulate the spot price in the 1800’s.

http://www.rapidtrends.com/silver-to-gold-ratio/

29 posted on 08/08/2011 2:15:37 PM PDT by Flavious_Maximus
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To: OB1kNOb
Among other countries, Russia and Mexico in particular, produce vast amounts of Silver. When prices go up, they are always poised to dump some of it. That drives prices back down again.

IMHO, they have been producing and stockpiling Silver during all those decades when silver was very low. They have succeeded in capitalizing on Silver.

30 posted on 08/08/2011 2:19:40 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (America. Could be too late to fix anything. And just a wee bit too early to start shooting.)
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To: OB1kNOb

To answer your question, you have to look at and ponder more than a little about the history of silver and more than a little about the present about silver. If you do that, and it is isn’t a ten minute undertaking, you will learn something about what some call the “DNA” of silver. I’ll try to hit some of the main points as I myself see them, in no particular order, without delving too deep into any of them and without any guarantee that I’ll hit all of them.

Silver up here at $40 does not have much volumetric support. That’s one reason why it doesn’t seem to be able to hold it well. It does not “own” $40. IMO, silver is still proving that it can hold $35. And in my opinion, that is not proven. Technically speaking, silver may very well have an appointment with the mid $31’s. Forget not that during 2008, silver got cut almost in half, to $9.

If you look at long term charts of silver, during the early 2000’s, it had lots and lots of trouble at “round numbers”. It took many months to go from $7 to $8 to $9.....Today, those round numbers are sure to be more like $25 - $30 - $35 - $40. In quanta of $5, not units of $1.

Silver spent about a third of 2008 under $10 and really only left $10 behind in 2009. This is very much new territory up here (hence, why I say it has only modest volumetric support up here) I say that silver needs time in “rehab” to prove it can hang at these levels. In truth, if you look at the history of silver, it could very easily take 2 years or more for silver to advance much from here. So...you don’t have to load up the boat this week or tomorrow. It DID its parabolic thing in April and May. Now it needs time in rehab.

Many people believe that commodities (and most markets, in general) behave in 60 years cycles. Silver took a massive 35% hit in July of 1951. One of its greatest % dumps of all time. Coincidence?

Silver is not in any way the same kind of monetary metal that gold is. It just isn’t. We may wish that it was, but it isn’t. It is far more tied to industrial production, as is Platinum and Palladium, both of which are tied mightily to automotive catalytic converters. Palladium, today, got smoked. Platinum is actually trading at about the same price as gold. I myself have never seen that before.

Silver is not especially rare. By that I mean, if you have the money you want to spend on it, you could damage the suspension of your car loading it up with silver.

High silver prices causes lots of sterling and not-especially-rare semi-numismatic coins to get pulled out of the closet and thrown into the melting pot. Particularly in tough economic times.

Now, having said all that, you, generic you, should not buy *any* silver with the idea that you are going to buy it all at once, all at one price. If you want to be a LT holder of silver and hold onto it for a much higher price, that price is not going to occur right away. And if it did, silver would have to achieve a vastly higher price to overcome the punitive dealer margins/premiums on the physical metal. If you want to trade silver short term, SLV is vastly superior because it trades like a stock, with stock-like spreads and stock-like commissions.

So if you want to buy some, just buy some. Don’t buy all you want to buy all on one day all at one time. If you buy 10 ounces today and the price declines $1.50, are you gonna cry over that? Do you think 10 ounces might make a real difference in your life? What if it falls by $5?

Don’t overthink it. That’s as simply as I can say it. I have been telling all the folks I know who regret not buying gold lower: (and that includes me, because while I have been buying silver since $6, when gold was $265, I have not bot any gold under $1500) Just buy one ounce of the stuff and be an owner instead of a spectator.


31 posted on 08/08/2011 2:19:40 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Both sides need to put aside the partisan bickering, & work out how much free stuff I get)
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To: CholeraJoe

” silver has very few industrial uses.”

That is very not true. After crude oil and natural gas, silver has the most industrial uses of *any* commodity. Now one might say that the amounts of silver used (up) in industry are, relative to its annual production including mining and scrap, relatively small. But silver has many hundreds of industrial uses.

And....when it comes to photography, silver was not massively consumed in photography. Recycling rates of well north of 92% have been accepted in silver film-processing for at least 60 years. Back then, it used to be uneconomical to recycle silver all that carefully because it really wasn’t worth that much.


32 posted on 08/08/2011 2:24:42 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Both sides need to put aside the partisan bickering, & work out how much free stuff I get)
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To: OldNewYork

“It was closing in on $50 an ounce just a little while ago. I could easily see it doing that again.”

The last time silver hit $50 was in 1980. You should get a substantially history-cognizant view of silver’s “DNA” as we call it. I’ve posted some info downthread on this.

$50 is a 30-year anomaly. If you like silver, please feel free to like silver. I do. Just widen your perspective some.


33 posted on 08/08/2011 2:28:52 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Both sides need to put aside the partisan bickering, & work out how much free stuff I get)
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To: CholeraJoe

Totally wrong. Silver has a ton of industrial uses and new ones are created all the time. Silver is the best reflective metal, best conductor of heat & electricity, and also a unique bacteria killer. It also becomes more in demand as jewellry as the price goes up.

It also can be used as money like gold. In fact it is much more useful for small transactions.


34 posted on 08/08/2011 2:31:16 PM PDT by Silver Sabre
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

It was at $49 around six months ago.


35 posted on 08/08/2011 2:32:17 PM PDT by Silver Sabre
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder
Thanks for this sage and timely information and advice. It is easy for neophyte investors to get stampeded by the uncertainty of the "Obama Era" economy.

Prudence and wisdom are the allies of a good investor. Those who get stampeded usually end up first at the slaughter houses. :)
36 posted on 08/08/2011 2:39:58 PM PDT by Sudetenland (There can be no freedom without God--What man gives, man can take away.)
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To: CholeraJoe

Incorrect with rohs implementation for circuit boards silver finishes and solders are often the only choice left - especially in high reli or non-magnetic situations.


37 posted on 08/08/2011 2:40:44 PM PDT by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.)
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To: Positive

that makes sense, thanks


38 posted on 08/08/2011 2:42:25 PM PDT by babble-on
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To: Silver Sabre

Correct, I should have said the PRIOR time silver hit $50 was in 1980. I know people who bought 100 oz bars of silver in 1980. They still own them. A friend of mine and I had a deal for me to buy both of his JM 100 oz bars for $1100 in 2001, but he reneged. My point was that if you buy into a big frenzy, you stand the chance of being badly stranded, and for a long time. Thirty years in this case. At $6, silver was priced below what it costs to find it, dig it out of the ground, crush it, smelt it, pour it into a mold or pound it into a coin, and ship it to a dealer. Same with $265 gold. At those prices, I didn’t have think too hard about buying silver.

The answer is not to try to overthink it. All the talking in the world does not obviate the possibility that the metal is smarter than you or I happen to be. Gold has been “too high” since $450, hasn’t it?

Go buy 5 or 10 silver eagles or ten rounds if you want to own some silver. It isn’t going to kill you if it drops $5 and it isn’t going to fund your retirement if it triples.


39 posted on 08/08/2011 2:43:05 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Both sides need to put aside the partisan bickering, & work out how much free stuff I get)
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To: OB1kNOb

AG is a two-faced, very interesting investment and normally trades 40-1 ration to AU. Silver as two-faced is industrial and a cheap man’s hedge against the dollar.

Silver is manipulated by Goldman’s, HSBC, and Morgan Stanley...the COMEX manipulates and cheats and if you want to track AG, look at Harvey Organ’s website every day and Saturdays.


40 posted on 08/08/2011 2:51:29 PM PDT by CincyRichieRich (Keep your head up and keep moving forward!)
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