The Silver Analyst's  Instablog

Silver is pushing $18, gold has made new all time nominal highs and it all appears to be looking good for The Great Leap Forward. Buyers are piling in fearful of having to buy at higher prices and gold and silver look moon bound. Meanwhile I am now all cash in my trading account and have sold silver bullion as well (for my trading account of course). Yet I believe silver will make new highs and approach the highs not seen since January 1980. Am I insane? No, just bearish medium term and bullish long term. The graph below explains my shorter term fears.

The basic question is how long do silver price runs last? Do they go on forever? Obviously not. The chart shows that since March 2003 where we place the start of this 10+ year bull market, there have been six good price runs in silver. They lasted for a range of 7 to 12 months before either spectacularly crashing or entering a grinding period of consolidation. The average period was 8.8 months and this price run since late October 2008 has lasted 11 months.

 

Call it a hunch but going by the historical price hints, this price run is very long in the tooth and either due to A) crash spectacularly or B) enter a grinding period of consolidation. By some strange coincidence, what could happen next is the subject of our latest newsletter.

 

Don’t be soothed by people talking about “healthy corrections”. Silver is a volatile commodity that unlike gold blows hot and cold – very hot and cold. I don’t think there will be anything healthy about the next few months (unless you think electric shock therapy is a healthy medical procedure).

 

Now you might send me an all capitals email saying “this time it is different”. Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet against recent history. When the price crash/grind ends, sell your mother for silver and silver stocks. Okay, maybe not that extreme but you get the point?

Further analysis of silver can be had by going to our silver blog at http://silveranalyst.blogspot.com where readers can obtain a free issue of The Silver Analyst and learn about subscription details. Comments and questions are also invited via email to silveranalysis@yahoo.co.uk.

 

I am looking for the USP of silver, it’s Unique Selling Proposition. Does it exist and  do we even need one?

 

In silver, you have the technicals and you have the fundamentals. Admittedly, during my lengthening experience with silver I have paid more attention to the technical analysis of the element rather than the fundamental analysis. However, over the years I have read various articles on why certain events are bullish for silver and lo and behold silver has risen by almost five fold in that time. But has silver risen since 2003 because of certain given silver fundamentals?

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The critical juncture we suggested for silver last week has not changed. All the factors we have looked at point to silver dropping in the medium term though the shorter term (days to weeks) has scope for volatility. The RMA parameter mentioned before has sounded an alarm but for now a low decibel one. Other factors though are more shrill (refer to my blog for more details).

 

What I would like to point out (again) is that any correction is not the end of the matter for the gold and silver bull. The gold “M2 supply” chart we displayed some weeks back paints the picture of a bull market that is not over yet. This is an important chart that I think needs to be properly digested (gold cycles in black, silver price in red).

The strong implication of this chart is that gold and silver have a few years left to run higher. In this remaining time frame I expect gold to challenge the 1980s highs on an inflation adjusted basis. Gold made new nominal highs at $1032 in March 2008 but that is well short of the inflation adjusted 1980 high of about $2500. Silver is unlikely to challenge its inflation adjusted high of $135 unless a mega-buyer like the Hunt brothers steps in again but the nominal high of $52 is certainly an objective.

 

The timeframe for this blow off is 2012 at the earliest which brings me to another issue. In terms of Elliott Wave Analysis, I used to think that gold and silver would both trace out a five part impulse wave from the beginning (1999 or 2001 for gold) and we would witness a classic fifth wave climax in the distant future.

 

I don’t think that will happen now - the projected 2012 timeframe does not allow enough time for it. If wave 1 was 1999/2001 to 2008 and this is a current wave 2 correction then two of the five waves have already occupied at least 8 years of a possible 13+ year bull market. That does not leave much time for waves 3, 4 and 5. So my opinion is that the entire bull market will be a three wave affair of which the second wave is nearing completion. Another confirmation for that is that the 1964-1980 bull was a distinct three wave pattern. The final third wave will outdo the first bullish wave and if we take the first gold bull wave to be from $255 to $1032 and multiply it by a likely Fibonacci 1.618 extension then the final blow off third wave for gold could reach out to about $2000 (i.e. $700 + ($1032-$255)*1.618) but it could of course go higher.

 

Applying the same projections to silver brings us to a minimum projection of $35 but it could spike briefly higher (i.e. $8.50 + ($21.34 - $4.50)*1.618)). By some coincidence, we also note that $35 is also simply $21 multiplied by 1.618. I would also point out that a projected line from the 2004, 2006 and 2008 silver highs extends out to the low $30s as a possible confirmation. Silver and gold stocks will naturally leverage higher by a factor of 2:1 or more.

 

That all sounds exciting for the precious metals investor but for the meantime investors need to be prepared for a medium term wash out in preparation for the next and final great buying opportunity.

 

 

Further analysis of silver can be had by going to our silver blog at http://silveranalyst.blogspot.com where readers can obtain a free issue of The Silver Analyst and learn about subscription details. Comments and questions are also invited via email to silveranalysis@yahoo.co.uk.

 

The overbought indicators ares till screaming and I am sidelined from my speculative positions for now though those who short silver may find opportunities here.

I have introduced a $20 subscription service at my blog (silveranalyst.blogspot.com/) which I call Silver Analyst Lite and this gives access to the message board updates I give to full subscribers but you don't get the monthly newsletters. Check it out and subscribe if you like it. I will also for a while give the latest issue of my newsletter free to new subscribers.

Silver has put in a real price push in the last few months having run from a low of $12.45 on the 13^th July to a current best high of $17.66. Now the talk is of $25 or higher silver and $1500 gold. Buyers are coming out in force afraid to miss out on a big move and are piling into bullion, stocks and ETFs. Meanwhile the smart money is ready to take their profits and move on. Not because silver must be suppressed at all costs but rather because profits are the lifeblood of any business be it the sole trader riding the short term moves or the investment bank whose share price depends on consistently profitable buying and selling.

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Is the gold and silver bull over? Can we all sell our core and speculative holdings in anticipation of another precious metals desert ahead? The action in gold and silver since the crash of March 2008 would make us wonder if the multiyear moves in these metals is over.

 

I was never inclined to accept that but a recent finding has made me modify those views. In a nutshell, there will be a desert for gold and silver but it is not yet and this bull is not over yet.

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