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Silver Market Update
CME Lifts Gold, Silver Margins by 50%
Profiting From Base Metals: Stocks and ETFs for Each Type
Peter Schiff, Silver, and the End Game
Dollar Rally Fizzles but a Break May be Building
The history of Gold in Canada
Precious Metals Rise to New Heights as Turmoil Spreads in the Middle East
A Longer Term Perspective on Today's Markets
Friday ETF Roundup: XLB Tumbles, EWY Jumps Higher
Hedging Non-Gold Investments With Gold
libertads + mintages + popularity = ?
Jay Taylor on Inflation Vs. Deflation, the Possibility of a Gold Standard and Why the West Is Failing
Bits of Australia’s Gold history

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 03:20 AM PST

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 02:40 AM PST

"CME Group announced yet another series of margin requirement increases for gold and silver futures contracts.

Effective after the close of business today, initial and maintenance margin requirements on gold and silver will increase 50%, according to CME Group. CME is the owner and operator of the New York Mercantile Exchange and Commodity Exchange (COMEX), on which precious metals futures contracts are traded."

http://www.goldalert.com/2011/02/cme...margins-by-50/

Here is what I am trying to figure out. What is the current margin requirement and how does it work?

I googled it, and the November adjustment seemed to go from $5,000 per contract to $6,500 per contract.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...ements-silver/

If I am reading this correctly, the minimum size of a contract is 5,000 oz. So at $32/oz, that means they are trading $160,000 blocks. If the 50% increase in margin requirements refers to the November $6,500 figure, then logically it follows that you need to put up $9,750 for each 5,000 oz block of silver. Said another way, $9,750 gets you approximately $160,000 in margin purchasing power. So there is still a lot of room for the CME to squeeze the small players.

Now do I have this right, or am I misinterpreting something? Also, does this hurt the longs or the shorts, and how? Seems the suggestion here is that the CME did this to protect the big players and their ability to succeed or to live to fight another day in its short positions. How?

Thanks. :bandit:

Profiting From Base Metals: Stocks and ETFs for Each Type

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 01:31 AM PST

Bob Johnson submits:

From early times, metals were divided into two groups, base metals and noble metals. The rare precious metals such as gold and silver are known as the noble metals. The base metals, base as in common or low born, are the inexpensive ones. The term as used in mining and investing includes aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin

Complete Story »

Peter Schiff, Silver, and the End Game

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 12:54 AM PST

Dollar Rally Fizzles but a Break May be Building

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 12:43 AM PST

Brian Dolan submits:

US dollar rally fizzles; ranges hold for now, but a break may be building

The past week began with the greenback testing higher, only to fail and reverse course by the end of the week. The proximate cause for the reversal came following news that a pair of Iranian warships would transit the Suez Canal en route to Syria, a move which Israel labeled a 'provocation,' suggesting it might respond in some fashion. Geopolitical tensions ratcheted higher, and the JPY, CHF, gold and oil all registered sharp gains as investors sought havens.

The USD failed to attract any safe have demand, presumably on fears that any confrontation between Israel and Iran would then draw the US into the conflict. However, we think those concerns are overblown and will eventually recede. Still, the USD reversal has done some technical damage, and with a potential US government shutdown looming when the temporary

Complete Story »

The history of Gold in Canada

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 12:30 AM PST

Precious Metals Rise to New Heights as Turmoil Spreads in the Middle East

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 12:29 AM PST

Jeb Handwerger submits:

We are constantly being advised that the Egyptian military has the situation under control. As the situation develops it's becoming increasingly apparent that there is something wrong with this picture. The military and the media assure us that the morganatic wedding between the generals and the masses will proceed as scheduled. As the old song goes, "It's time to wind up the masquerade... the piper must be paid." The billion dollar question: Will the power vacuum lead to an anti-Western Islamist government?

In Russia, the czar was overthrown only to be replaced by a small minority party called "The Bolsheviks." In Germany it was the "Nazis" that replaced the Weimar Republic. The Iranian Revolution gave us the "Mullahs" instead of the Shah. The recent elections in Lebanon gave us the terroristic Hezbollah. What is to be the future role of a military that has for the past 30 years played

Complete Story »

A Longer Term Perspective on Today's Markets

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 11:10 PM PST

The Simple Accountant submits:

Another week, another 1% climb in the S&P 500...bond yields coming back in slightly...commodities starting to move a bit more sideways...Dollar pulling back. Ho hum. For this week, with the short term macro picture not giving us much to get excited about, we will step back to take a longer term view and consider where these markets might be heading. First a quick look at where we have been.

Week in Review

Stocks: As mentioned just above, the SPX - and Dow - added 1%, the NDX a bit less, small caps a bit more. Worth noting: we did finally get a Dow theory bullish confirmation, as the transports broke to a new high for the move. Energy stocks enjoyed a big week, though oil bounced around and natural gas lost ground. More smooth sailing for the stock bulls in general.

Bonds: Vexed bond investors enjoyed a week of relief

Complete Story »

Friday ETF Roundup: XLB Tumbles, EWY Jumps Higher

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 10:51 PM PST

ETF Database submits:

American equity markets finished the week on a high note as investors bought up securities ahead of the three day weekend. The Dow lead the other major indexes thanks to its 0.6% gain, followed by a 0.2% jump in the price of the S&P 500 and a 0.1% move higher in the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Commodity markets, on the other hand, were much more mixed as gold finished shy of $1,390/oz. but oil tumbled to finish at just $86/bbl. The real movement came from a variety of lesser-known commodities as softs and grains tumbled across the board, in fact, silver was one of the few commodity winners gaining slightly more than 3% in the session.

The market largely drifted higher as traders bought up securities ahead of the holiday weekend thanks to momentum and relatively strong data from corporate America. By sector, markets were pretty mixed as some of the smaller

Complete Story »

Hedging Non-Gold Investments With Gold

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 04:00 PM PST

libertads + mintages + popularity = ?

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 03:03 PM PST

i've looked at the libertad mintages. there are some really scarce coins in the series. anyone collecting the rarer specimens?

the gold proofs+bullion and the one year platinum issue are particularly interesting to me.

the modern silver libs command a premium over silver eagles. could this portend numi gains for the keys in all three of the metals?

Jay Taylor on Inflation Vs. Deflation, the Possibility of a Gold Standard and Why the West Is Failing

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 10:00 AM PST

The Daily Bell is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Jay Taylor. Jay is the editor of J Taylor's Gold, Energy & Technology Stocks newsletter. Throughout his career Mr. Taylor worked as first a commercial and then as an investment banker. Most recently, he worked in the mining and metals group of ING Barings in New York. Prior to that he was involved in the first gold loan made in modern times in the U.S. to Amax Minerals, a 250,000 oz. loan facility led by Ci