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We all have a lot of fun on this site with our ongoing theme of pushing wrinkly dissembling bearshitters down open manhole covers, steel fire escapes and empty elevator shafts,, but time in South Florida can really change one’s perspective.

Brothers and sisters, there are fewer more important imperatives for the ongoing health of our civilization than a reverance for our elderly citizens. Think of it — our aged are our only living link with history. Each is a conduit to the past alive and inextinguishable. Those of you lucky enough to still have all four grandparents still with you and sentient (I have none alive) have a veritable treasure trove of personal and historical information unique to your own ancestral past.

Even those of you with living parents (I’m one for two, unfortunately) can still reach back to a period before your birth where those before you confronted the same irascible problems and uncomfortable situations you struggle with every day.

Let’s not be hubristic. There is not brave new world, and the errors and intransigencies of this life have been painted and repainted on the walls of caves and castles many time before this. Why not take the opportunity, while it’s available to us, to plumb the depths of history, even as it stands before us, weathered, mellowed and perhaps past the cheap cynicism that mars the not-yet old.

Reach out — today if you can– and have an elderly friend or relative over for lunch or dinner. Ask them about their youth, and what times were like for them and their family. You will be well compensated for your time and interest, I promise you.
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What do you know? [[SLV]] is kicking Dungeons & Dragons Geek arse in a plummeting-down-the-elevator-shaft fashion. Who’d a thunk it?

Platinum has awoken as well. Dont’ forget about Stillwater Mining Company [[SWC]] , North American Palladium, Ltd. [[PAL]] and [[PTM]] . I share with you my good will, and my winning ways (ahem [[TBT]] ) as I head off into the mists of South Florida, to do “kids stuff & shit.”

Best to you all.
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We be coursin’ out o’ the far lip o’ the storm and here it tis at her strongest.    With the power o’ yon circlin’ vortex, it will try to drag ye to yer briny doom deep in the cold confines o’ Davey Jones’ Locker.   Take heed, lads!

Make an eye on yon dollar representative [[UUP]] — note how he’s strooglin’ and dancin’ like a half-mad murth’rous boocaneer at the end o’ a strip of fine English gallows hemp?    He’s tryin’ tah break ye lads, and his murth’rous brither, $DXY has shot all it’s grape over $81.00 as oirly as this morn!     They’re after ye traisure lads, as shore as I was born a palsied pain and boirnin’ boyle to the British Empire’s arse!

Aim yer guns down, lads, right below the waterline of yon King’s Federal Admiralty First Rater, the H.M.S. BernYankme, for her three decks are festooned with dollar cannon, ready to sink ye with all hands aboard, and yor sparkly traisure o’ silver and gold as well!   

But beware the storm that assists yon bewigged and brass-buttoned scurvy Federal Redcoats, blowin’ out of the South Mediterannean, and the Aegean Sea.   Tis driving the dollar to new highs against the warped and besotted Euro.   Fill the lifeboats with [[DRR]] and other provisions such as meat pasties and cane sugar.   Despite the dollar tide being up near a full 100 basis points, [[GLD]] and even [[SLV]] are riding the storm well, which gives me good cheer, even as my cutlass runs red down it’s fuller, and my beard sizzles with ball and gunpowder.

[[SVM]] and [[PAAS]] which were laggards last week, seem to be holding out the best in the silver circus.   [[EXK]] , Hecla Mining Company [[HL]] and [[CDE]] are next in line, with my favourite (sic) Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] taking the worst of the tsunami wave for the rest of her crew.   

The cautious among ye will await the drop o’ DXY below the $81.00 sea line.   At that point, I think even the Treasury Bane [[TBT]] will be boardable without fear of it becoming a Jonah.   Me three favourite golds, Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] , Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) [[IAG]] seem to be holding up in that order as well.

Hold hard mates, I see a calm horizon when this sqall be done.

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Omm Nom! Nom! Nom!
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Looks like Mr. Limm and kin are trying to take away our punch bowl.   Not bloody likely, I say.

You see, the Chinese really only have one way to cauterize the inflation wound they are already seeing in their economy — and that’s by removing themselves from their peg to the U.S. dollar.  They can make all the noise in the world about raising reserve requirements and dampening loan growth, but they will will still strain to be heard over the “clack-clack-clack” of the U.S. Mintex 3ooo Printing Robots in the basement of Ben Bernanke’s Transylvania Castle.

I say, if the Chinese refuse to de-peg their currancy and let the Yuan run free, naked and untethered, they ought to just continue to get drunk and buy stocks.    It’s the only rational thing to do when you are allowing your currency to be devalued right along with that of the Great White Ghost across the Pacific.  

And let’s face it, there’s only so much iron ore, coal, copper, lead, zinc, chromium and every other heavy metal for industrial usage left in this globe.   Outside dredging the Hudson River, that is, but even that reclamation project is years away.   The Chinese know all this and realize the only way to keep those prices cheap to them is by miming along to the dollar prop story.  

Again, raising Chinese reserve ratios is not going to do that if Helicopter Ben is easing quantitatively as fast as his machines can print, purchase and store massive haystacks of U.S. cabbage like he is.   We all know (and yes, the Chinese leadership knows) that fast cash to you is just heading right back into the Chinese economy via click-bought and big box consumer goods purchases (oh, and look here, retail sales are strengthening… wonder where those goods are coming from?).  What’s more, that money, once washed up on the shores of the South China Sea has to go right back into the commodity markets as the Chinese continue to build out infrastructure and purchase raw materials inventory.

Here me now and believe me later — The Chinese cannot “whip inflation” by themselves while they are tied to the dollar, and while their growing economy is tied to our consumption.   These are infrastructural realities that are not going to change because the Chinese CB has decided to take a stern line on lending reserves.  So sorry.

My take?  Eat a samich (sic) this morning until at least 11 am to see where the market settles out.    Gold is currently down only about $16 (less than 1.5%) and silver, as usual is taking it harder, down 44 cents (2.8%), with the DXY at a current $80.64.   I continue to believe this is a shakeout, and that the dollar will not continue much higher than here, despite all this “nooze” circulating to keep it propped.  If we break much above $81, however, I will be forced to reassess, and perhaps take a little off some of my riskier metal plays.

Best to you all.

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Update:  I notice in my haste to get out this morning’s post that I neglected to give you a run down on yesterday’s purchases (which were recorded in real time on The PPT, of course, as were today’s).   Yesterday I added to the following positions:

2k Petroleo Brasileiro SA (ADR) [[PBR]] @ $40.60

4k Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] @ $8.46

2k Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] @ $12.66

2k Thompson Creek Metals Company, Inc. [[TC]] @ $12.67

10k NGAS Resources, Inc. [[NGAS]] @ $1.62

1K Sociedad Quimica y Minera (ADR) [[SQM]] at $37.06

This morning’s purchases (also “adds”):

2k [[PAAS]] @ $21.75

4k Gold Fields Limited (ADR) [[GFI]] @ $11.75

 

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Everything must go!

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As the Turkey Gods take awkward flight from the Bridges of the Kosciuszko (sic), so too they leave with Mom’s silverware firmly “en beak.”

And hey, what a shocker that the markets found an excuse to sell themselves into perdition this late in the daily cycle, no?  Who would have thought?   

For my part, I was only happy that I was afforded the chance to sell some more gold and silver positions at only a slight discount to Wednesday’s highs.   Today, I cut into the actual bullion positions, with a 5k sell of [[SLV]] at $18.02 and a 1k sell of [[GLD]] in the $115.40’s.  I also boosted the last (600 shs) of my [[AGQ]] position just south of $68.

For those who’ve been paying attention, that’s about 50% of each PM position in my port if you include the 40 Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] April $55 calls I sold today (at $4.80 and $4.90) as well.

I also dumped 2k  more Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] in the $13.02-.04 range.  I am now up to 30% cash overall, and if you exclude the large position in United Parcel Service, Inc. [[UPS]] that I cannot sell, I am very close to 50% in cash for the remainder of the portfolio. 

Here’s what else — I expect to sell more Monday and on any knee-jerk bounce in the early parts of next week’s “Tryptophan Rebound.”   Remember:

The Ghost of a Turkey God does not a Turkey God’s Blessing endow.  (Confucious)

I may throw up some charts, but for now, I am taking the Jacksons to 50% cash as well, with a “butcher’s cut” slap chop to every position in uniform fashion.   I will likely post that revision this weekend along with said charts, if you are lucky, and if I am not overburdened by post-Holiday catch-all catch-up here at the homestead.

My take — this is not over, even as I concur with many on this boar that the Dubai thing was a rasher of extra rancid bacon from those who eschew such lovely pork products in their nutritious diets. 

Be cautious, and be wary of stopped-watch bears who are right once a quarter.   Best to you all.

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“The Check Is in the Mail, Inshallah”
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The Turkey Gods are punishing Europe and Asia for not properly honoring Thanksgiving, as is proper and righteous.  

If you think, however, that we will escape the “surprize!” news that Dubai may default on all those re-donkulous island developments with which they were blotting the Arabian Sea during the height of the funny money period, well… have another bowl of stuffing and steel yourself for a margin call.

There was massive selling on strength in the [[SPY]] yesterday (close to $700 mm) and I thought that would mean Fly would get his 10,500 and “done” on Friday.   With the Euros getting emasculated in early Turkey Day trading (down anywhere from 3.2% to 3.4%), however, all bets may be off, and our sweet tongued friend may remain “family friendly” till at least the end of December.

In other non-surprising news, I sold even more Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) [[SSRI]] and Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] yesterday, 2k shares each, and to my horror, at prices well below their close.   That said, I am feeling more and more comfortable with my cash horde, and with my taking money off the table in these high falutin’ $HUI stocks.  

On Friday, I expect I will take the final step of getting rid of the rest of my [[AGQ]] (only 600 shs left, so not much) and selling some [[SLV]] and [[GLD]] for the first time in 14 months. 

I will not sell Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] or Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] only because I have not yet built full positions in those, and will take this pullback as a gift.  I have trimmed every other position anywhere from 30-50%, however.

I plan to celebrate tonight with some nice turkey and egregious amounts of California cabernet.  Caymus Special Reserve is my favourite (sic), but I’ll also bring some Freemark Abbey, as it’s a friend’s winery, and I’m partial.

Please have a Happy Thanksgiving, and try not to think too much about how cranes in Arabia (or other wealthy developing nation enclaves) nearly always designate a market top for most of the Western World.    

Best to you all, my friends, and watch the drinking and driving.

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I knew I shouldn’t have shorted SLV!
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Shorting silver in a plunging dollar market with gold on the move is almost as dumb as “going for it” on 4th and 2 on your own 28 , about two minutes to go and with the lead.

Heck, maybe it’s even more dumb. At least Belichick– with his multiple Lombardi Trophy mantle display– had an excuse to feel arrogant about his low-percentage play-calling. The silver bears, who were gold bears before that and stock bears before even that had no call to compound mistake after mistake by risking the last remnants of their capital on such an audacious call.

And now they are paying for it, or to be more incisive — paying me. [[AGQ]] which you recall I added when I heard that the “Reverse Lock” was shorting silver, is up another 1000 basis points this morning. I can’t imagine what that’s doing to the leveraged short ursines, but it’s gotta be something close to being drawn, quartered and then lightly salted/lightly peppered before being chucked on the grill, marbled T-bone style.

Amazingly, silver has decided to catch up to gold this morning, with an over one dollar move (price of silver is up $1.02 cents as I type this, or 5.9%) today, the silver to gold ratio now stands at a stunningly low 62x, down from 64x as of late last week.

Gee, I wonder if that move to rationality is going to continue (remember, gold is continuing to rise as well)?

You’ve seen this list before, but at the risk of boring you, go get ’em:

Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] [[PAAS]] [[EXK]] Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) [[SSRI]] [[CDE]] Hecla Mining Company [[HL]] And a new one I haven’t talked much about — [[SVM]] .

Don’t forget about the pure bullion plays either. [[SLV]] is one time and [[AGQ]] is two.

Happy hunting, and watch for pullbacks. We are parabolizing here, so I am talking off the rest of my call positions today.

Best to you all.
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Addendum: Platinum is another precious metal in “catch up” mode. I’ve banged the drum on [[PTM]] enough times that you should have at least a little. This should be a continuing move, here, however. I am also considering, but have not yet bot [[PAL]] , which is a dodgy stock even in the best of times.

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