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In fact, it may only be around temporarily this morning, but silver has dropped about 1% this morning in early trading (due to a slight uptick in the dollar) while gold has held pretty much flat. That puts our new Gold/Silver ration at a hair over 67.2x , and I So I’m going to take this opportunity to load up on some more select names in bullion [[AGQ]] — and in miners, with [[EXK]] , [[SVM]] , [[CDE]] , [[PAAS]] and yes, even Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] again.

I will not be pulling the trigger all at once, as I would like to see if we get more dollar strength in the day, but given the strength of gold in this downdraft, I don’t believe this divergence will hold for very long. Either gold will drop down to a low 60’s POG/POS ratio, or silver will rise. In either case, I think our safer bet will be silver again.

Also, I may dabble in some more [[PTM]] here, which has shown very good relative strength through this whole dollar strenghthening period, as has the platinum/palladium miner [[PAL]] .

Best to you all.

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You’ll be Fortunate if You Can Keep Your Moustache Clean
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Just get in the manhole and try not to mind the company of the rats.  That is, unless you get hungry over the next couple of days. 

I think we are going to hit that dollar high in the next few days, probably by Wednesday, as this Greek PIIG drama doesn’t seem to want to go away.  That means we will probably see one final washout in the market as well, before a recovery.   

The good news is that the precious metals — gold, silver, and even more so platinum and palladium, are hanging in there and remaining rather unfazed by this most recent 50+cent appreciation in the DXY.   This is encouraging and may signal that the metals themselves will be turning before even the market.  

That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one final reach down as the dollar heads to our target in the $80.20 range.   For gold, that might mean a test of the $1,030-40 area after all, and for silver, likely a break of the $16.00 mark.   I will be poised for that event — and on any rapid shakedown to these levels I will be adding egregiously to my [[AGQ]] and Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] for certain, and quite possibly I may add a touch more Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] , Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and [[EXK]] as well.   I am holding out for one last purchase on the June $11 Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] calls too — hopefully in the low $3.00 range this time. 

We had quite a beard-curling day on Friday and I wouldn’t be surprised if we opened strong on Monday, only to give it all back in a nervous, feckless cowardly bout of trading that meanders thoughtlessly even unto Wednesday.

I say to you, now, do this:  Grab some cigars and some cheap bourbon and call five of your favourite (sic) comrades for a poker game below the city streets, under the comforting aegis of a two inch thick Neenah Wisconsin-forged steel manhole cover.    There, among the hollow echoes of  the moist, steam-filled tunnels and amidst the occassional squabble with the rats over the Cheez-it bowl, you will remain relatively unscathed — and perhaps more important, distracted — in the days ahead.  

Later, this week, we will comb out our moustaches and re-take our rightul places on the street-side of the manholes, where we shall kick various bears and their entourages down aforesaid (still) open cataracts, where they shall each reside again in bitterness, without the aid of kerosene lantern, cozy parka, or thrilling paperback romance novel.  

Off to price expensive cigars and cheap, but bracing bourbon.  Bless you, my friends.

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Stepped up the buying today, in the teeth of the downdraft.  I see these fat white bloated English bodies piled high, but stand firm in my resolution that we are approaching an oversold bounce in the precious market.   [[GDX]] gives me more than a ray of hope with it’s action today:

Note the 61.8% retrace hit on this weekly chart.   That’s a very significant level, which will usually put up a ton of support from the underside (as well as resistance on top).   Now we may get another tap of this level tomorrow, but I think this is the place we should all be accumulating our PM’s of choice.

You know I have.

Today, I added another 2k of Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] at $14.03, and yet another 40 June 11’s of the same name, this time at $3.90.   Don’t ask me why I keep buying 40 contracts at a time, there’s probably some internal fibonacci mechanism at work here.  I also added 2k more of Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] below $13 and another 4k of [[EXK]] at $3.32.  Last I put on 1k more CDE at below $15-.   I think that’s it for me in that name.

I also added significantly to my [[AGQ]] net weurth (sic), with another 800 shs at $51.52, give or take.   I now have 2k shares total.   I will add, but cautiously, to this bucking bronco.   I think that the dollar — [[DXY]] may scoop to $80 here, which could some additional pressure on the PM’s.

It will all be temporary, I aver.  

On the hedging side, I dumped another 50 of my [[SPY]] puts at a nice profit, which generally means that there will be a waterfall decline tomorrow morning.

You think I’m kidding.   I’m not.   I have 100 SPY puts left, and am still “full up” with 14k [[BGZ]] and 10k [[QID]] .   This has cushioned some of my long losses these last few days, but I can tell you verily that I look forward to blowing out of these positions.

I think we approach that time.   Keep in mind silver is trading right now at one sixty seventh the price of gold.  That’s nuts, and could presage a gold drop to $1,030-ish.    Even there the POG is still well over 60x the price of silver.  

Short summary — silver is already sold.   I don’t feel it has a whole lot farther to go.  Trade accordingly.

Best to you all.

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfu2A0ezq0 450 300]

Official Theme Song of Obamerica

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I may own 16 tonnes (sic) of No. 9 Silver by the end this downdraft.

So be it. 

Yesterday, I took it up a notch, as reported in my comments section.  Not only did I add yet again to my Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] call horde, with 40 more June $11’s at $4.10, but I also began to purchase my old friend [[AGQ]] , with 600 shs at $53.77 and later in the day, another 600 at $55.11.    I may add to that double silver horde again this morning if I can get this post done.

(It’s troubling to me that sometimes the blogging gets in the way of trading and other weurth(sic)-while endeavours (sic).)

For those of you watching at home, I’m almost back up to my total pre-December concentrated position in Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] with 18k shares.  Another 2k will finish that hording.   I am also up to 14k on the smaller [[EXK]] , and 7.5k on [[CDE]] .    Because of the selling I did in December, I still have a lot of dry powder, which I will employ if we get one more push to the $1,030 area in gold.   As it is, however, we may not get past the $1,075 I’d mentioned earlier in the week.

The important datum in this scenario, however is the ratio of the prices of gold and silver — right now, the price of gold stands at a nosebleed 65.75 multiple of the price of silver.   As I’ve mentioned before, recent historical price ratios are normally between 40 and 50 times.   So yes, gold may drop from here, but even in a drop to $1,030 from here, gold is still at near-nosebleed 61.6x the price of silver (with silver at the $16.71 an ounce it’s at right now).

So yes, I’m accumulating silver, in the sixteen tonnes range — it’s a value play at this point, and indubitably so.   As one of my colleagues in The PPT explained yesterday “I had a dream where everyone’s future wealth was determined by how large of a silver belt buckle they wore.”

I also added 2k of [[PAAS]] yesterday in the $21.65 range.   That was a standing buy order that just got hit.   That’s been happening a lot lately. 

On the gold front, I will look to add to Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and perhaps some Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] today, as I got my IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) [[IAG]] position up to 10k shares as of yesterday as well with a buy in the low $14’s.     For the record, I am not adding any [[SLV]] or [[GLD]] here, as I still have half my positions left over from the December sales. 

If anything, I will add more [[AGQ]] today, and judging by it’s price, that may be soon.

Best to you all.

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Update:  Sorry for not mentioning the banks, which continue to look good, even as the Great Bankers (Geithner and Bernanke) continue to look bad (and mad) before the dopes in Congress.  Odd, no?

  BB&T Corporation BB&T Corporation [[BBT]] continues to be a top pick, and even the stalwart sons of the Confederacy down at Sterne Agee and Leech(es) have given it a “buy” with a target of $33 (my target is $38, as you know).   Thanks to The PPT for that bit of information.    

I also like Pacific Capital Bancorp [[PCBC]] on this weakness, just remember it is a lotto type pick, and go lightly, Holly.   Fifth Third Bancorp [[FITB]] and Huntington Bancshares Incorporated [[HBAN]] continue on the Crosby Still Nash & Young theme of “Four Dead in Oh-hi-oh” — as Nat City and Provident are already dead, and these may survive, AND MORE.

Best.

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Exchanging the Secret Handshake
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The guy on the right in the picture above is counting on the stupidity of his majority peasant populace to pull off one of the grandest day-time thefts in recent years — the 50% devaluation of his country’s currency by fiat Executive declaration. Like the crazed-with-power dictator in Woody Allen’s classic comedy Bananas who declared “All children… under the age of 16 years old.. are now…. 16 years old,” El Pizza Face above is “declaring” that every unit of currency (the “bolivar“) is worth one half of what it was worth yesterday… just “because.”   

What’s even funnier is he’s now saying that retailers cannot raise prices in response to this devaluation, upon pain of seizure.  How long do you think retail businesses can stay open charging 50% under cost of goods?   One wonders also how long even the economically illiterate majority of Venezuela will stand for such blatent skulduggery?   I’m guessing for about as long as the food stores hold out.

Meanwhile back here in this country, we’ve got that pesky Constitution getting in the way of any similar grand plans to immediately double the money supply.   But our leaders want to get in on the free-gov’t-money-for-votes-racket too,  so they’ve got to come up with more creative methodologies.  

Luckily, they’ve got a compliant Federal Reserve whose number one priority is saving themselves and the badly damaged fractional reserve banking system.   That means the Fed’s alleged “guiding missions” of maintaining low inflation and a high rate of employment take a back seat to the Darwinian imperative — “survival at all costs.”   This is good news for the dear leaders in Congress and the White House.

What’s more, our leaders have got the rest of the world using our currency as reserves.   That means, for this brief shining moment in history, our leaders can do what Hugo Chavez only wishes he could do — print fresh new bails of cash via deficit financing with little to no apparent consequence to our national economic status.

For now. 

But Mother Economics is even more of a caustic wit than Mother Nature, and much like these soi-disant world governors who are being served flaming slices of “Humble Baked Alaska” with these record-breaking cold temperatures, so too will our Congressional and Fed Capos reap multiple facial hatchetings to their long beards for this extended abuse of global trust.   The dollar may not halve in value over night like the Meatball’s Bolivar did, but it’s breaking down all the same.  

Today’s action has us back in the congestion zone again, which is a sticky swamp as of late.   This means good news for commodities and other real things as the clarion bell of inflation is being rung once again.   Answering the call is your one and only “Stock of the Year” pick Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] , now clearly BTFO’ing to new 52-week highs.   I like it on a pullback, as it has a reputation for filling gaps.

While [[GLD]] is moving up in a stately patrician manner, [[SLV]] and its turbocharged brother  [[AGQ]] are playing catch-up, and will likely out-perform in the near term.   Same holds true for the other precious non-gold varietals like [[PTM]] and the two platinum-palladium miners [[PAL]] (which is a rocket ship headed to the sun, Icharus-style) and Stillwater Mining Company [[SWC]] .

Don’t forget all the junior burritos I’ve given you in the past.   Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] , Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) [[IAG]] head the list, but the “Nth Factor” — NovaGold Resources Inc. (USA) [[NG]] , New Gold Inc. (USA) [[NGD]] and Northgate Minerals Corporation (USA) [[NXG]] are roaring too, along with Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (USA) [[IVN]] , Rubicon Minerals Corp. (USA) [[RBY]] , Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] and many others.   

If I had to pick another “launch to the sun” like Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] I think it would probably be [[EXK]] .   It reminds me of SLW in the old days.     Hold on to your capital people, they will try to appropriate it in multiple fashions going forward.  

Best to you all.

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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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