Just thought I would say that Wednesday/Thursday witnessed a massive frenzy (literally) of retail pm buying.
As I posted, my own analysis told me the market was still very weak but the literal euphoria made me even more confident (it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of it came from ZH articles calling a big move up and forecasting devastatingly low jobs numbers on the Friday- it is the pm crowd's darling after-all.)
The spreads I noticed on Bullionvault Silver were as large as I have seen them for a good while, and the % over spot that people were paying was insane. Those little piggies got put to slaughter, and justly so if you want to be utterly gullible.
Gold is in a trading range of 1530-1800 now. Intermediate term swing traders will be active at either end, but new and serious money will be required to take it to an upside breakout. I'm not sure what else will do that other than inflation expectations picking up significantly. QE infinity plus a plethora of other central bank QE certainly hasn't done it as many might have expected.
Agree regarding the trading range. Sideways move always difficult to trade. However, rejection of 1800 yet again is significant for me. Especially for the 3rd time.
Issue is when all currencies devalue against each other not much changes.
Both US and EU promised QE and bond purchases but new QE is very small (in the $20bns I read somewhere) in the US.
In Europe both Spain and Italy reluctant to borrow and pursuing with cuts and austerity measures. The facility is there if anybody wants it and this has eased market worries.
This depression is in its 5th year. I doubt it will exist much longer than 7. So the slow L type recovery continues. As the recovery continues people will pretty much forget the last 10 years.
Sad to say but I also think rebuilding programs after hurricane Sandy is likely to add to the growth numbers too.
Moreover, Latin America and Asia still have growth. This so called recession is US/EU contained imo.
Recent hype about gold - I think was brought on to mug all the Indian seasonal buyers out of their money. But you know the guy on the street is wise and knows these are silly prices.
Increasingly I am thinking gold is now a mugs game. Risk is high and reward limited. I see more risk holding the stuff than equities with promise of dividend and capital growth as economic recovery kicks in.
To buy gold now one would need to have a very long term view on it.
Anyhow we are at a 50% retracement since May's 1530 so another bounce may transpire but lacks conviction imho.