Sep 3 at 10:36 PM

The information in this report about how the price of silver was propelled higher during August primarily by short covering in the Comex silver futures contract is correct. The market data for silver futures, forwards, coins, and ETFs shows that this was the location of most of the buying in August. Physical demand was relatively low, even in ETFs. This was concrete information, refutable only by people who do not believe in facts.

Whether the price falls this week and next was an analytical statement, as opposed to concrete information. I am in South Africa right now, so not focusing so much on the silver market as I am on what I need to be doing here. That said, what we saw on Tuesday in silver and gold appears to have been something else – buying based on political developments in England, the U.S., HK, and elsewhere. I have not looked at the data to see where the buying was coming from – but to be fair to myself the data was not available on Tuesday and will only start to be available in the public today.

It may be that prices do not fall back because the short-covering, now over in the September Comex futures contract, may have been replaced by buying based on other factors. And, we need to see who is doing that buying: investors or shorter term opportunistic traders.

So: We stand by the information about what was happening in August, and the course of metals prices this week and in the future will depend on what else is happening.

I hope that helps.

Jeff Christian