Quote from Michael Ballanger’s latest missive.  “Only in the gold and silver markets does one sell “breakouts” and buy “breakdowns.” Why? Because they are rigged.” No truer words were ever written. In the market, if you are a technician and chartist, as almost everyone here is, you don’t buy breakdowns and sell breakouts. However, as he points out, because gold and silver are totally manipulated,(in the short term) you do. Fundamentals matter, in the long term, but technicals call the shots, short term. Two more relevant paragraphs from the same piece.

“Charts are beautiful things to behold, particularly for stocks and commodities, because they are like roadmaps that explain where you are and where you were, and if you delicately engage in the Art of Extrapolation (with a Ouija board and a pair of dice), you can often discern the next movement in the market and book profits.

In gold and silver, the bullion banks that act for the large Commercials also use charts, but they don’t just “use” charts, they deploy all manner of watercolors, oils and acrylics to create optics that will lure the masses into either bullish actions or bearish actions, all designed to create accelerated volumes into which to sell large synthetic positions of (alleged) gold and silver bullion. In other words, the Wall St. bullion banks are wizards at “painting the tape,” and that is why they are able to orchestrate “takedowns” with such violent mastery and malevolent outcome.”