Manipulation occurs in just about every aspect of human existence. Governments manipulate both information and people to accomplish their objectives. This piece will focus on the manipulation that takes place in financial markets in general and more specifically in the precious metals markets. Some degree of manipulation takes place in all markets because whenever money is involved there are people who will do anything to win. The one thing that proves true is that whatever reasons for prices to move, be it fundamentals of the underlying commodity or security, or technical factors like money flows, they all show up in the price and get reflected in the patterns that are revealed in the charts. While other markets have varying degrees of rules and regulators to minimize the amount of manipulation that takes place, history is replete with examples(too numerous to list) where they have failed to accomplish their intended level of fairness and true price discovery based on supply and demand. The most glaring example is the 50 plus year price manipulation that has occurred in the precious metals trading on the COMEX. These futures contracts were set up for the sole purpose of allowing the banks to suppress the prices of gold and silver, to hide the level of actual currency debasement by the US government and the Federal Reserve. When we look at the long term chart of gold we see that despite their best efforts, they can only control the short to intermediate term prices. Over the 50 year period gold has appreciated significantly. Not proportionately to the amount of the currency created, but significant, none the less. Silver on the other hand has been controlled much more tightly and is so out of wack from both it’s fundamental value as an industrial commodity and in relation to the increase in fiat currency creation. That’s the back story.  Every move of the prices of these commodities/currencies gets reflected on price charts, therefore, technical analysis, which I have studied and been a big believer in for over 55 years, is the best tool there is. While it can capture what has gone on in the past and offer clues as to what is likely to happen in the future, it cannot be 100% accurate given the level of manipulation that takes place in gold and silver trading in a totally rigged system that allows unlimited creation of paper contracts of gold and silver. That is coming to an end. The physical draining of metal inventories in both NY and London, with physical metal flowing to China, India, Russia and other mostly Asian nations, combined with the new currency regime being implemented by the BRIC nations, will end this 50+ year abomination. No one knows how much of an upward adjustment in price will take place and how fast, nor how long it will take to accomplish, after such a long period of total manipulation and price suppression. I would think it will be both dramatic and disruptive. The Chinese symbol for Crisis is the same as for Opportunity. As the Chinese also say, may you live in interesting times.