Hi Robert,

While we understand, and can fully relate to your sentiment, we also know that investing should never be based on emotions. It must be based in fact with mean reversion and empirical evidence as the guiding light. As for timing, please allow me to reiterate a famous quote from the Fed’s most (in)famous Chairman, Alan Greenspan, “The markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”

The fact that the US dollar is still defined as a specific weight of silver (371.25 grains of pure silver) should give you a clue as to its monetary role, not to mention that the word for silver is the same word for ‘money’ in 22 languages. The multi-millennial historic relationship between silver to gold has averaged ~16 to 1. The silver to gold ratio currently sits somewhere around 80 to 1. Most of the silver produced annually is actually consumed, meaning the stockpiles of silver never seem to really grow. Yet, new uses for silver (due to its antibacterial, reflective and conductive nature) continue to increase the demand on supply.

Owning physical precious metals is both a speculative trade on the future price and disaster insurance in a monetary system that is unsustainable long term. No one expects their insurance policies to grow in nominal value, yet this sentiment is pervasive when it comes to the monetary metals. Holding physical metals should be just one part of an investment strategy that includes all seven asset classes. Expecting the price of silver (or gold) to rise or fall based solely on fundamentals is a very long term strategy that must consider the massive distortions created by direct intervention by central banks and bullion banks in the market, the myriad of derivatives (like futures, swaps, leases, ETFs and certificates) and the fact that the largest contributing factor holding the price down being the unsuspecting investors participating in a game they simply don’t understand.

In summary, we encourage you to not be too focussed on the short term price action of the metals. Be a casual ‘watcher’ of the price. Most importantly, be confident that the current distortions are based on factors outside of any average investor’s control. The game being played is a reflection of multiple schemes to suppress the price that have existed throughout the ages. None of them lasted forever. They all failed. Sometimes they failed spectacularly, as we suspect this one will as well.

As with most investing, be patient and you will be rewarded. Giving up is a sure fire way to regret… and potentially, much worse than simple regret; wealth destruction.

But it just doesn’t appear to be happening.