Gold and silver sell off

The naysayers are crowing, saying gold and silver have peaked. This week’s volatility was certainly unnerving, a sharp lesson for whipsawed traders. But we assess the true position.

Gold and silver have had a turbulent week, hitting all-time highs yet again before a sharp fall on Monday, followed by sharp falls yesterday and this morning (Friday). In European trade this morning, gold was $5060 for a net rise of $70 on the week, having hit a high of $5597 on Thursday. Understandably, silver was even more volatile down a net $4.20 at $99.20, having hit a high of $121.50. Comex volumes in gold were high, while in silver they declined over the week.

Commentary in mainstream and social media overwhelmingly opines that gold and silver are too high, have topped out, are wildly overbought, and by implication will now decline significantly at least wiping out much of the explosive rise of recent weeks. It must be admitted that anything that rises 66% in a month as silver has done is going to see price violence both ways. But it matters why prices have risen to assess their future course.

We shall start with gold. In London and Comex we can assume that the bullion banks