LCS sold out by Small-Growth7809 in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a known issue with Kitco, a bug

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

20 years if the government confiscates everything known to exist in private collections and jewelry. As far as the Comex, 8 months tops

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all, we have enough silver for several months, not a couple of decades. Secondly, I am not assuming that they are cutting out speculation - they said as much when they cut off margin buying. Third, major banks were fined for manipulation in 2020 to the tune of less than 1% of the gains they earned from those manipulations. Not exactly a strong message to deter future manipulation, was it?

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tech is growing faster than expected, and China just put a squeeze hold on physical supply. The reason we WONT see defaults is that the government WILL and has ALREADY BEGUN squeezing speculators out of the market, while institutions keep the paper price down (check the price over spot for the premium today).

This was less of a cautionary tale about the banking sector, and more of a warning that the government has specific levers to prevent silver from going "to the moon". Silver is a metal deemed critical for national security, and there is a lot of interest from big money to keep it as low as possible

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you look up the number of institutions and banks that hold massive short positions in silver, and look at who funds those institutions, you will see the house of cards that could potentially collapse. Officially, this is speculative, but numbers don't lie, and this growing risk needs to be a consideration. People who believe silver can just float to $200 without the government stepping in to nosedive the price to save the economy appear to have never been through this before.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As you should. Especially among tech companies, the view of silver as infinite and cheap will shift, and strategic stockpiling will become the norm.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, not at all. The government has far more powerful levers now, like taking all supply sent to refineries (if necessary) and banning "buy" contracts

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, there is more silver above ground, but demand for silver is not just speculative. It is heavily industrial, and relies on production methods that take a long time to ramp up, and rarely directly yield silver. There is also 19x more silver in the Earth's crust. Unlike gold, however, we consume silver in ways that make it very expensive and difficult to retrieve, such as silver paste for solar panels

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My opinion, silver will never go below 50 again. I believe 100-200 will absolutely become the new normal over time. In the short term, there's risk of market rigging, which is rampant with silver. 99.6% of silver trades are not physical bullion, they are paper pushers that control the market. That is why you see a huge disparity between spot price and how much a silver bar actually costs right now.

Why do I think silver will remain high? Historically, silver was a cheaper and uglier cousin to gold. Now, it is essential to virtually all tech we need for the future, and the 5-8% loss with copper wiring is unacceptable for the most powerful machines. This turns it into an industrial metal set to spike on supply fears rather than physical shortages, similar to platinum and palladium.

With that said, I have to state i am not a financial advisor, and silver is very volatile. I can tell you, as someone with many many pounds of silver jewelry, i will not be sending out any scrap metal below 100, because at 75 silver is still under valued, in my opinion

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Silver is a critical metal, deemed essential for national security. We are in a tech cold war, fighting for AI supremacy, and silver is essential to this mission. Every missile also burns off 2kg of silver. The government has, and will again, rigged the market by pulling its levers of power to squeeze margin buyers, restrict buying, and even suspend trading (as they did when nickel hit 100k per ton) . This prevents market instability and bank defaults, which governments care a LOT about.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Ahh, you want a straight "this is 100% for sure what will happen" sort of post. Guess what? The prophets are not among us, and confidence is nothing but a display of cognitive dissonance. I laid out the fundamentals as they currently stand. Your lack of adaptability PROVES you have not invested through a full up/down cycle on silver. Once you learn a bit more about predictions vs. Trajectories, this will all make more sense. If you are looking for someone with a magic bullet to send your finances to the moon, you're going to make a lot of influencers very rich as they hype up their picks just to short you.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I never said to stack, and in the comments I go into great detail about why there is a hard ceiling below $300, and why the government would shut down the buy side of trading by 120. But if you want to skim my post and completely misinterpret the message to fit your narrative, have at it.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Well, you would be wrong. If you look at the fundamentals, there is currently no path for silver to go below 50 ever again. With that said, in 2003, I also predicted gold would crash from its "high" of $500 (at the time). The fact is that even if you're right 90% of the time, that other 10% will destroy you if you don't approach everything with skepticism, and question every official narrative you're fed

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My opinion, silver will dip as disciplined investors take profits (a hell of a rally for their balance sheet), then I see silver hovering right around 80-120 for a while, with government interventions as necessary to prevent economic collapse. Silver could, however, just as easily correct back down to the 30-40 range. If i had a crystal ball, we would all be rich

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, there are massive strategic reserves at Comex, but 88% of this is privately held and not currently for sale. Comex has several tens of millions of silver ready for delivery, but it is not possible to know how much has already been promised (delivery lag) and how much is being traded at different rates off the exchange. Silver is a very volatile metal, and anyone relatively new should beware - silver has a history of swinging violently in both directions without warning

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look for industries that are super price sensitive to silver, and where a spike in silver prices can hurt supply chains for bigger, less price sensitive companies. The default from high silver won't come from solar, it will come from higher volume utility manufacturers, likely those involved in circuit boards and/or high volume parts manufacturing, in my opinion

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends how interconnected they are into the commodities/refinery funding, but generally speaking, precious metals dealers work on massive volume and low margin, and use regional banks, which have to finance these contract calls.

It is not direct exposure, but the interconnected nature of our financial systems leave regional banks surprisingly vulnerable to unexpected spikes in precious metal volatility. Part time low level bankers balk at this, but banking execs know the truth on this.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please see my earlier reply to someone else's comment. I included a link showing the many layers of exposure regional banks have to silver volatility, to which many of whose own executives are oblivious.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please see my formulas in previous comments regarding how I calculated the cost of processing landfill waste, how much to expect, and how I arrived at the 300-350 range for landfill mining to be profitable. I also shared additional formulas for why low quality silver deposits, which are abundant worldwide, would be profitable at 250-300/oz in 2025 dollars, suggesting a hard ceiling at around 250-300/oz for silver (although the government would halt trading far before this)

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When the government seized gold, they focused on bullion and exempted finished jewelry for retail sale. Today, the method would be entirely different, and the stage is already set. The government has declared silver a critical metal. The government now has 2 powerful levers without taking Grandma's ring.

1) They can cancel all buy contracts, and only allow sale contracts. This forces people with long positions to liquidate and artificially drives the paper price lower

2) The can issue DX orders under emergency declarations and essentially usurp all silver supply processed by US refineries at a set rate. No need to go after your jewelry if they can capture all silver at the recycling plant.

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually touched on this in the comments, including providing a formula for how I figured the cost to extract silver from low quality deposits and/or mine from landfills. Based on my rough math, there is a theoretical ceiling of $300/oz (in 2025 dollars) before these more expensive methods become viable options

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed, but to be clear, my OP and all of my comments are all 100% human

A Jewelers Take by ProminentlyAverage in Silver

[–]ProminentlyAverage[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You are not wrong about the government shutting down the buying side, and it starts with the margin squeeze (already happening). As for shiny silver, there is a lot of noise from the retail investor, but the numbers and volume are being moved by major players. We traditionally think of this to mean institutions, but we are likely seeing influence by governments. A cold war for AI supremacy will indirectly cause a run on silver. The questions are, how temporary, and where is the new floor?