Gold added about five bucks to its price from the time that trading began in the Far East Thursday…and the London a.m. gold fix. Then from there, it gave back seven dollars going into the p.m. gold fix…and after that, it gained over eight dollars until half past lunchtime in New York. Then a really serious seller showed up taking nine bucks off the price between then and the close of electronic trading in New York. It was pretty choppy trading all around…and it was obvious that every rally ran into serious resistance. The same could be said for silver. But according to the usual New York gold commentator [who is not Dennis Gartman, by the way], volume in gold was heavy…estimated at 140,658 contracts…”which involved a 21.6% surge in the last half-hour. The presence of such determined buyers and sellers during the floor session is unusual.”

Wednesday’s open interest in

All was calm in Far East trading on Friday morning. Both metals began to slip a little starting at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Hong Kong. This lasted through London trading as well…and by the time the Comex opened, gold was down $10 and silver had slid about 23 cents. But once trading started in New York, both gold and silver rallied strongly…but it should be noted that gold ‘ran out of gas’ just before $940 once again. However, silver did better…adding a bit over 30 cents before it, too, ran into ‘resistance’…but managed to close almost on its high of the day.

There wasn’t big volume yesterday, so not too much should be read into this action…but it’s always noteworthy so see that parabolic rises in prices are never allowed to get too far out of hand before the usual ‘not for profit’ sellers show up.

Despite the fact that

Once again, gold and silver mirrored each other’s price moves all through Thursday trading around the world. The high in the Far East in both metals was about 3:30 p.m. in Hong Kong…and from there, the trend was down. This trend picked up some steam about 10:00 a.m. in London and continued to accelerate to the down-side right through the Comex open. But around 8:45 a.m. in New York, gold and silver found a savior, as both metals turned on a dime…with gold picking up a hair over $20…and silver up 66 cents…from bottom-to-top during Comex trading.

It was all too good to last of course, as once the Comex floor traders went their merry ways, electronic trading took some of those gains back. However, both metals finished in the plus column yesterday…but gold just barely made it…up a whopping 40 cents!

I’ve commented before [several times over the last couple of

One aspect of my work that I love is interviewing interesting people. On June 4th, 2009 I had the pleasure of speaking with David J. Christensen, the CEO of ASA Limited [ASA: 65.44, -1.94 (-2.88%)], a closed-end, non-diversified investment company registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company was organized in Bermuda and is the successor to a closed-end investment company of the same name organized in the Republic of South Africa in 1958.

The Company provides investors a vehicle to invest in a portfolio consisting primarily of the stocks of companies engaged in the exploration, mining or processing of gold, silver, platinum, diamonds or other precious minerals. It may also invest in gold, silver and platinum bullion or securities that seek to replicate the price movement of gold, silver or platinum bullion.

To coax you to read this article carefully, I’m going to reward

If I knew the definitive answer to that question I would make this article about one paragraph long and we’d all go out, mortgage the farm (if we could qualify for a mortgage) and then get filthy, stinking rich. By the way, don’t miss my secret, short-term profit-making strategy at the end of this article.

Today’s 3% rally in the three major US stock indices gives the impression that the future looks very bright for stocks and the market in general.

A better-than-expected profit report from Lowe’s Cos [LOW: 19.53, -0.19 (-0.96%)], an uptick in homebuilder sentiment and positive comments from analysts about U.S. banks revived investors’ confidence in an economic rebound.Stocks fell sharply last week on worries that a recovery might be further off than hoped, interrupting a rally that has left the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 34.5 percent since March 9. Was Monday’s rally a

We’ve passed the midpoint in May and gold closed above $930 on Friday May 15th. This could be hugely significant and should give all prudent investors pause for thought.

Allow me to share with you an email message I sent to my family today that focuses in on my concerns on this topic. Although this will not be a long article, it is intended to motivate us to think “outside the box” as we slide into the “Sell in May and go away” time of the year. Here’s what I wrote my family today: “Realizing it is only the middle of May, it might be too early to say “it’s going to be different this year” when it comes to gold and silver.

“During the past seven years gold and silver always corrected between May and October, sometimes just

Gold and Silver has had an amazing run since last December, and even more impressive have been the mining shares like Agnico-Eagle [AEM: 52.06, -0.30 (-0.57%)], Goldcorp [GG: 33.28, -0.16 (-0.48%)] and Barrick Gold [ABX: 33.07, -0.42 (-1.25%)].

My favorite mid-size gold miner, IAM Gold [IAG: 9.79, -0.04 (-0.41%)] has virtually quadrupled off its low last November and almost doubled in the past 5 months. It’s been a feverish frenzy, an overdue bubble that might be ready to burst.

On March 8th I tried to provoke the gods of Wall Street to create a huge stock market rally by conjuring up the term “Contrarian Contango” as a new term for paradoxically pretending you think the markets are going to keep going down when you sense they are about to go up. It worked beyond my expectations.So now I will create a commodities-based potient

Gold tacked on about $10 in early Wednesday morning trading in the Far East. But shortly before London began trading, all the those gains began to disappeared. The low for the day was shortly after Comex floor trading started. From there, a spirited rally began, which went vertical right after London closed for the day…but [as always] there was someone standing there with a hammer to make sure that the rally went no further.

Silver was up a dime by 3 p.m. in Hong Kong in their afternoon yesterday…when it, too, began the long decline…with the bottom coming at 9:30 during Comex trading. The rally in silver ran into the same seller as gold…and at precisely the same time…and that was it for the day.

Initially, the precious metals shares held up well despite the onslaught…but the

I’m confident that there are thousands of blog lurking gold bugs who are going to want to comment on this article from Mark Leibovit of VRGoldLetter.com. Mark hits on a number of issues, which include a possible conspiracy theory. Mark will be on PBS tonight talking about Gold, and if you visit VRGoldLetter.com, be sure and use the promo code “INO” for a discount.

But more importantly read the piece below and let the comments fly! It’s time for all of those blog lurkers to make their thoughts and opinions known!

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In the short term, the precious metals, especially Gold, are trading counter to the stock market, but we have also seen precious metals rally along with stock market during the 2003 and 2008 bull cycle.  Regardless, in the long-term, precious metals should rally because of currency debasement and the resulting inflation which follows.  I have recently inaugurated the

Gold spent most of Far East and European trading hugging $890…and silver spent the same period within a dime of $12.70. Nothing to see here, folks! Then, shortly before the Comex open, both metals began smallish rallies…and half an hour after the Comex opened for business, it was lights out.

Not only did the dealers pull their bids in both metals, but I highly suspect that there was actually some fresh shorting by the Non-Commercials and Nonreportables [in the COT] as well.

As I’ve been saying for the last week or so, an assault on gold’s 200-day moving average would materialize sooner or later, as a couple of the U.S. bullion banks [JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and HSBC USA (NYSE:HBC)] still had huge short positions to unwind. Well, this could be the start. And whether or not they are going to take their sweet time about it…or have it all over and