Thursday, May 5, 2011

White Lightning

"I feel the need, the need for speed."
--Maverick (Top Gun)

Parabolic prices attract traders like flames attract moths. The effect is often the same as well.

The past few weeks saw silver prices go vertical. Last week they touched levels not seen since the Hunt Bros episdoe in 1980. Recently, volume on the ishares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) has been eclipsing volume in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

Over the past 4 days, prices have reversed hard. Silver is down about 25% in four days. Part of this can be attributed to margin requirement increases for trading silver contracts on futures exchanges. A more likely rationale, however, is that silver prices experienced classic trend exhaustion.


An old trading saying goes 'Don't catch a falling knife.' Despite the warning, I'm taking a stab (pun) at SLV from the long side as there appears to be some technical support around the $36 level. More significant support lies below in the $30-32 area which may be the place for a serious position if/when.

This is a classic 'fast market' right now, and trading it is not for the faint of heart. Silver didn't earn its White Lightning monicker by accident...

position in SLV, SPX

2 comments:

dgeorge12358 said...

The United States has a legal and constitutional silver standard, although we would not know it today, since the government has illegally and unconstitutionally removed silver as currency and replaced it with the Federal Reserve notes that we know as dollar bills. The term "dollar bills" obscures the actual and tangible meaning of "dollar" as a specific weight of silver.
~Michael Rozeff

dgeorge12358 said...

Paper Trade

SLV traded 295 million shares today.
SLV shares outstanding are 342 million.
Each share represents approximately 1oz silver.
2010 worldwide silver mining production was 736 million ounces.