Silver

The last long-term bull market in gold-mining stocks, which ran from the early-1960s through to 1980, occurred in parallel with a major upward trend in interest rates, a steady undercurrent of “inflation” fear, and the occasional dramatic “inflation” scare.

In August 2011 I wrote to the Financial Services Authority to seek confirmation that the London-based custodians of SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (SLV) were being regulated as custodians, despite the fact that physical bullion is not a regulated investment.

T.S. Eliot called April “the cruelest month” in his famous poem, and without a doubt April was cruel to many gold investors.

The usefulness of sentiment’s stealth crystal ball is about to be revealed to the litany of unsuspecting precious metal bears and skeptics who have convinced themselves that gold’s bull market is either over or, at the minimum, in need of lengthy ongoing retesting, restructuring and consolidation.

The fall in the price of gold has triggered a new run on physical gold that shows no sign of abating.

How to trade Gold and other precious metals related investments is not that complex. But you must be willing to wait for price to provide low risk entry points before getting involved.

Regular readers will know I am in the inflation, possibly hyperinflation camp; but there are those that think the future is more likely to be deflationary. In the main this is the view of neoclassical economists, Keynesians and monetarists, who generally foresee a 1930s-style slump unless the economy is stimulated out of it.

We haven’t touched on currencies for quite some time (our latest essay was dedicated entirely to gold

When it looks as though things couldn’t get worse for precious metal mining equities (GDX), that may be just the time to buy for contrarians.

The Wall Street Journal had an especially colorful metaphor to describe what has happened to the price of gold that fateful week when gold tumbled 13% in the two sessions through April 15, the biggest drop in 33 years.