Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
So glad my 2 Costco’s were out of gold and silver this week. Checked Friday night and they had gold at 8% premium over spot and silver at 29% premium over spot. Usually Costco has 2% premium on gold and 7-10% on silver. Supposedly Costco doesn’t usually reprice on weekends because major global markets are closed. May reprice lower on Monday unless Cuba or Iran news.
Barron's features at least 3 stories on the precious metals in their Feb. 2 edition. I haven't had time to read, but wouldn't attempt to characterize the content even if I had. Steven Sears writes almost exclusively about hedging risky assets with options trades. So, likely what that one is about.
Gold Is Soaring and Wall Street Calls It 'Debasement! Is It? By Jack Hough
Silver Is Paying for Its Excesses. Silver Miner Stocks May Be a Buy By Andrew Bary
Can Silver Go Higher Still? How to Play It Safer. By Steven M. Sears
I think it's important to recognize that @rono and @Old_Joe did not enter the market Thursday and incur the total loss Friday. Both have played the market for a while and have handsome profits to this point.
I'm mostly a bottom feeder - grubbing out what I perceive as lower risk opportunities. So haven played in the metals for at least 2 years. My real assets fund, RAPAX, has a bit of exposure and fell 2% Friday. For contrast, T.Rowe's real asset fund PRAFX fell 4% and PRPFX was off -6.26% - and was late in reporting Friday for whatever reason. The closest one-day experience I can relate to here is when I bought a slim chunk of CZR last fall and it dropped 15% the very next day. I sold on the way down so probably ate a 10% loss. No longer own.
I've got an article and FB post by a long time friend of mine, Pat Heller. He founded Liberty Coin here in Lansing and I've been dealing with him for over 30 years. In all honesty, I would classify him as a coin dealer, gold bug, civil libertarian. Here is the FB post from the Liberty Coin Service page.
"Today we have seen the greatest percentage one-day decline in silver's price and among the largest percentage one-day declines in gold, platinum, and palladium prices. At the low points today, gold dropped to $4,690.25, silver fell to $75.14, platinum to $2,011.00, and palladium to $1,600.00 If this truly represented a genuine financial market shift, you would be seeing confirmations of similar declines in other commodities, stocks, and the like. As of a couple minutes ago copper was only down -3.9% from yesterday while Brent crude oil and natural gas prices were actually higher. Major US stock indices are down, but less than 2%. By the way, the Shanghai Gold Exchange weighted average silver price today as $129.35 on a volume of 17.1 million ounces. This was a decline of about $4 from yesterday. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange the closing price for the February 2026 silver contract was at $126.16 per ounce. Obviously there are major buyers for physical silver for immediate delivery at prices much higher than they are at the moment. What can be surmised from today's changes only in precious metals is that this was not a standard correction move, since it wasn't confirmed in other financial markets. Instead, it is a pretty blatant coordinated action to manipulate downward only precious metals prices. Naturally, none of the COMEX precious metals prices are reporting closing markets yet today, just as they were extremely delayed yesterday. This by itself is suspicious about market manipulation going on behind the scenes. As of a few minutes ago, here were the ask spot prices at which Liberty Coin Service was calculating its selling prices for physical precious metals products: Gold: $4,930.00 Silver: $87.16 Platinum: $2,193.00 Palladium: $1,741.00 Already today Liberty Coin Service has experienced our highest daily retail sales in more than a decade. Expect precious metals prices to recover even more, though it may take a few days or a week or two for gold to again top $5,000 and silver to reach $100. One question to ask is why engage in such aggressive price suppression tactics today. Today is the final trading day of the month, which is used by technical chart traders in making investment decisions. Today's price declines were magnified as falling prices heavily impacted recent buyers who made leveraged investments. The declines were so great that probably a high percentage of the were forced to liquidate positions, which added to downward prices. Now that these "weak hands" buyers are out of the market, it is almost certain that continuing downward pressure is pretty much over. When there's no one left to sell other than a handful of panicking small-time investors, prices are almost certain to go back up from now going forward."
Here is Pat's article for Numismatic News, which along with Coin World is one of the leading papers on coin collecting. Pat's a regular contributor.
Right now are starting to remind me of Nixon's gas price controls. All of a sudden, all the stations were out of gas.
The current spot [read: paper] price is $85.91. An American Silver Eagle at Apmex is $106.87 with a credit card. Now, that is a serious premium. Overseas, silver for delivery is going for upwards of $120.
Hoo-boy. My own timing in not throwing money at the metals very recently was perfect.
I also think that I would have gotten crushed had I jumped on the momentum. I am happy to see others making money off this trade though.
There are three areas that I have little to no exposure that are looking interesting to me this year: INTL, SMIDs & PMs. I can see a case for exposure, but fear engaging right before a period of correction. I assume many others are feeling the same.
Let's keep this in perspective... so far I'm doing OK with this, but I don't consider this so much as an "investment", but rather simply gambling money. Rono's been actually investing in precious metals for years, and knows his way around the block.
From the 2nd link provided my rono, re: gold: “I think that the low turmoil rallies are done,” Button said. “The path is still higher, but it's a lot more volatile.”
I'm working on my story to tell you guys what a really smart move I made just before whatever happens next happens next. But I gotta wait until it happens until I can tell you what I did before it happened.
I'm working on my story to tell you guys what a really smart move I made just before whatever happens next happens next. But I gotta wait until it happens until I can tell you what I did before it happened. [snip]
I know someone who may be able to assist with the narrative. They have extensive experience in this area.
Comments
Usually Costco has 2% premium on gold and 7-10% on silver. Supposedly Costco doesn’t usually reprice on weekends because major global markets are closed. May reprice lower on Monday unless Cuba or Iran news.
Gold Is Soaring and Wall Street Calls It 'Debasement! Is It?
By Jack Hough
Silver Is Paying for Its Excesses.
Silver Miner Stocks May Be a Buy
By Andrew Bary
Can Silver Go Higher Still? How to Play It Safer.
By Steven M. Sears
I think it's important to recognize that @rono and @Old_Joe did not enter the market Thursday and incur the total loss Friday. Both have played the market for a while and have handsome profits to this point.
I'm mostly a bottom feeder - grubbing out what I perceive as lower risk opportunities. So haven played in the metals for at least 2 years. My real assets fund, RAPAX, has a bit of exposure and fell 2% Friday. For contrast, T.Rowe's real asset fund PRAFX fell 4% and PRPFX was off -6.26% - and was late in reporting Friday for whatever reason. The closest one-day experience I can relate to here is when I bought a slim chunk of CZR last fall and it dropped 15% the very next day. I sold on the way down so probably ate a 10% loss. No longer own.
I've got an article and FB post by a long time friend of mine, Pat Heller. He founded Liberty Coin here in Lansing and I've been dealing with him for over 30 years. In all honesty, I would classify him as a coin dealer, gold bug, civil libertarian. Here is the FB post from the Liberty Coin Service page.
"Today we have seen the greatest percentage one-day decline in silver's price and among the largest percentage one-day declines in gold, platinum, and palladium prices.
At the low points today, gold dropped to $4,690.25, silver fell to $75.14, platinum to $2,011.00, and palladium to $1,600.00
If this truly represented a genuine financial market shift, you would be seeing confirmations of similar declines in other commodities, stocks, and the like. As of a couple minutes ago copper was only down -3.9% from yesterday while Brent crude oil and natural gas prices were actually higher. Major US stock indices are down, but less than 2%.
By the way, the Shanghai Gold Exchange weighted average silver price today as $129.35 on a volume of 17.1 million ounces. This was a decline of about $4 from yesterday. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange the closing price for the February 2026 silver contract was at $126.16 per ounce. Obviously there are major buyers for physical silver for immediate delivery at prices much higher than they are at the moment.
What can be surmised from today's changes only in precious metals is that this was not a standard correction move, since it wasn't confirmed in other financial markets. Instead, it is a pretty blatant coordinated action to manipulate downward only precious metals prices.
Naturally, none of the COMEX precious metals prices are reporting closing markets yet today, just as they were extremely delayed yesterday. This by itself is suspicious about market manipulation going on behind the scenes.
As of a few minutes ago, here were the ask spot prices at which Liberty Coin Service was calculating its selling prices for physical precious metals products:
Gold: $4,930.00
Silver: $87.16
Platinum: $2,193.00
Palladium: $1,741.00
Already today Liberty Coin Service has experienced our highest daily retail sales in more than a decade. Expect precious metals prices to recover even more, though it may take a few days or a week or two for gold to again top $5,000 and silver to reach $100.
One question to ask is why engage in such aggressive price suppression tactics today. Today is the final trading day of the month, which is used by technical chart traders in making investment decisions.
Today's price declines were magnified as falling prices heavily impacted recent buyers who made leveraged investments. The declines were so great that probably a high percentage of the were forced to liquidate positions, which added to downward prices. Now that these "weak hands" buyers are out of the market, it is almost certain that continuing downward pressure is pretty much over. When there's no one left to sell other than a handful of panicking small-time investors, prices are almost certain to go back up from now going forward."
Here is Pat's article for Numismatic News, which along with Coin World is one of the leading papers on coin collecting. Pat's a regular contributor.
https://www.numismaticnews.net/increasing-capacity-problems-in-the-physical-silver-market?fbclid=IwY2xjawPrI7VleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFJNW5ybWt3YzY5ZENuWHJlc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHii_13KIqUewP3aStgMm7xIh0HMD8PEQJsDbjmm-UbsA6V64_Ev3TCP08c07_aem_e3tGkTxbUzgMTBucc2BXZg
Right now are starting to remind me of Nixon's gas price controls. All of a sudden, all the stations were out of gas.
The current spot [read: paper] price is $85.91. An American Silver Eagle at Apmex is $106.87 with a credit card. Now, that is a serious premium. Overseas, silver for delivery is going for upwards of $120.
Here's a nice article from Kitco.
and so it goes,
peace,
rono
Jonathan Krinsky believes silver will head back to ~$55, after a bump up following the big decline.
Obviously the prediction business is a tough one. There are polarized opinions involved. I also think that I would have gotten crushed had I jumped on the momentum. I am happy to see others making money off this trade though.
There are three areas that I have little to no exposure that are looking interesting to me this year: INTL, SMIDs & PMs. I can see a case for exposure, but fear engaging right before a period of correction. I assume many others are feeling the same.
Hey, OJ, it's ALL casino money and gambling against the house.
Sorry, Mark, here's a couple.
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2026-01-30/gold-silver-selloff-was-inevitable-after-januarys-explosive-rally-broader
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2026-01-30/wall-street-entertains-every-possibility-after-golds-wild-ride-main-street
and so it goes,
peace,
rono
Or something.
They have extensive experience in this area.
“How Chinese speculators set the stage for gold and silver crash”.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese-speculators-set-stage-gold-120029836.html