By Jason Hamlin:

I think it is laughable when analysts go on television and claim that precious metals are in a bubble that is about to pop: "Get out of this barbarous relic while you still can!"

These same people claimed that gold at $800, $1,000 and $1,500 were tops as well. If these sages keep at it, they will get it right eventually, but I suspect it will be another three to four years before this occurs. In my view, the precious metals bull market still has a long way to go and the current consolidation is offering an excellent opportunity to load up the boat.

There are many ways to judge if an asset class is in a bubble. One of the key measures is investor participation, or in our case, the percentage of global assets invested in gold or gold mining shares. While this percentage has historically been above 20%,

By Market Blog:

By David Berman

Is gold the biggest winner from the Greek bailout? It was certainly on a tear on Tuesday, rising to $1,757 (U.S.) an ounce, up $22 or 1.3 per cent – which glows next to slight gains among U.S. stocks, dips in European stocks, and shrugs in the European bond market.

Gold producers are doing even better. The NYSE Arca Gold BUGS index of global producers is up 2.8 per cent in afternoon trading, marking its biggest one-day gain in nearly a month. Canadian gold producers, in particular, are shining: Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) is up 2.9 per cent and Goldcorp Inc. (GG)is up 3 per cent, which is helping to deliver triple-digit gains for the broader S&P/TSX composite index.

Bloomberg News quoted Bayram Dincer, an analyst at LGT Capital Management: “Long-term forward-looking gold investors are not convinced that the steps are big enough to solve the Greek

By Will Bancroft:

In this article about the silver price, Will Bancroft takes a look at what the last year has delivered for silver investors, and what the future of silver investment might hold. Read on for more on what Professor Roy Jastram called "the restless metal".

Silver has been its normal restless self this last year, but holders of silver bullion might not feel adequately rewarded. The metal of the moon has witnessed soaring highs to within touching distance of $50/ounce, two vicious chops, but the silver price crucially sits only a few per cent higher than in February 2011. Volatility is part and parcel of silver investment, but silver investors have not been rewarded this last 12 months with the price appreciation they might have hoped for. The gold silver ratio now sits just below 52.

(Click chart to expand)

Why no gains in the silver price?

In early November 2011,

By CommodityHQ:

By Jared Cummans

When investors think of precious metals, their go to image is gold. Gold has gobbled up headlines over the past year as it has smashed through historical highs and been a major point of contention among the financial world. But digging deeper than gold, there is another precious metal that is outperforming its popular counterpart; silver. While gold’s massive gains were thrust into the spotlight, silver has been able to provide massive returns without all of the fame and popularity. The investment thesis behind silver is also different from gold, as silver is a relatively practical metal from an industrial standpoint, but is also used as a safe haven metal much like gold [see also Why No Investor Should Own GLD].

For the time being, silver futures are leading all commodities on the year, as they have overtaken the first place crown that had been held by

By Plan B Economics:

Today the DJIA index (DIA) touched 13,000 for the first time since May 2008. Mainstream media has printed articles suggesting we will again witness a flood of retail investors throwing money at the markets now that we've broken a psychological barrier.

At the same time, we have analysts arguing that Dow 13,000 is a meaningless number. I tend to agree.

Quite simply, some of the biggest stock market booms in history were coupled with the some of the biggest currency devaluations in history. The Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe are two examples that come to mind.

I'm not saying that the US is anywhere close to the Weimar Republic or other hyperinflationary environments (at least, not yet), but the same principles apply. With trillions of dollars injected by central banks into the global financial markets over the past few years, I can't help but think these stock market gains are somewhat

By Jeb Handwerger:

The Chinese Ideographs for crisis is a two edged sword. One blade is pointed upward to forecast opportunity, the other symbol is pointed downward to signify danger. The short term deflationary crisis in 2011 provided a unique opportunity to buy undervalued miners at historic bargain basement prices.

(Click charts to enlarge)

In 2012 the market metrics have been directed upwards for gold (GDX), silver (SIL), uranium(URA) and rare earth miners(REMX) as the 20 and 50 day moving averages turn upward. There is an old truism that fighting the tape can be dangerous for your financial health. It is suspected that the Europeans will try to assuage fears on a Greek bailout to the tune of $172 billon to solidify a global market reversal...for the time being.

This event will be coinciding with the general equity markets breaking through key resistance levels and previous 52 week highs. This powerful move in

By Marco G.:

Gold miners have not been leveraging the rise in the price of the gold since the summer of 2011. This fact has been acknowledged by investors, writers and pundits. In wrestling with this concept, I decided to pursue this line of thought further with some backwards analysis of historical chart prices.

I used the HUI index of the 15 largest gold miners that do not largely hedge their gold outputs for comparison, since even if it is not tradable, it has a history that is chartable. The HUI is a dollar weighted index, with rebalancing performed infrequently every quarter. The miner components of this index are listed as following:

HUI Gold Bugs Index

This list is complete and up-to-date as of January 12, 2012.

By Marco G.:

Gold miners are economically known as price-takers, as they normally sell into the market and their sales would not be influential enough to move the market pricing for this golden commodity that they produce. Even as price-takers, the gold miners are presently selling their commodity in a rising price environment and should therefore be making good profits that attract investors to their stock. It would be reasonable to assume that a gold miner's stock price should leverage the gain in the price of gold. However, that is not the case presently, as written about here. This article will attempt to examine gold miners from various viewpoints, to ascertain what may be the issue in their poor leverage to the price of gold.

Operational Leverage - Not

In accounting theory, companies that have high fixed costs and low variable costs are classified as having high operational leverage. This means that the

By Tim Iacono:

After surging in January, prices for gold and silver have been remarkably steady through the first three weeks of February, setting the stage for a possible big move sometime in the period ahead - direction unknown - as bearish technical factors contrast with bullish reports of increased demand by China, India, and central banks around the world.

For the week, the gold price rose less than 0.1 percent, from $1,722.10 an ounce to $1,723.80, as the silver price fell 0.9 percent, from $33.59 an ounce to $33.28. Gold is now up 10.0 percent for the year, but down 10.3 percent from its high last year, and silver has risen 19.4 percent so far in 2012, down 32.8 percent from its peak last spring.

If not for the recent series of lower highs and lower lows since record prices were seen last summer, you'd think that gold is setting itself up