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AP's avatar
Mar 21Edited

i understand your point about paper silver, but as an investor buying physical incurs storage challenges plus wide bid/ask spreads at these bullion dealers should the time come to sell in future. is it ok to own physically backed silver etfs?

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

That's a good question. Obviously physical is best, but it can be difficult to store in large quantities. Physically backed ETFs should be ok, but there's always some degree of risk relative to having it in your possession.

That's why I also believe in owning a mix of physical gold, physical silver, some physical ETFs, and miners to spread my bets around basically.

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phil den's avatar

Check out the Great Taking by David Rogers Webb, you won't want ETF or ETC, ' watch is video and you will understand

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Thanks - I'll check it out.

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Bob H's avatar

Agree...physical gold/silver seems an impractical way to hold precious metals for obvious reasons. For the past 6 years I have had considerable success investing in gold mining stocks with considerable success(high double digit percentages). Of course, I had to be patient because most of the increase came in the last 6mos. The mid-tier producers have given me the best results but several of my picks have merged or been bought by top producers( this means they usually give dividends). Also ( yet more conservative) there are several mining" royalty" companies that take a percentage of profits in exchange for cash infusion for "capex" (mining infrastructure equipment e.g. smelters), so they don't have exposure to many of the risks. Although fairly new, some of these mining royalties have already given dividends to investors.

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Yup! So did SilverSeek. ZeroHedge next.

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Rico5's avatar

I have been hearing this for years but nobody has ever explained it in detail. Thanks for the education. It's Friday morning and silver and gold getting slammed, shock and awe

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

My pleasure! Thanks for reading it. I'm trying to build more exposure for this important issue. This report should also be on ZeroHedge soon, which will be a big help. I will also reach out to Elon Musk after that to see if he can do something.

Yes, the Friday morning slam is a classic example of what I discussed throughout this entire report! So frustrating.

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Zoltán's avatar

SAME! I have been hearing this too but haven't seen this in details. I'm not wondering if a few smart retail investor made a literal fortune on it QUIETLY. Just imagine pulling out your money with a 10 percent return with knock out warrants or close-to-expire options derivatives and all you have to do is buying these put contracts, since it's a kinda good edge.

I'm not a professional investor so I it's probably more complicated and riskier to trade.

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MoodyP's avatar

Aren’t they also doing the bidding of the MIC in suppressing the price?

It still astonishes me that silver is not on the USGS of critical minerals.

And when the Silver Institute and other organizations publish lists of uses for silver, use for military or other government applications is never shown.

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

That may also be the case, but I can't prove or confirm that. I need to research that further. I'm certainly open to that idea.

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aphatalo's avatar

"few fully understand how it works"

I'm more interested to know *why* they do this. It seems risky. Who benefits from this? How much money does it earn them?

Are we really sure that the real motivation is "maintaining confidence in the dollar"?

Maybe they want to keep the price cheaper to make it easier to use for industrial manufacturing?

Or maybe the price suppression is itself a profitable operation?

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Those are all valid questions and I'm continuing to learn as I dig deeper. This is the realm of conspiracy theory and it's very hard, if not impossible, to fully prove their motives, and there may be several.

But it's safe to say that shoring up confidence in the dollar is one of their motives.

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Mike's avatar

Motive is likely greed, regardless their protests. The crime is unfathomable.

Remember the Bastiat quote:

When plunder becomes a way of life, men create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

Frederic Bastiat

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Mike's avatar

I think it earns them- them being all of the larceners screwing us in all methods using their corrupt vehicle, the USDollar, not just in silver manipulation- nearly ALL THE DAMN MONEY.

This is how the average middle-classer's net worth is negative, though they believe it is not.

This is why God finds dishonest scales an abimination, Proverbs 11-1.

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Art Thomas's avatar

When the fiat dollar becomes toilet paper, gold and silver will still be there and a return to a precious metals standard will assert itself with people with commonsense who understand the importance of these metals to an honest monetary system and a prosperous economy.

This possibility is loathsome to the Federal Reserve whose purpose is to maintain the fiat dollar as the monopoly currency of the US and the reserve currency of the world. The FED is the US government’s cash cow to debt fund all it’s wars and pork barrel projects at the expense of the gradual impoverishment of us ordinary folks.

Ron Paul, as a congressman, argues for a return to the gold standard in his 1982 Gold Commission Minority Report, “The Case for Gold”.

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AP's avatar

How do you expect commodities like silver, gold and pgm to perform in a hard recession / stock market crash scenario, especially if combined with structural inflation?

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Many people are still wincing after the 2008 commodities smash, but my theory is that what we're heading into is closer to the 2001 experience (at least for gold and silver):

https://x.com/TheBubbleBubble/status/1887565054914244940

By 2008, commodities were 7 years into a big bull market, whereas they are very depressed right now.

Of course, the more industrially oriented, the more sensitive the commodity will be to the business cycle. Ahead of a recession, I have a preference for gold, which is largely monetary and not industrial.

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Zoltán's avatar

If I was smarter back then and would realize that there is almost no risk on shorting silver futures when NY trading desk opens...

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Yup - well, it's still happening on an almost daily basis!

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M C's avatar

was Credit suisse / forced to merge with UBS, killed by the rising Pm price

and Bailed in by the swiss gubermint...?

And who...B of A...now has a ..1 billion oz silver short....next to crash

and expect a bail out from Trump/Elon....NOT likely....

The Enemies of USA surely know this...

let the idiots hold the bag/us$

Also same outfit shorting the miners, before they slam the metals....

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

It's a tangled web, that's for sure! We'll never truly know until after it all blows up.

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Stephen's avatar

“In 1960, the median home cost $11,900, while the median income was $5,600, indicating a price-to-income ratio of 2.1.”

https://www.thezebra.com/resources/home/housing-trends-visualized/

I’m wondering what the average home cost is in ounces of silver now v 1960, and what it will be if silver ever achieves true price discovery

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Good point - I'll have to play around with that theory and create some charts, and maybe write an article about it.

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Stephen's avatar

Guess that would have to consider the legendary 5oz of gold (or USD equivalent) for a nice Berlin home during 1923 hyperinflation.

Thx Jesse.

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Yes, that reminds me of one of my favorite books, 'Dying of Money' by Jens Parsson. Have you read it?

https://recision.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/jens-parsson-dying-of-money-24.pdf

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Stephen's avatar

No, thanks for the link.

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

I love that book. It does such a great job of explaining what happens during hyperinflations. I've learned so much from it. The Weimar account is fascinating.

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carlo's avatar

excellent and informative report, thank you Jesse. Not knowing what it took to knock the price down 10% in one day on Feb 2 2021, it's hard to know if it could happen again, despite the prevalent shortages today. Should we assume that a similarly aggressive defense of the $30 resistance level could take place again at a higher price?

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

Thank you! That could certainly happen and should probably be expected, which is a reason to avoid/be careful with leverage. But it shouldn't affect wise stackers or mining stock investors who accumulate at reasonable prices.

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carlo's avatar

would you guess if that sort of defense could happen at around the $45-$50 level? Because, shouldn't we have already seen it at the $35 level?

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

That's a very good question. I believe that it will act as an important psychological level and resistance, but also that the power of the bullion banks to manipulate it at those levels will be greatly diminished, especially with the wave of buying and investor interest at that point.

There could be a pullback from that point and then another run to $50 and far beyond. That's my current projection.

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carlo's avatar

thats very useful feeback, thanks Jesse!

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Jesse Colombo's avatar

My pleasure :)

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John McCullough's avatar

As for banks being protected at the expense of others, remember the Hunt Brothers, whose silver corner caused the price to soar in 1980 until the govt stepped in and forced them to close their position, changing the laws. The history of govt control of the silver market continues. You have to wonder which "regulating" agency signs off on the banks's unhedged short positions, and/or does some govt entity supply them with open calls to balance heir book? Will Elon get there to find out?

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Terry Baptist's avatar

Probably the clearest and most concise explanation of silver price manipulation by the market. Thank you so much for putting this out there and keeping it simple and as much as possible Jargon free!

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Livio's avatar

Great article. One of the best I read in this substack. Glad to be one of your subscribers.

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Jordan Moser's avatar

Fantastic article Jesse, it’s clear you’ve done your research and have made a great case for it. It’s definitely been discouraging as a silver investor to see the price artificially suppressed for so long, especially considering golds recent rise. From what I understand from your article, there may be a point in which artificially suppressing silver is no longer feasible, or becomes too expensive for banks to artificially suppress? In which case, you are staying the course, continuing to buy and hold physical silver ETFS and bullion? Also, do you trust PSLV as a reliable physical ETF or do you recommend diversifying?

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Grey Rabbit Finance's avatar

💯👍🏻 great write up Jesse

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Charlie Amos's avatar

Shared.

Excellent Jesse.

See my comments on X: "#Gold up 19.33% over the last 6 months, whilst #Silver down -1.43%. The latter clearly managed below critical $35 level. However, Cup & Handle now formed - H2/2025 new ATH incoming."

Lowercosta.com

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