Some Observations on the Precious Metals Markets

You might noticed that on Monday (August 15, 2011), the spot price of gold was fairly flat, but that spot silver was up substantially.

Just as I predicted last week, it appears that Mr. Market has belatedly realized that silver needs to catch up to the recent advance in gold prices. To get back to a 40-to-1 ratio, silver would have to advance to $43.41 per ounce.

In the long run, a ratio of 20-to-1 or perhaps even 16-to-1 is realistic. So again, if you have enough secure storage space, then buy silver rather than gold.

If you want to ratio trade out of gold into silver, I recommend that you do so soon.

And in related news, did you notice that spot platinum has jumped to $1,796 per ounce? Last week, I had mentioned that gold jumped up to within $2 of the price of platinum. But that didn’t last. It doesn’t take long for disparities to get worked out in a free market, or even in a quasi-free market.