Every few months, silver has a stunning collapse and the whole world seems astonished by the ferocity of the move. I think it’s time that we all take a step back and accept that silver is a wild animal. At any time, it can move 30% and that isn’t out of the normal—in fact, that is the normal. Every single investment product has its Read More

Traders like to talk about panics or crashes–“The Panic of 1907” or “The Crash of 1929.” Usually crashes involve something dropping in price. I have this funny feeling that the panic of 2011 will be upwards. There has been a slow move into hard assets for years now. One by one, investors are beginning to understand the meaning of what the Federal Reserve intends Read More

In Canada, there is a healthy tradition of early stage mining ventures masquerading as public companies. Most of these businesses start as private deals amongst friends who pool their resources to see a company through the expensive listing process. The average check size is only a few thousand dollars. If you’re wrong, it doesn’t cost too much and the upside can be huge if Read More

North Africa is smoldering, Japan just got soaked by a tidal wave and a radioactive debris cloud may or may not suddenly appear. The PIIGS continue their slow financial collapse and QE II will end in a few months. The world we live in is a crazy place. On Sunday night, I watched in awe as the Japanese stock market lost nearly 10% in Read More

Coup d’Etat: A Practical Handbook by Edward Luttwak is one of those great books that you can read repeatedly and learn something new each time. Clearly, I’m not in the business of staging a coup against anything. Rather, I appreciate the intellectual purity of contemplating such an abstract concept. The permutations and divergent courses you can take in your ambition only add to the complexity Read More

Ever since I started buying gold in 2003, people have been concocting stories about why it’s a bad investment and why every pullback is indicative of the top. None of these stories has had much merit, but they all need to at least be explored. The latest thesis goes something like this: gold is a bubble driven by investment demand. Jewelry demand is in Read More

Like most investors, I spent the weekend watching television trying to make sense of events in Egypt. First I tried American news networks, but quickly tired of them. Anyone care that a guy swallowed a quarter? Will Charlie Sheen survive rehab? If you want to know what’s going on anywhere in the Middle East, you tune into Al Jazeera’s English webcast. I watched slightly Read More

What happens when a commodity goes up in price? They produce more of it. What happens when it goes up way beyond the cost of production?They produce a even more of it. What then happens to the price? There will be a whole lot of disappointed longs. As I went through my commodity charts this weekend, I was surprised at just how strong these Read More

This summer, I found myself in the small town of Ross, where the largest gold nugget in New Zealand was discovered.  I went to the famous stream where it was found, felt a stroke of good luck and rented a pan and shovel. Almost immediately, I saw little flakes of gold. I couldn’t believe my luck. Within 20 minutes, I found a little clunker Read More