What The Heck Just Happened To The Metals

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-heck-just-happened-to-metals.html

I have to say, for as many people out there who fancy themselves a "contrarian" investor, the amount of kicking and screaming and fear that I've witnessed across all sectors of the investor community is quite staggering.   I guess many of you were not around in 2008, when silver and gold were systematically taken down from $21 and $1020 to $8.50 and $700, respectively in a 5 month time period, with most of it coming in July and August that year.  And the problem was that back then it was impossible to see what the catalyst would be to create the next bull run.  Furthermore, the big Central Banks were still net sellers of gold.  In other words, we didn't have the massive bid for physical coming from China (China imported nearly 100 tonnes of gold thru Honk Kong in February) and other big non-NATA countries who are buying gold aggressively.

And I guess very few were around for the early days (2001 - 2004).  I remember waking up in the morning and seeing gold down $10 and then watching in horror as the Comex operators took gold down another $10.  $20 on a base of $400 is 5%.  A 5% intra-day down-swing was not uncommon back then.  But not many people watched the sector (CNBC didn't even have a gold price indicator on it's market scroll) so not many remember those days