Without benefit of hard facts, I wonder if what we are experiencing is the crimex mafia in a last ditch effort to reduce their massive short positions in gold and silver.
Could the CFTC actually grow a pair and write new position limit regs without handing out the usual exemptions for the crooks? This huge pounding of both gold and silver is clearly a wall street ploy. The pm shares are not down as much as one would expect given the huge fall in the metal prices. There is no reason for those that buy the metals for their value, for the fundamentals , to sell. Some of the hedge funds could be exiting, but I doubt that that would be the sole cause for such a large drop.
This action does not look to be market driven. The US $ is up, but not because it is sound or a safe refuge. The conclusion is that there is some motive other than profit or preservation in the action of the new jerk paper hangers and I believe we are seeing them trying to exit their dangerous positions. If this is true, we have more of this ahead of us. The good news is that as soon as this play has run its course, fundamentals will cause a bounce and then a resumption of the bull trend.

Not being a trader, I am comfortable ( but still pissed ) holding tight to my metal and stocks.