Thomson is one of the few analysts that actual gets it when it comes to paper manipulation. Maund for example has no clue. But even Thomson fails to acknowledge that this time around, the banksters were unable to shrink the open interest by much after the last takedown in August. This is extremely important. Historically, his point of view that the banksters were loading up on the short side would indeed warrant extreme caution from the longs. Lately, banksters have NOT been able to cover much of their shorts during the raids.

And one final point: if it was just a matter of the banksters writing millions of calls to cap any surge in the metals with paper, then why did silver rise all the way from sub-$5 to where it is today? The bullion banks and fraud commercials have been short all the way up on both gold and silver. Yet the metals rise anyway. They can engineer nasty corrections and some steep selloffs but they CANNOT end the bull market.

I have been a buyer of gold and silver on every dip. I am not concerned when the corrections and raids hit, because I just buy more. Maybe other 'players' panic and puke their holdings, and tough luck. Trying to pander to weak traders is not something I care to waste time on.

I think the guys like Sinclair and Murphy are more reliable. They advise a buy and hold strategy for the metals, and to stay away from playing games trading. Over the last 7 years they alone have been correct when all others like Maund have fallen right on their asses with bad calls and whipsaw trade advice.

cheers!

mike