I remember quite some time ago Sinclair (I think) said “expect the unexpected” in this precious metals bull which couldn’t be more true. He always used to say if you have to trade then sell 1/3 on strength and then top up on weakness. I never was a trader. I bought ECU at $0.25 and saw it run to $3.60. I never had the foresight to trade that run as I was committed to stay long all the way to the blow-off top. Imagine how stubborn and short sighted I must be to have not taken a 1400% profit.

Ten years later converting the current AUM price to ECU terms then it would be less than what I paid for it in 2003 – amazing. This is my first bull market play and at the early stages I had no idea that the ride would be 15+ years. So whoever has been in from the beginning is very patient indeed or perhaps extremely stubborn like me.

Well I must say I own about five times the amount of AUM that I ever thought I would own. For some time I have been saving maybe a $1000 a month and when AUM looked like it was taken to the cleaners I would suck up some more. I started buying in earnest at about $1.50 thinking the price level was ridiculous. Some more at $0.95 and now the same at $0.45 – way beyond ridiculous. It is hard to believe that we could have a blow down bottom from these levels. It sure seems that the boys have squeezed the towel dry after this prolonged torture. I am going to keep on buying until it dies, I die or it reverses. This must be the Oxford Dictionary definition of stubborn.

If you look at one of those emotional life cycle charts for a stock, I think we need a new name to add below capitulation as surely we must have passed that by now. I cannot imagine anyone left that would even dream of selling any shares at this price – I am getting worried that I won’t be able to fill any more orders now – ha ha.

I start to wonder now – is this a normal bull? Ten years into it and the stocks are lower than when the bull started yet the physical metals are about five times or so higher. I am beginning to think this is a unique gold and silver bull – a slow learner.

This bull is like a drawn out war with the US hanging on life support forever with a multitude of new international combatants rallying and gathering together almost daily now to try to pull the plug. I am just amazed at how long the US can hang on postponing the inevitable. You can feel it building to a crescendo with anticipation of a currency crisis fall.

I always thought that the stocks would run somewhat lock-step with the metals. A wild rise up followed by a bucking blow down sometimes a 33% fibo retrace and sometimes 50% drop with rallies up as an the overall trend. I never dreamed that the stocks would be so disconnected from the metals – is this a normal bull? However, Sinclair always said that you must hold physical and that call was on the money.

It would be interesting to compare a large sample of historic bulls to see whether the stock prices were also so obscenely disconnected to the associated commodity, product or service as it has been in this historic PM bull. If so, maybe we should be looking at other historic bulls that are at this stage so we can skip the ten years of torture.

I’d like to thank all the positive AUM forum members for keeping the faith, especially GWR1 for also regularly contributing so much to this board. Hold on to your stock guys and gals the spring can’t far from the next whopper of a ka-sproing to the up side. Keep some powder ready for that last throw in the white towel moment.

PS. Thank goodness I have a good day job