Goldfan, I don't mind you asking. I was buying and selling for several different accounts. My IRS bill was associated with a personal account and my recent buying was for my different retirement accounts.

Also, I agree, it does appear that we are through a rough patch for the general markets, but I believe that the appearance is illusory. The bubble state still exists and will not easily go away. You are right about the potential of oil. My worry is that the government will try to tax the crap out of the producers. "Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?" one might ask. I say," "Absolutely." People do dumb things when they panic, and there will be plenty of panic in the times ahead. The good thing about gold and gold mining is that there is a whole generation in Washington that doesn't even know what gold and how much it really is worth. When gold really takes off, we'll have plenty of time to get out of our investments with a lot of profit before those in government figure out what the heck happened and try to tax the mining industry into oblivion and negative sentiment could cause a pullback. Another reason I like gold. Just finished reading Marc Faber's latest letter. He points out that there still is a lot of cash on the sidelines and in bonds. Why? People, even people who are very smart and have a lot of money, don't have the foggiest idea what's going to happen next. This is a good position to be in for me, because even though I don't know exactly when or what is going to happen, I do know that gold and silver MUST go up. This is as inevitable as summer following winter at this point. Its just a matter of timing, but I think we're looking at less than 10 years to see really big moves. That's not long to wait for the types of moves that must eventually happen. All the best, Bull