gene arensberg says something changed in the silver market. it isnt as easy for the commercials to take the price down ahead of option expiry:

Outside reversals are fairly common. What separates the “impressive” outside reversals from the mediocre in our own opinion, can be measured by the “follow through” which occurs or doesn’t occur immediately following the event.

In this particular event silver reversed, turning a potential 23-cent loss into a 35-cent gain on Tuesday, and then followed through with another 56-cent advance on Wednesday. That’s impressive. For the week, silver surged USD $1.07, an advance of 5.9%, strongly outperforming its larger cousin gold, which added $10.15 to $1,237.88, up 0.8%.

The fact that the new silver surge occurred just ahead of options and futures expiry (even if it was just the “who cares” August contract) makes it all the more impressive to us. It suggests that even in the light liquidity of August, the Big Sellers of gold and silver were unable to use their CFTC-granted COMEX futures position limit exemption trading advantage to overwhelm buying pressure to the downside as has happened so often in the past at this time of the trading month.

We can all conclude that something material has changed in the COMEX futures silver market.

http://www.gotgoldreport.com/2010/08/focus-on-silver-.html