gene arensberg says the bullion banks may be losing interest in shorting silver:

In the past we have witnessed very large one-month increases in the bullion bank net short positioning just ahead of very large declines in the price of silver, such as in August of 2008, the most recent and most obvious example. Big moves in the metal are sometimes telegraphed in advance if traders know what to look for.

Conversely, we have also seen very large decreases in the U.S. bank positioning just ahead of significant increases in the price of the metal. A great example of that occurred in gold futures in August of 2010 when the U.S. banks dumped more than 39,000 of their gold net short position with gold then at $1,186 and staging for a run up to $1,400 in December.

The “normal” condition is for the Big Sellers of futures to increase their net short positions on material price advances and vice versa. Regardless of the reasons why, it is crystal clear that the largest U.S. banks in futures, the largest bullion banks, are losing their appetite to take the short side of silver futures contracts in New York.

http://www.gotgoldreport.com/2011/02/bullion-banks-get-smaller-in-comex-silver-futures.html#tp