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Gold/Mining/Energy : Silver prices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Ilchyshn who wrote (341)	12/26/1997 8:38:00 PM
From: Mark Bartlett	Respond to of 8010

Jim, <<The commercials are the ones that actually use the product or sell the product. As in silver it would be the Kodak's, the jewellers, the mining companies etc. But just like when the Hunt's cornered the market, they really didn't have a need for the product, they just saw an opportunity to make those who needed the product pay more for it.>> I fully appreciate the people you have defined above are the _bonafide commercials ..... in Steve Kaplan's daily commentary, he makes the point that the ones in the "know" are usually the commercials (because as you have pointed out, they use the stuff). So ... I would expect if that logic prevails, when there is a silver shortage, commercials would be long the commodity, rather than short - or, as you have pointed out, they will end up paying more than they otherwise would because they would be squeezed; not something I would expect vis-a-vis sound business management. _Assuming Kaplan's logic is correct, then we seem to have a situation that appears to be opposite to what one would expect i.e., the commercials are short the commodity - suggesting they anticipate the commodity price will fall. My comment about "who are the commercials" , was suggesting that there may be "commercial" players here that really have little interest in what silver does - but far more interest in making it _appear silver should be going down. This would fit in with what is happening with gold, and the negative sentiment that prevails at the present time. _Silver price increases have long been the proxy for gold price price increases .... and I am suggesting that the present situation is just more of the same manipulative tactics. Perhaps my imagination is getting the best of me .... but something in my mind appears to be out of whack here. It could very well be _my lack of understanding of the intricacies of the commodity markets - and nothing more. MB