The waterfall decline...[in silver prices] has resulted in many silver investors throwing in the towel and exiting their positions. However, this is herd mentality and every successful investor knows it is almost always a failing strategy. With sentiment near all-time lows and blood still running in the streets, I am doing the exact opposite and wading into the waters once again. [Below are 8 reasons why I think that silver has bottomed.] Words: 1570

From the onset of the global financial crisis, the price of gold has often been portrayed as a barometer of global economic insecurity (in principle, holding gold is a form of insurance against war, financial Armageddon, and wholesale currency debasement) so does the collapse in gold prices - from a peak of $1,900 per ounce in August 2011 to under $1,250 at the beginning of July 2013 - represent a vote of confidence in the global economy?

We have NEVER been this overextended above this line at any point in the last 20 years. Indeed, if you compare where the S&P 500 is relative to this line, we're even MORE overbought that we were going into the 2007 peak at the top of the housing bubble.

The old adage “history repeats itself” has been applied to all facets of the investing world...and Peter Schiff believes that the phrase points the path to a major run up in gold that few investors will be counting on. [The truth of the matter, however, is that,] while there are some striking similarities between today and the mid-’70s, our current economy is unlike what anyone has ever seen. We are truly wading into uncharted territory and it is nearly impossible to definitively say where we will be heading next.

While the US$3000 figure is wildly above most forecasts, which are mostly flat at the current level, UBS global commodity analyst Tom Price said these flat forecasts are based less on informed analysis than on the fact that "people just don't know what's going on."

5 years into the official economic “recovery” the labor participation rate is still lower than when the recession was declared over in June 2009 by almost a percentage point. It is still over 4 percentage points lower than when the recession officially began. The Federal Reserve chart of employment as a percentage of working age adults proves the point that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words - sometimes much more. Words: 388; Charts: 1

This summer we are nearing a possible inflection point in terms of Fed actions. The mere suggestion from the Fed that something is going to change is enough to supercharge markets, either up or down....Will markets go to 20,000 or to 5,000? That depends upon the Fed and how much they debauch the currency.......Stay tuned, this story has hardly begun.

Charts speak the loudest...and they never lie...[because they are] the true record of all buy and sell decisions executed, coming from the most informed to the least informed. Most of the problems lie with those who form an opinion, and how they choose to impose it onto what any given chart “says.” My understanding of what the quarterly monthly, weekly and daily charts are conveying about the price action of silver is, simply,] "Silver stackers, these lower prices are a gift you should keep on taking. Stay tuned."

An earlier article on gold & silver went viral with almost 30,000 reads on munKNEE.com alone and continues to be read by hundreds of goldbugs daily. Below is an updated chart and analysis suggesting that gold & silver have further to drop before they go parabolic. Take a look and share it with friends.

The financial markets were in distress lately because of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's suggestion that the Fed might taper off its quantitative easing programs starting at the end of this year and ending in 2015. Here are five reasons why markets shouldn't worry too much about the Fed leaving the stage: