I think the expiry for paper gold derivitives this week has more to do with the behaviour of the spot price today. The targets seem to be sub-$850 for gold and sub-$11 for silver. This sort of thing happens every time an options expiry date approaches, no matter how strong or weak the metals trade prior to that. The selloff in the HUI yesterday even with gold and silver up on the day should have tipped us off if nothing else did. We play in a rigged market and that is how it goes. Now on the bright side, I think if anyone had offered me $850 and $11 as the closing range this week, about a month ago, I would have taken it. And it does look like gold is going to close the year at another new year-over-year high and the PM bull market is intact, so I am not going to sweat the small stuff intraday.

ECU is an odd stock because each time we come out with a bullish resource update, within a week the stock is back trading at the level it was at before the news came out. The company now has a known resource of about twice as many ounces of silver per share since then, yet the market value per share is trending flat since the news. When people try to make the suggestion of a rational and efficient market, I roll my eyes...

cheers!

mike