Excellent post, Mike, as is your norm. At some point, the silver market became vulnerable such that an attack as was launched would have dramatic results. It's hard for me to figure whether past attacks were as strong as this last one, but the silver market was strong enough to repel and survive it. This time, it seems to me, our immune system was in a compromised position, allowing the attack to succeed spectacularly. So spectacularly, that some people will not be back in the silver market (and some in gold and some, even in commodities in general) ever, and others for a good amount of time. Even though they might be called "weak hands," I don't think having them out of this sector of the marketplace is a good thing.

Moreover, if such attacks can be so effective, and this attack came at a time when many had concluded that the attackers lacked sufficient strength to launch such an attack, then those that agree with the attack theory (ie, focused manipulation), must also know (or know now) based on the results of last week, that this kind of event can happen again (and again), with little or no warning. Perhaps the warning was the extreme lack of proportional movement on the part of the stocks, I don't know. Of course, you understand the risk, and have determined to take it, and I think that's the case for most long-time posters on this board.

I also did not sell anything, and also added relatively modestly to ECU and even sold some SLW puts last week, from time to time.

It's going to be extra interesting to me how silver will perform over the next couple of months.