(I posted this over on the tdc board and am doing the same here in the hopes of waking up our friend Sitting Bull...)

Greetings all,

I, like most of you, have been nail biting on the sidelines as this ugly picture unfolds before us. So far, one major question has come to mind?

Is what we are seeing simply market forces at play or is it the result of rigged markets, etc. as suggested by many others?

Obviously, if people "in the know" such as JP, Barbera et al. have fallen prey to what is going on, I have little hope of answering this question at the present time, let alone reacting to what an answer might mean. About the only question I can ask myself is the following:

Do I let my bet ride or do I pull what I have left off the table?

On the one hand, if the PM's are destined to shine through eventually and epic manipulation is underway, whoever is doing the manipulating is going to try to scare little fish like me right out of the water as convincingly as they can. Hence the argument à la Eric King to hold on to my shares with all my might.

On the other hand, if this is simply market forces at play, with the outcome unknown by any, my bet is simply that, a bet...

One thing is for sure, if I could provide some kind of diagram or graphic model of all of the disparate thoughts relative to the market running around in my head, it would probably resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

On the gut feeling side, I like the idea of long-term FUNDAMENTALS winning out in the FSN sort of way; is the idea realistic?

How long before we know?

Good luck to you all,

stone