Jimmied, that was a great post. Nice advice.

I friend recently asked about investing in silver and gold. I told him the safest play was to buy GDX. I explained that it was basically a mutual fund of the highest caliber gold and silver mining companies that traded as an ETF. I told him it would easily double over the next three years (as long as gold rises to $1500).

Well, he bought it and then emailed me how much he lost this week! I'm not going to do any more advising. I'm sure it will come back and he will do well, but I can do without the headache when it doesn't go straight up.

I want to help friends and family, but is it worth the trauma? I've experienced the same thing that most of you have faced: no reaction to our recommendations. A couple of years ago I wrote a detailed (Jimmied would have liked it) analysis of why silver was a steal at $12 and not one of my family members invested in silver.

When NOT was trading at .50 cents I tried to convince a good friend, who was a conservative investor, to buy NOT. I owned about 15 juniors, but I only recommended NOT. I even told him this is the only one that I felt was a SURE thing. I told him at .50 cents there was very little downside risk and the upside was excellent. I told him on at least three occasions to by NOT.

When DE hit, he told me to tell him the next time I had a sure thing. I have one, but I'm not telling anyone. Okay, for you guys: NOT!