Sinbob, I appreciate your thoughts and you're right that folks need to know the truth so either they do not get burned or they do not lose their valid LONG positions with all the shennanigans going on. I prefer not to trade actively, but the MOST money that I have made in the last few years, has been from trading options on the AGQ and SLV, especially when I really load up during one of phases that Ted Butler or Gene Arensburg say that the COT report indicates that the bullion banks have significantly reduced their short positions. Sadly without this invaluable information, I would have been badly burned by the manipulators! Even with this information, Butler and Arensburg always warn that the manipulators still have many tricks since they control the market via their concentrated positions. Sprott has been working on this matter with the Mining Companies to get them to hold back mined silver as inventory and also distribute it as dividends in order to reduce the physical supply and therefore tighten the delivery market and force the price up. There are some good "advisors" out there, but so many are just worthless mouthpieces. If I could, I'd rather make my money like Pic on the LONG side with less stress and a better tax rate, but the good news is that if one trades OPTIONS on "non-equity" ETFs (AGQ, UGL, GDX, GDXJ, SLV, GLD), these trades qualify and IRS 1256 transactions and one can get blended tax rate on the gains (60% taxed as long-term and 40% taxed as short-term = 23% blended tax rate at the top bracket) no matter how short the options are held. I hope SFMI works out because like PIC I have brought family and friends into it because most folks are not traders and they would just like to have one nice big hit in their lives on the LONG side! Khaki