Articles from year 2006
 

Wrapping Up A Year in Gold (November 20, 2006)
Gold has recently held its ground at $600+, having convincingly broken a pattern over the past few months of tracking oil prices, which on Friday fell to a 17-month low of $56/barrel. Gold has actually been boring lately, although boring at a plateau we haven’t seen in decades…
Click for full story

Precious Metals, Commodities, Have a Powerful Week
(November 5, 2006)
Gold, silver, and palladium all had good weeks pricewise, while platinum prices surged $100 in two trading days as word of a proposed platinum bullion Exchange Traded Fund hit the market. But what do ETFs mean to metals markets?
Click for full story

When Pigs Fly! (October 13, 2006)
Today the long-awaited final Lunar coin, the 2007 Year of the Pig issue from the Perth Mint, is scheduled to arrive on premises here in Arizona. On Monday 10/16/06 we will begin shipping orders for Pigs and 2007 Kangaroos. All Pigs will fly by Wednesday, 10/18.
Click for full story
 

Amaranth’s Anomaly –or- When Hedge Models Go Awry (September 24, 2006)
Chevron announced on September 6th a potential 15 billion barrel oil discovery deep in the Gulf of Mexico. That same day a total rout in prices of oil, metals, and natural gas began. Soon thereafter, a hedge fund died of natural gas causes.
Click for full story
 

A Weak Week for Gold (September 9, 2006)
In 48 hours time, gold lost 5% of its value this past Thursday and Friday. What causes such seismic valuation shifts in a metal whose market is perhaps the oldest in existence, a market that essentially defines the value of money itself?
Click for full story

A Saturday Morning Treasure Hunt  (August 20, 2006)
Buried treasure is where you find it, as I found out recently on a buying expedition right in the heart of town. And sometimes, you really never can tell…anything.
Click for full story

The Dollar, Canadian and Otherwise. (August 7, 2006)
In the Gulf Islands around the Vancouver area, just a few miles north of Washington state, I enjoyed wonderful cool weather in a place where Christmas trees grow down to the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and for a week, gold slipped my mind entirely. Almost…
Click for full story

Gold From the Arizona Territories!  (July 8, 2006)
On Valentine's Day in 1912, Arizona became the last of the contiguous 48 states to be admitted to the Union. The Anglo history of this state starts with mining - first gold, then silver, and, even today, massive amounts of copper. And once in a while, we see artifacts from the old days…
 be!
Click for full story

The Buffalo Has Arrived! (June 20, 2006)
This week the US Mint officially releases its new .9999 pure gold bullion coin, featuring a Native American in profile on the obverse, and an American Bison in full on the reverse. If you are a numismatist, that combination of themes on US coinage should seem pretty familiar – it was first seen in general circulation 93 years ago.
Click for full story

US Gold Investors Get Buffaloed (June 20, 2006)
This week the US Mint officially releases its new .9999 pure gold bullion coin, featuring a Native American in profile on the obverse, and an American Bison in full on the reverse. If you are a numismatist, that combination of themes on US coinage should seem pretty familiar – it was first seen in general circulation 93 years ago.
Click for full story

Gold Looks for Traction (June 4, 2006)
Commenting on gold’s trip beyond $700 last month, analyst Peter Bernstein said, “All the necessary conditions for a mess were there.” Now, with the US intending to ‘talk’ with Iran, gold’s recent war premium may be lessened, but “necessary conditions” prevail that will pick up and carry gold prices for some time forward.
Click for full story

Well, There You Have it! (May 19th, 2006)
In six trading days, gold prices finally did something they haven’t done in over a year – they achieved that long-awaited 10% correction. It was so overdue, that some were starting to think that it would never happen, and what a shocking washout it turned out to be!
Click for full story

Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation (May 7, 2006)
Another week, another 25-year high for gold versus the dollar. Gold has now gained $425 in 5 years, $150 of that in the past eight weeks. $850 seems in sight, a level last reached in 1980, a time of surging oil prices and, yes, some sort of trouble between the US and Iran.
 Click for full story

Okay, Gold is Up $100 So Far This Year – Now What? (April 17, 2006)
Gold prices began 2006 around the $513 level, and now threaten to spike into parabolic territory. A new crowd of potential buyers see that gold has a bright future, and are suspicious of their weakening dollars, but they're starting to fear there won't be a good correction.
Click for full story

Career Opportunity for the Right Person  (April 17th, 2006)
This month we are launching a national search for an addition to our staff. How do we find the right bright bulb to help our operation? Someone suggested that it couldn’t hurt to post the opening right here on this website, so here goes…  
Click for full story

Precious Metals Markets Closed for the Holiday Weekend (April 14, 2006)
Precious metals put in a strong showing this week, with gold's active June contract trading over $600 for most of the week, silver climbing towards the $13 level, and palladium and platinum holding their own. We take a much-needed trading break until Monday morning...  
Click for full story

Precious Metals Slam Dunk! (April 2, 2006)
We hereby declare the Final Four winners this week to be Gold, Silver, Palladium, and Platinum, which posted, respectively, 25-year, 22-year, 4-year, and All-time price records versus the highly-favored, once-mighty US dollar.
Click for full story

Gold Is Where You Find It  (March 18, 2006)
In tabulating our year-end inventory using the year 2005’s final gold trading price of $513, I am reminded that gold began the year 2005 with a spot price of $427. To coin a phrase, a lot of water has gone over the dam since then.
Click for full story

A Sane and Sober Look at the (Possibly) Coming Silver ETF  (February 25, 2006)
In 1980 the Hunt brothers attempted corner on the silver market imploded, and for years afterward the phrase ‘silver investor’ could hardly be uttered without a snicker. Silver became 'semi-precious,’ and traded around $5 for nearly two decades. Today, however, at $9 and change, something is up... Click for full story

The Old Gold Out of Africa Scam  (February 15, 2006)
(February 15, 2006) Have you ever been contacted, perhaps through an email or fax, about a veritable fortune in gold in the possession of someone in Africa, someone who desperately needs your help to bring it to America? This week, we bring you a story of gold fraud.
Click for full story.

“A Man Walks in with a Bar…”  (January 29, 2006)
 Yesterday was the official start of the Year of the Dog, tomorrow is the last day of the reign of Alan Greenspan as head of the Fed, North Korea is turning out superb counterfeit US $100 bills, and I have a gold bar story for you…
Click for full story.

Five Hundred, Fifty Six Dollars, and Ten Cents  (January 13, 2006)
On this date, gold prices closed at $556.10, a 25-year record high price in dollar terms. Those who have owned gold for a while are not surprised at the higher levels, but new buyers hesitate to pay record prices. Who is right? B.B. King, of course.
Click for full story.

A New Year For Gold (January 2, 2006)
In gold’s Dark Decades from 1981 to 2001, any public mention of the ageless yellow metal was more likely to be punitive than positive. But things change, witness a recent Barron’s article entitled, “Golden Opportunity?” - a question which is answered entirely in the affirmative.  
Click for full story.