SILVER Rally of 'BIBLICAL Proportions' Ahead, Shorts 'Fighting a Losing Battle': Ed Steer
Summary
Precious Metals: Guest is emphatically bullish on gold and especially silver, arguing price suppression cannot withstand physical demand and shrinking inventories.
Silver Short Squeeze: Detailed case for an imminent short-covering rally in silver driven by big eight commercial shorts reducing historic positions and mounting margin pressures.
Silver Miners: Silver equities are said to be heavily underperforming and managed, creating what he views as a compelling long-term entry point for value investors.
Gold Miners: Gold producers are described as highly profitable with “blue skies” ahead, though equity performance is also being contained relative to metal moves.
Market Structure: Evidence cited includes COMEX/LBMA/Shanghai delivery spikes, record-low exchange inventories, and ongoing ETF and depository drawdowns.
Macro Backdrop: Geopolitical tensions and potential oil shocks are seen as inflationary, but official interventions may delay safe-haven price surges in the near term.
Risks: Continued market interventions (“plunge protection”) and engineered selloffs can cap prices and dampen miners’ leverage until shorts capitulate.
Overall View: Setup for silver is characterized as “incandescently bullish,” with three-digit prices this year viewed as likely once intervention abates.
Transcript
Hello everybody and welcome into commodity culture where we break down commodities markets, sound money principles and geopolitics all with the goal of making you a better investor in the commodities sector. My name is Jesse Day. Today is March 11th, 2026 and I'm thrilled to welcome Ed Steer to the program. A precious metals expert who's been analyzing the space for over 20 years, a former contributor to Casey Research, and the founder of Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest. Ed breaks the latest on the price suppression happening in the silver market and why he thinks the shorts are fighting a losing battle that will result in a short covering rally of biblical proportions. Ed dives into the latest data from the ComX, LBMA, and Shanghai futures exchange, including tremendous inventory drawdowns and deliveries in recent weeks. a picture that he ultimately believes will send silver soaring to levels most would find unimaginable. All of this and so much more ahead in my conversation with Ed Steer. Ed Steer, it is great to have you back on Commodity Culture. You recently released an edition of Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest where you reported on quote price management in everything, noting that gold, silver, platinum, and palladium are still being subjected to price manipulation today. Walk us through what you're seeing that indicates the metals are being managed and how deep this manipulation goes. >> Okay. Well, the management of the precious metals been ongoing for the last 20 or the last 50 years. So what I was talking about in that uh price management and everything is when we had that big oil price spike up to $120 on Monday and uh it was more than obvious when you looked at uh you know what was going on in the market in all the markets that the plunge protection team or Ronald Reagan's president working group on financial markets that he came up with in 1987 after the market crash back then which I remember very Well, and they were in absolutely everything on on Monday or t on Monday when that happened. They were in the dollar index. They were in the uh 10-year yields, the entire bond uh yields, the entire bond market, in stock markets. And obviously, they were active in the oil markets because it traded what in a $39 price range. And that didn't happen by pure market forces. There was somebody in there to make sure that it didn't blow and close above $100 a barrel. So the paper traders are still there and they're still there in all markets and they've no found no signs of going away. In my and in my column every day, you know, I comment on the big six commodities which are the ones that they control the most. Those are the four precious metals, copper, and West Texas Intermediate. and uh they're active in all these markets uh plus any other markets they uh they want to get involved in because like I said you know Ronald Reagan passed the u president's working group on financial markets act back in 1987 to prevent another stock market crash and uh they've intervened in the markets you know not only in the US but abroad when they have to to make sure that you know the stock markets were stayed propped up because if they hadn't intervened on Monday you know the stock markets would have absolutely cratered and gold and silver would have been at the moon and the three-digit silver price that you know everybody's been talking about for the last several years. We'd be looking at a big three-digit silver price right now as we were talking but that wasn't allowed to happen. >> So what do you think needs to take place for that to be allowed to happen because the trajectory of precious metals continues to trend higher when we look at a longer term time frame. For instance, if we zoom out to a monthly time frame, we can see both gold and silver continuing to move almost in a parabolic fashion, reaching all-time highs on that monthly time frame despite the best efforts of those trying to manage prices in the short term. So, the the scenario you described, are the shorts fighting an uphill battle at this point? And will there come a time when that game ends and we see what you described, a cratering of the broad market and and precious metals going to the moon? Oh, well well there's there's no question about it. I mean the this trajectory has been coming for a long long time. Everybody's forecasted because of you know the six-year long deficit in silver and um it's you know the the shorts the the big commercial shorts the eight largest traders that are the bullion banks etc. They've been fighting a losing battle all the way up and they'll they're continuing it to fight it and it it will last as long as as they're prepared to to fight this thing. Uh there's there's only you know it will be allowed to close above $100 when when when they allow it to happen and right now that didn't that wasn't allowed to occur. So it is an uphill battle. It's a losing battle. And as you know, silver analyst Ted Butler said three or four years ago, you know, this is going to be a a a short covering rally for the ages when it does when it is allowed to occur. And we of course saw that back at the end of January because if the powers that be hadn't stepped in, like I said for your first question, we'd be looking at a three-digit silver price today. But it it is a losing battle and it's just a matter how long it is before they finally throw in the towel and let the free markets rain. >> And how much damage has already been done to these short positions considering how far and how fast silver in particular ran? Well, we've spoken a lot about the manipulation of the markets before on this show and and you mentioned that these people the these forces have very deep pockets and so they're not necessarily bothered with the massive losses that could occur. What what do you see causing that to shift and and maybe any more light you could shed on just the ample liquidity that these shorts have that allow them to kind of sustain these large losses but yet keep going? you know, everybody that's short the market when the price is rising has to deal with with margin calls which go out daily um every time the price rises by a dollar or more. And uh so you know the anybody who's short who's let's say since last year at $27 when that's was the average price of silver at the beginning of the year. You know when silver spiked up to $100 I mean you're looking at a margin call of $73 $73 per ounce and if you're short 10 million ounces we're talking serious money here. So they have to come up with a margin call money plus the rollover cost from month to month. But the thing is, and as Ted Butler correctly pointed out, even they're still short that contract at $27. So if you've got uh 10 or 15 or 20,000 contracts holders that have been short silver since that day, they still have that short contract on, it's still there. And at some point, it has to be covered by the purchase of a long contract. And then you get then they will have to real right now it's just a paper loss they have on their books at some point it's become going to become a realized loss where they're going to have to come in and buy the long contract. So you know um right now the um the the short the collective short positions those of those short the market in silver right now in silver and gold is somewhere north of uh $70 billion. So those are unbooked margin call losses that they're going to have to cover sooner or later and there's just no way out of that. That's just the way the comx futures market works. >> Well, let's talk about that concentrated short position in the silver market and how it's progressing at present. Can you dive into the details there and and how you see it all unfolding ahead? >> No, I I follow the commitment traders report religiously and I've been doing it that for the last about 15 years or so. Um, and the short, it's the short position of the eight largest traders in silver that matters cuz those are the, you know, those are the bullion banks and the large investment houses that that are have the deep pockets that can afford to short this market. But, you know, since since last year, the short position in um in silver's was I'm just looking at last July, July the 8th of last year, the big eight were short 84,500 silver contracts, which is a whole lot. It's like 420 million ounces. But as of last Friday, they were down to 40 just under 46,000. So, they've covered what 38,000 contracts. Part of the reason the price has risen since last July to today is because these large eight large traders plus other traders have been covering their short position. So this rally that we've been that we've gone through with this parabolic price spike is partly short covering by the large eight large traders plus other traders and also as thing became parabolic more and more speculators started to step into the market and that's why it went parabolic. So the reason the price is rising is because of the short covering and it's it's ongoing right now. So you know right now we have the smallest short position of the big eight traders in recorded history. It has never been this small and I've got records going back to 2008. So there's the setup for a rally in the ComX futures market like I said on my call a couple of times uh in the last week is incandescently white hot bullish from you know from a comx futures market perspective because they have the smallest short position in history and if you look at last week's bank participation report which just shows you the short positions of the uh the world's banks the five five US banks are short about 14,000 silver contracts, which is not very much compared to what they were short before. And they like last since last July, they've been in a desperate race to try to get out of their short positions. And so, it's part of their short covering that's driven prices higher as well. You know, go back to 1975 or whenever they started uh managing the precious metals. You know, it's been 50 years since we off the gold exchange standard and 50 years since the price management scheme began and they never gave any thought to it when this thing started back then, you know, 50 years ago. But how they were going to get out of this thing uh at the end when uh when uh when they were forced to uh when they were forced to cover the short positions and let the mark free markets reign. And what we're seeing right now is them desperately trying to get out of the short positions as much as they can. And all these price machinations that we've seen since, you know, silver spiked up to 120 and then it's been smacked down, then it rose again. It got smacked down and of course it got beaten down again today and earlier last week. These are all part of what the big eight commercial short players are trying to do to get as many short positions as possible. So this is a work in progress but uh there's a guar there's no there's I can absolutely guarantee you they will never be able to get out of all their short positions. So you know from a from a things look bad because you look at the price and say it's down but if you look under the hood you know the battle there by the largest traders to get out of their short positions is a work in progress. And like I said, the setup for a major major rally in silver has has is is the most bullish I've ever seen. And I've been following these markets now for what 25 years. The sponsor of today's episode is Arc Silver, Gold, Osmium. Owner Ian Everard is praised even by his competitors as one of the most honest and level-headed bullion dealers in the United States. They have some great prices. You can see some of them displayed right now on screen. to take advantage of these specials today by reaching out to Ian at 3072649441 or by email at Ian arcsggo.com. Make sure to tell them of course that commodity culture sent you. And now back to the interview. I'm pretty happy with the silver price today. I I don't see it as that bad. We're in the mid80s here. I think putting things into perspective, but but as you mentioned, this does not reflect true price discovery. You also noted that there's been a sudden spike in deliveries in March. Why don't you walk us through that and how that fits into this whole picture. >> Yeah. Well, you know, as everybody knows, there's been a rush for physical metal now for what, the last three or four or five months, ever since October since the LBMA blow up. And uh more and more people are taking their there's there's their their paper short position saying, "I want physical metal." And uh so they they stand for delivery. And we've seen lots of that over the last four or five months. But what has happened in the last 48 hours starting yesterday is that there were in March there were 4,000 about 4,500 gold contracts added to the March delivery month yesterday. Okay, which is uh what um it's it's a lot it's a lot of gold. And today I'm just looking at the charts here. There have been uh 7 million ounces of silver traded in March. So, a whole bunch of that will be standing for delivery tonight in today's in tonight's daily delivery report. And I'm going to be really interested who the um short issuers are on that one. Who's who's being forced to cough up the silver as the headline to my column said today was Morgan Stanley yesterday had to cough up what 1700 plus uh contracts in gold, which is what's almost six tons. So the longs the people that were long against them said we don't want we don't want the paper short long positions any we want the uh the gold. So they ponyied up the money and demanded delivery. So there was big deliveries in gold yesterday and huge deliveries in silver coming up today. And uh so the rush for uh for physical metal is back on in earnest. >> Well, how high do you think we could go here? because you've spoken before on this show about the silver price reaching unimaginable levels that has seemed to be playing out particularly as silver rose into the triple digits before coming back down to earth of course including a gut-wrenching 26% loss in a single day. We're now sitting in the mid80s. Now obviously price predictions are very often a mug's game but in terms of where you see silver going, do you expect us to hit new all-time highs perhaps this year? And how far do you think silver could rise in 2026? >> Well, you know, I think I I sort of answered that the first question. You know, if the boys, the commercial traders of whatever stripe hadn't stepped into the market at on uh on 27th of January 20, whatever day it was when it blew through 120, it would have blown through 220 and 320 and 420 and 520 and pick your number. Okay? we would have seen this short covering rally uh of biblical proportion and what Ted Butler called the bonfire of the silver shorts and we'd be looking at a fantastic three-digit silver price right now. So, how high can it go? It will be entirely up to, as I said before, the what the big four and big eight commercial shorts allow. But, uh could we break up to new highs this year? Oh, absolutely. You know, I there's no question about it. I will be very very surprised if we don't close out the year with a three-digit silver price of of of some size, you know, and uh like I said, if it's still up to the big four in the big eight and uh it's like I said, the setup in silver is white hot and in gold, I forgot which I forgot to mention, it's it's not quite as bullish, but it's still on a on a historical level, it's still extremely bullish. So, you know, the boys are basically sitting on the price until they're they're prepared to allow allow it to rise again. And that that's why I'm very confident that we'll see a decent silver three-digit silver price before the year is done. Well, with the war in Iran being a very front and center at moment, I'd be remiss not to ask your thoughts because it looks like it's going to be dragging on much longer than the Trump administration initially expected. Do you think as this war continues to potentially evolve and expand that it will have any noticeable impact on precious metals prices as that sort of safe haven uh demand aspect of the metals? >> Well, it it tried to do that when it spiked through 120, but the powers of B came along and said uh no chance of that. And like I said, look at crude oil. It went to what $100 a barrel. I don't know what it spiked to but um they were in the markets killing that and they killed the price of the other precious metals and they uh ramped the dollar index and uh drove the bond yield 10-year yield down and uh popped up the stock markets. You know this is all you know the war in Iran should make a difference. You know, right now the situation with in the oil market is is very fluid and um you know, we've just had the price machinations of the last machinations of the last three or four days, but this is yet to play out because this war is not going to end anytime soon. Uh there's been no agreement. I I know that Trump was on the phone to Putin yesterday trying to get him to mediate this thing, but good luck with that. So this is going to go on and on and what you're seeing now and it's already started is that Qatar is Qatar Qatar is is shutting in their gas production and a bunch of other of the Gulf state countries are are shutting starting to shut down their oil field production because they don't have any more storage capacity. Um and this is rippling uh through the other Middle East countries as well and Saudi Arabia will be the last one to follow. But once they shut in the oil fields, it's going to take forever, okay? For a very long time to restart them up. It's it's not like just turning on the tap and away they go. The the physics of of oil drilling and oil pumping and extraction is is so complicated that I don't even want to get into it. I don't even understand it myself. But the thing is that the price shock that we're seeing right now is nothing to what we're going to be seeing two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and months down the road here when uh when the this thing war finally comes to an end at some point. And then the problem becomes getting these fields back up to producing what they were before the shutdown. And that's going to take months and months. So the full effect of, you know, higher oil prices, we have yet to see. And of course at some point uh hopefully it will have a price you know positive impact on the precious metals but like I said you know the big four and big eight traders and the plunge protection team may have other ideas but sooner or later Mr. Market's going to take over and one thing that we haven't talked about yet which I'll just mention briefly and everybody knows about so I'm not going to dwell on it is that we're in the sixth year of a uh supply demand deficit in silver and uh it hasn't gone away. it's not going to go away and that brick wall is uh coming up and I think that's one of the reasons why you're seeing this the silver market um you know trying to a spike higher in price and all these people you know rushing into buying as much uh silver as they can get their hands on which has been going on for many months now >> well assuming that the oil price does continue to rise and get perhaps into those high triple digits as reality sets in we see issues with the straight of Hormuse of course very few ships able to transit safely through that area. We're seeing oil refineries get bombed. Um we're seeing panic and uh obviously the Trump administration, the last thing they want is incredibly high gasoline prices as they go into the midterms, but they might not necessarily be able to get a handle on that through market manipulation or other methods. So assuming oil does continue to rise, what would that do to inflation and what would the overall impact do you think would be on the global economy? Well, you know, inflation is baked in the cake. Um, there's no way they're going to be able to hide this, you know. It's not just the transportation cost, you know. I mean, the you look at the price of the pumps. I looked at it yesterday. I said, "What?" Cuz it took a 40 40 cent um or 25 cent a liter a jump here in Canada at the pumps. And it's going to go much higher, too. And it's not just in the cost of driving my car or driving the truck down the highway. It's the cost of producing all goods, okay? Whether it be growing food, processing food, manufacturing, whatever. It goes through the entire supply and production chain. And the most obvious one that we as consumers see is the price at the pump. But it infects the entire supply production uh uh cycle. And once it gets embedded in that, well, good luck uh getting it out. It's not going to come out tomorrow or next week or next month. It's a long-term process and uh you know right now it's it's very dynamic, very fluid, but uh you know higher inflation is baked in the cake and of course that's going to uh certainly affect the economies and I I I just you know they're keeping the stock markets propped up as best they can but sooner or later uh uh you know reality is going to set in and we're going to see uh we're going to see the economies not just in the US but the entire world world decline. I want to talk about these so-called technical glitches that have been coming up at the CME Comx recently because first we had the server cooling issues supposedly at the end of November last year that halted trading for hours. Early February this year, another glitch briefly halted natural gas futures with a spillover to metals including silver. Most recently February 25th, there was a 90minute halt in all metals and natural gas futures due to quote technical issues. How suspicious is all of this? And do you think the CME Group is complicit in using its platform to serve the interests of these big eight uh commercial traders trying to suppress metals prices? >> You know, and you see this stuff, you know, of course, you know, you know, everybody gets their paranoid level up, including me. I'm not immune to this, by the way. You know, I look, oh god, you know, is this is what are they trying to do now? What are they trying to hide? I mean every you know but I got a bottle of pills here and I when as soon as I get feeling like that I take a blue pill and then lay down until the feeling goes away. So you know it's pos it's possible this is happening but the fact of the matter is that you know I follow the like I said I follow the co commitment traders report the bank participation reports every week and I'm looking at the numbers right down to the contract and I've seen nothing in there okay that indicates there's any kind of hanky panky going on. If there was, I'd be uh I'd be uh jumping up and down and and hollering about it in my column, but I've seen nothing to that effect. The only thing I have noticed, and I will point it out because I did didn't mention it before, and I'm just going to haul out this piece of paper I've got here. In the last um in the last uh uh 3 weeks, the short position of the big four traders has dropped by about 4,500 contracts. So you can see that they are aggressively covering their short positions and I wouldn't be surprised that the price action that we saw yesterday and today is is more of the same trying to do the same thing. So you know I'm suspicious of this stuff. You know everybody's the CME uh is basically a criminal organization and as Ted Butler said he says basically their entire purpose is to protect the shorts. They're not there to protect the longs. They're there to protect the shorts, especially the big four and the big eight traders that uh you know that that's most of their business. So that's what they're there for. So you know the if the comix went the way of the dodo bird um I would be very very happy to see that and then prices would be allowed to trade freely without options and futures market attached to it and of course that would result immediately in uh three-digit silver price and um price disco true price discovery in all the commodities which are far far higher than they are today and including crude oil. even at crude oil at $80 a barrel is still pretty cheap when you look at it historically. >> And what about the circuit breakers not triggering when silver plunged 206% in a single day? I've spoken to a couple of people uh David Jensen and Andy Sheckchman both believe that that was certainly something suspicious. Although other people have posted that actually according to the rules of the comx they didn't necessarily have to trigger on that particular day. As you said, people love to put their tinfoil hats on and who can be helped in today's world with the Epstein files out there and all of this craziness going on. You almost have to default to the conspiracy theory first. But do you have any thoughts on on what occurred that way and the lack of of circuit breakers triggering a silver plunged? You know, if you take a look at the entire United States administration, okay, uh the White House, Justice Department, uh this House, the Senate, it is as corrupt as you can possibly imagine. is the most I mean it is just unbel as a Canadian looking at what's going on in the US you know from what it was you know when I was a kid back in the 1950s and 1960s you know it it is metastasized into this absolutely grotesque and corrupt entity you know and you know Trump had bas and his administration basically said we're not following international rules we're not following any rules we're going to do out go do our own thing and we don't care what you think we're going to just do it and obviously that's what they're So this is just another example of that where you know Terry Duffy over at the CME Group you know who runs the show he says you know we're not going to put the 10% circuit breakers on. We know we're supposed to but we're just not going to. So the all the rules are out the window about what they can and can't do. So the rules be damned. So you know I Jensen and whoever else David um uh Andy Shackman thank you. I they're absolutely correct. You know, they should have kicked in, but they didn't. And I'm sure without doubt that that was deliberate move because they wanted the price to go down as much as possible to protect the shorts, the big short holders, which is what they're in business for. So, it's like, like I said, everything is so crooked out there. You can't you can't believe any of the prices you see today because they're all managed. >> Yes. And I believe even internationally, international law has been completely thrown in the dust bin and seems to be nowhere in sight. No accountability for anybody doing anything anymore. >> Well, look at look at what's going on. Iran, you know, whether what you regardless of what your opinion of Iran is, Iran and the United States were in negotiations last June, and when those ne negotiations were ongoing, they bombed the hell out of it. Last month they were in the middle of negotiations and Israel and United States attacked them for there was absolutely no reason. They they attacked them uh it was completely premeditated attack for no reason. Okay, which is the biggest war crime of all. So I mean there there's no rules anywhere. You just you could throw them out the window. I mean they just don't exist at home, abroad, domestically. It does it doesn't matter. I mean, the US is doing bloody what what it pleases. And uh they they've become a rogue nation, which, you know, looking back at the end of World War II, it it's really I'm really sad about it. Not only for the good citizens of the US, but also for everybody else on planet Earth because we're all suffering uh the consequences of it. >> Absolutely. Post World War II, how many regime regime change operations has the US initiated? 100, something insane like that. And um I mean the the most harrowing reports perhaps coming out of the Iran conflict is the potential double tap uh strike on the girls school. Now a double tap strike is one of the most abhorrent war crimes you could imagine where you attack a civilian target, wait for rescue crews and the families to come look for the deceased and try to rescue those who survived and then attack again uh killing all those people as well. and and uh I I don't know if we have 100% confirmation on that, but a lot of reports are circulating to that effect, targeting civilian infrastructure in general. Um it's a it's a rough world out there right now, guys. And uh that there's not really many good people to be found in terms of geopolitical actors, politicians, and the political elite. But let's get off of that for a moment here. I want to get your thoughts on the silver mining sector because interestingly they have yet to provide any sort of levered play on the silver price. If we look at the SEL ETF as a proxy, it's barely outperforming silver itself over the course of a year, which is uh completely insane considering how much the price of silver has gone up. Why do you think this is and do you think this disconnect has to correct itself at some point? Okay. I've been pointing out in my newsletter starting about the middle of last year, there were times it looks like somebody was fooling around with the precious metal uh uh precious metal stocks, mostly the silver stocks. And I squawkked about it two or three times last year, but then it really became obvious in October that there was they were un you know the stocks were vastly underperforming silver and also underperforming the gold stocks as well. And uh it was only until uh somebody sent me a chart of SEL versus the silver price where the discontinuity became obvious. It was the middle of September where it was sort of tracking the silver stocks. Okay. Then all of a sudden it just cratered. Okay. So somebody is actively managing the silver stocks right now. And they're also managing the gold stocks too, but not to the same extent. This has been going on now um heavily since the middle of September. And will it correct itself? You know, one would assume they it would, but like I said, I mean, they're managing everything. And there's you can't believe anything you're seeing out there. In my opinion, the silver stocks, if you look at your portfolio, it should be worth about double what it is today. That's how bad the manipulation is. It's just grotesque. So, you know, you have to look at, you know, our our stock portfolios, the oil price, the stock market, the dollar index, uh the treasury yields, the wars, the un unprovoked war against Iran, all of this stuff is all part of the same thing of a completely corrupted financial and monetary system. >> Well, if we look at the gold miners, the story is somewhat different. The GDX ETF has doubled the performance of gold in that same time frame of one year. Perhaps still not what many speculators were anticipating. You mentioned you think that they could be manipulating the gold stocks as well, but to a lesser extent. Is that why they're performing while the silver miners lag? And what's your overall assessment of the gold mining sector at present? >> You know, they've only really stuck their nose into the gold stocks in the last two or three months. Okay. Last year it wasn't a factor at all. Okay. But it's just recently where if you look at the the Huey versus the gold price or you know this SILJ or SILD and you could just track it. You can see the silver is like up two or$3 dollars and the silver stocks aren't doing anything. Okay. Um the gold sector is fine. I mean they're making enormous profits. The silver miners are making enormous profits. Everybody's doing wonderfully well. And uh there's it's blue skies uh as far as I can see not not only now but even greater blue skies in the future. And uh as far as the precious metal stocks uh they'll be allowed to rise as much as they're allowed to rise. I mean uh look at the silver price this morning. They're in the silver price this morning, the gold price this morning and they're also in the Why is anybody not surprised they're that they're managing the silver stocks and the gold stocks as well? And somebody asked me how they were doing this. And uh I don't think they're shorting the stocks like going in and they could be doing that, but you know, I follow the short positions pretty carefully and I don't see anything like that happening. Although it could be going on and I'm just not smart enough to see it. But what what I see what I know they're doing, I believe I know they're doing is like like the big price decline of on January 27th or what it was. Every time there's a monster engineered price decline, the stocks of course follow. And the people buying those stocks aren't not value investors. So they're people, they're the the boys, the big 48 shorts. They buy up billions and billions of dollars worth of silver stocks and then on days when the silver's taking off higher, they sell them into the market to to cap the the rally in the silver equities. I've seen that countless times. And that's when I started squawking about it in in October and no in November and December. So you know the the markets everything is working fine except for the fact that the um eight large traders and the powers that be are in the markets to ensure that uh that current events whether they be in Iran or whether they be in in the dollar index or the stock markets isn't reflected in the um in the uh in the you know the two precious metals that have been money for all of recorded history. you know, it's a losing battle, but they're still fighting at hammer and tongue all the way up. >> Well, for those who are value investors and who have a long-term time horizon, could this, you know, disconnect, particularly in the silver miners, but also the gold miners, be presenting an opportunity potentially for those who are willing to do the time and due diligence to find those companies that are perhaps best positioned as gold and silver continue to rise ahead. You know, I I had a one of my subscribers asked me that today. Uh and I said, you know, if you're if you're looking for an entry point, you know, this is as good as they get. Um you know, I'm like most of my subscribers know I'm all in. I've got a very very large sum in the precious metals market and I've been all in for 20 years. So my stock portfolio has done very well in the last year. But uh you know there's a limit to how low they can beat the price and with the everything washed out in the comx futures market there's very limited downside in the precious metals and if I was going to invest a dollar if I had the I have the money but I just got so much in the market I don't want to put any more in it. It's as simple as that. You know I've got a very very handsome sum in the market and I got cash laying around I could put in there and I said you know how much money have I got in the market? I just think to myself, you know, and like I said, I take one of those blue pills and lay down until I get until the feeling of buying something goes away cuz I've just got enough in the markets already. But, you know, this is as good an entry point as you're ever going to see. >> I'd love you to break down the latest information you have when it comes to inventory levels, transactions, and deliveries on the CME, COMX, LBMA, and Shanghai futures exchange and the picture they paint about the current state of gold and silver markets globally. Well, you know, you know, I referred earlier to the number of contracts that um that are being traded in March uh in the last two days where the paper short holders are rushing to buy physical silver and physical gold. Gold yesterday and silver today. Well, you know, that that on on a macro level when you when you look at everything going on, you know, we had the problem in the LBMA back in October which surprised the hell out of everybody including me. And then of course in the comx so far this year in January and February combined uh there were 51 million ounces shipped out of the comx in January 51 same 50 another 51 million in uh February and so far month to date in March uh only six business days long. There's another 12 million shipped out. Um the uh ZKB Zurka Cannel Bank in in in uh Europe, their biggest silver ETF that's down big on the year. Uh and you know, you talk about things like the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange. You know, I keep track of them religious. I report on them every day. The inventory levels in silver on the Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange are at their lowest levels since the start of 2015. And that's like 11 years ago now. I mean, they have virtually nothing left. I think between the two of them, they have about 18 million ounces in inventory. I remember when they had like 10 times that amount. It's down to absolutely fumes and vapors and more silver came out of the Shanghai futures exchange today. And last week, 2.6 million ounces came out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. You 2.6 million ounce silver came out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. So the the giant sucking sound of of metal being drawn out of all the inventories and depositories in the world is absolutely enormous. And it's not just confined to the big bill. It's if you take a look at all the um mutual funds and ETFs and silver over the last couple of months, they've, you know, it's the amount of silver just being sucked out of the system is just absolutely amazing to feed this deficit. Uh it's uh I I look every day I look at these numbers and say my god why is price of silver in the three-digit category right now but and it like it should be and it will be at some point once the boys decided that that that time has come. So, you know, all the signs are there. The setup in the ComX futures market, the draw downs of the inventory levels, the rush for physical metals in the ComX futures market we've been witnessed to for the last 3 months, but especially in the last two days. You know, the signs are all there. This whole thing is going to come crashing down and uh we're going to get this great what they call the great reset, which I'm not disagreeing with. And uh even if we don't get a great financial reset, we could get a uh reset in the price of of physical commodities and that in and of itself will be a great reset which we'll we'll be talking about a thousand years from now. So you know the setup is all there. All the signs are good. All we have to do is wait for these paper hangers to decide that it's time to go. >> Well, for those who want to dive deeper into all the topics we've discussed today, tell us about Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest. >> Okay. uh you know I write a daily factbased column uh on the internet uh uh 5 days a week u about 260 columns a year and it's uh basically about almost all exclusively about the precious metals and uh if uh you're interested uh it costs uh US $100 a year and u uh if you're just go to my website and I'm sure you'll post it in the description down below and sign up if you if you feel what I have to say is worth the while. >> I will put a link in the description below. I received your newsletter. I cannot believe how cheap it is considering the amount of content that you put in there. Incredibly detailed, so much info. So, I really recommend people do take a look at that. Ed, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been a blast. >> My pleasure. >> Thank you for joining us today. Our sponsor Arc Silver Gold Osmio has some great prices on precious metals bullion products. They are on your screen right now. These are subject to change and while supplies last. So reach out to owner Ian Everard today at 307264-9441 or by email at ianarchsggo.com and make sure to tell him that commodity culture sent you and represent sound money in style with the exclusive commodity culture stacks not fiat t-shirt available in the shop using the link in the description below and I will see you guys in the next episode. Commodity Culture is a series on commodities and natural resources. If you would like to see more, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell notification so you're always up to date with the latest episodes.
SILVER Rally of 'BIBLICAL Proportions' Ahead, Shorts 'Fighting a Losing Battle': Ed Steer
Summary
Transcript
Hello everybody and welcome into commodity culture where we break down commodities markets, sound money principles and geopolitics all with the goal of making you a better investor in the commodities sector. My name is Jesse Day. Today is March 11th, 2026 and I'm thrilled to welcome Ed Steer to the program. A precious metals expert who's been analyzing the space for over 20 years, a former contributor to Casey Research, and the founder of Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest. Ed breaks the latest on the price suppression happening in the silver market and why he thinks the shorts are fighting a losing battle that will result in a short covering rally of biblical proportions. Ed dives into the latest data from the ComX, LBMA, and Shanghai futures exchange, including tremendous inventory drawdowns and deliveries in recent weeks. a picture that he ultimately believes will send silver soaring to levels most would find unimaginable. All of this and so much more ahead in my conversation with Ed Steer. Ed Steer, it is great to have you back on Commodity Culture. You recently released an edition of Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest where you reported on quote price management in everything, noting that gold, silver, platinum, and palladium are still being subjected to price manipulation today. Walk us through what you're seeing that indicates the metals are being managed and how deep this manipulation goes. >> Okay. Well, the management of the precious metals been ongoing for the last 20 or the last 50 years. So what I was talking about in that uh price management and everything is when we had that big oil price spike up to $120 on Monday and uh it was more than obvious when you looked at uh you know what was going on in the market in all the markets that the plunge protection team or Ronald Reagan's president working group on financial markets that he came up with in 1987 after the market crash back then which I remember very Well, and they were in absolutely everything on on Monday or t on Monday when that happened. They were in the dollar index. They were in the uh 10-year yields, the entire bond uh yields, the entire bond market, in stock markets. And obviously, they were active in the oil markets because it traded what in a $39 price range. And that didn't happen by pure market forces. There was somebody in there to make sure that it didn't blow and close above $100 a barrel. So the paper traders are still there and they're still there in all markets and they've no found no signs of going away. In my and in my column every day, you know, I comment on the big six commodities which are the ones that they control the most. Those are the four precious metals, copper, and West Texas Intermediate. and uh they're active in all these markets uh plus any other markets they uh they want to get involved in because like I said you know Ronald Reagan passed the u president's working group on financial markets act back in 1987 to prevent another stock market crash and uh they've intervened in the markets you know not only in the US but abroad when they have to to make sure that you know the stock markets were stayed propped up because if they hadn't intervened on Monday you know the stock markets would have absolutely cratered and gold and silver would have been at the moon and the three-digit silver price that you know everybody's been talking about for the last several years. We'd be looking at a big three-digit silver price right now as we were talking but that wasn't allowed to happen. >> So what do you think needs to take place for that to be allowed to happen because the trajectory of precious metals continues to trend higher when we look at a longer term time frame. For instance, if we zoom out to a monthly time frame, we can see both gold and silver continuing to move almost in a parabolic fashion, reaching all-time highs on that monthly time frame despite the best efforts of those trying to manage prices in the short term. So, the the scenario you described, are the shorts fighting an uphill battle at this point? And will there come a time when that game ends and we see what you described, a cratering of the broad market and and precious metals going to the moon? Oh, well well there's there's no question about it. I mean the this trajectory has been coming for a long long time. Everybody's forecasted because of you know the six-year long deficit in silver and um it's you know the the shorts the the big commercial shorts the eight largest traders that are the bullion banks etc. They've been fighting a losing battle all the way up and they'll they're continuing it to fight it and it it will last as long as as they're prepared to to fight this thing. Uh there's there's only you know it will be allowed to close above $100 when when when they allow it to happen and right now that didn't that wasn't allowed to occur. So it is an uphill battle. It's a losing battle. And as you know, silver analyst Ted Butler said three or four years ago, you know, this is going to be a a a short covering rally for the ages when it does when it is allowed to occur. And we of course saw that back at the end of January because if the powers that be hadn't stepped in, like I said for your first question, we'd be looking at a three-digit silver price today. But it it is a losing battle and it's just a matter how long it is before they finally throw in the towel and let the free markets rain. >> And how much damage has already been done to these short positions considering how far and how fast silver in particular ran? Well, we've spoken a lot about the manipulation of the markets before on this show and and you mentioned that these people the these forces have very deep pockets and so they're not necessarily bothered with the massive losses that could occur. What what do you see causing that to shift and and maybe any more light you could shed on just the ample liquidity that these shorts have that allow them to kind of sustain these large losses but yet keep going? you know, everybody that's short the market when the price is rising has to deal with with margin calls which go out daily um every time the price rises by a dollar or more. And uh so you know the anybody who's short who's let's say since last year at $27 when that's was the average price of silver at the beginning of the year. You know when silver spiked up to $100 I mean you're looking at a margin call of $73 $73 per ounce and if you're short 10 million ounces we're talking serious money here. So they have to come up with a margin call money plus the rollover cost from month to month. But the thing is, and as Ted Butler correctly pointed out, even they're still short that contract at $27. So if you've got uh 10 or 15 or 20,000 contracts holders that have been short silver since that day, they still have that short contract on, it's still there. And at some point, it has to be covered by the purchase of a long contract. And then you get then they will have to real right now it's just a paper loss they have on their books at some point it's become going to become a realized loss where they're going to have to come in and buy the long contract. So you know um right now the um the the short the collective short positions those of those short the market in silver right now in silver and gold is somewhere north of uh $70 billion. So those are unbooked margin call losses that they're going to have to cover sooner or later and there's just no way out of that. That's just the way the comx futures market works. >> Well, let's talk about that concentrated short position in the silver market and how it's progressing at present. Can you dive into the details there and and how you see it all unfolding ahead? >> No, I I follow the commitment traders report religiously and I've been doing it that for the last about 15 years or so. Um, and the short, it's the short position of the eight largest traders in silver that matters cuz those are the, you know, those are the bullion banks and the large investment houses that that are have the deep pockets that can afford to short this market. But, you know, since since last year, the short position in um in silver's was I'm just looking at last July, July the 8th of last year, the big eight were short 84,500 silver contracts, which is a whole lot. It's like 420 million ounces. But as of last Friday, they were down to 40 just under 46,000. So, they've covered what 38,000 contracts. Part of the reason the price has risen since last July to today is because these large eight large traders plus other traders have been covering their short position. So this rally that we've been that we've gone through with this parabolic price spike is partly short covering by the large eight large traders plus other traders and also as thing became parabolic more and more speculators started to step into the market and that's why it went parabolic. So the reason the price is rising is because of the short covering and it's it's ongoing right now. So you know right now we have the smallest short position of the big eight traders in recorded history. It has never been this small and I've got records going back to 2008. So there's the setup for a rally in the ComX futures market like I said on my call a couple of times uh in the last week is incandescently white hot bullish from you know from a comx futures market perspective because they have the smallest short position in history and if you look at last week's bank participation report which just shows you the short positions of the uh the world's banks the five five US banks are short about 14,000 silver contracts, which is not very much compared to what they were short before. And they like last since last July, they've been in a desperate race to try to get out of their short positions. And so, it's part of their short covering that's driven prices higher as well. You know, go back to 1975 or whenever they started uh managing the precious metals. You know, it's been 50 years since we off the gold exchange standard and 50 years since the price management scheme began and they never gave any thought to it when this thing started back then, you know, 50 years ago. But how they were going to get out of this thing uh at the end when uh when uh when they were forced to uh when they were forced to cover the short positions and let the mark free markets reign. And what we're seeing right now is them desperately trying to get out of the short positions as much as they can. And all these price machinations that we've seen since, you know, silver spiked up to 120 and then it's been smacked down, then it rose again. It got smacked down and of course it got beaten down again today and earlier last week. These are all part of what the big eight commercial short players are trying to do to get as many short positions as possible. So this is a work in progress but uh there's a guar there's no there's I can absolutely guarantee you they will never be able to get out of all their short positions. So you know from a from a things look bad because you look at the price and say it's down but if you look under the hood you know the battle there by the largest traders to get out of their short positions is a work in progress. And like I said, the setup for a major major rally in silver has has is is the most bullish I've ever seen. And I've been following these markets now for what 25 years. The sponsor of today's episode is Arc Silver, Gold, Osmium. Owner Ian Everard is praised even by his competitors as one of the most honest and level-headed bullion dealers in the United States. They have some great prices. You can see some of them displayed right now on screen. to take advantage of these specials today by reaching out to Ian at 3072649441 or by email at Ian arcsggo.com. Make sure to tell them of course that commodity culture sent you. And now back to the interview. I'm pretty happy with the silver price today. I I don't see it as that bad. We're in the mid80s here. I think putting things into perspective, but but as you mentioned, this does not reflect true price discovery. You also noted that there's been a sudden spike in deliveries in March. Why don't you walk us through that and how that fits into this whole picture. >> Yeah. Well, you know, as everybody knows, there's been a rush for physical metal now for what, the last three or four or five months, ever since October since the LBMA blow up. And uh more and more people are taking their there's there's their their paper short position saying, "I want physical metal." And uh so they they stand for delivery. And we've seen lots of that over the last four or five months. But what has happened in the last 48 hours starting yesterday is that there were in March there were 4,000 about 4,500 gold contracts added to the March delivery month yesterday. Okay, which is uh what um it's it's a lot it's a lot of gold. And today I'm just looking at the charts here. There have been uh 7 million ounces of silver traded in March. So, a whole bunch of that will be standing for delivery tonight in today's in tonight's daily delivery report. And I'm going to be really interested who the um short issuers are on that one. Who's who's being forced to cough up the silver as the headline to my column said today was Morgan Stanley yesterday had to cough up what 1700 plus uh contracts in gold, which is what's almost six tons. So the longs the people that were long against them said we don't want we don't want the paper short long positions any we want the uh the gold. So they ponyied up the money and demanded delivery. So there was big deliveries in gold yesterday and huge deliveries in silver coming up today. And uh so the rush for uh for physical metal is back on in earnest. >> Well, how high do you think we could go here? because you've spoken before on this show about the silver price reaching unimaginable levels that has seemed to be playing out particularly as silver rose into the triple digits before coming back down to earth of course including a gut-wrenching 26% loss in a single day. We're now sitting in the mid80s. Now obviously price predictions are very often a mug's game but in terms of where you see silver going, do you expect us to hit new all-time highs perhaps this year? And how far do you think silver could rise in 2026? >> Well, you know, I think I I sort of answered that the first question. You know, if the boys, the commercial traders of whatever stripe hadn't stepped into the market at on uh on 27th of January 20, whatever day it was when it blew through 120, it would have blown through 220 and 320 and 420 and 520 and pick your number. Okay? we would have seen this short covering rally uh of biblical proportion and what Ted Butler called the bonfire of the silver shorts and we'd be looking at a fantastic three-digit silver price right now. So, how high can it go? It will be entirely up to, as I said before, the what the big four and big eight commercial shorts allow. But, uh could we break up to new highs this year? Oh, absolutely. You know, I there's no question about it. I will be very very surprised if we don't close out the year with a three-digit silver price of of of some size, you know, and uh like I said, if it's still up to the big four in the big eight and uh it's like I said, the setup in silver is white hot and in gold, I forgot which I forgot to mention, it's it's not quite as bullish, but it's still on a on a historical level, it's still extremely bullish. So, you know, the boys are basically sitting on the price until they're they're prepared to allow allow it to rise again. And that that's why I'm very confident that we'll see a decent silver three-digit silver price before the year is done. Well, with the war in Iran being a very front and center at moment, I'd be remiss not to ask your thoughts because it looks like it's going to be dragging on much longer than the Trump administration initially expected. Do you think as this war continues to potentially evolve and expand that it will have any noticeable impact on precious metals prices as that sort of safe haven uh demand aspect of the metals? >> Well, it it tried to do that when it spiked through 120, but the powers of B came along and said uh no chance of that. And like I said, look at crude oil. It went to what $100 a barrel. I don't know what it spiked to but um they were in the markets killing that and they killed the price of the other precious metals and they uh ramped the dollar index and uh drove the bond yield 10-year yield down and uh popped up the stock markets. You know this is all you know the war in Iran should make a difference. You know, right now the situation with in the oil market is is very fluid and um you know, we've just had the price machinations of the last machinations of the last three or four days, but this is yet to play out because this war is not going to end anytime soon. Uh there's been no agreement. I I know that Trump was on the phone to Putin yesterday trying to get him to mediate this thing, but good luck with that. So this is going to go on and on and what you're seeing now and it's already started is that Qatar is Qatar Qatar is is shutting in their gas production and a bunch of other of the Gulf state countries are are shutting starting to shut down their oil field production because they don't have any more storage capacity. Um and this is rippling uh through the other Middle East countries as well and Saudi Arabia will be the last one to follow. But once they shut in the oil fields, it's going to take forever, okay? For a very long time to restart them up. It's it's not like just turning on the tap and away they go. The the physics of of oil drilling and oil pumping and extraction is is so complicated that I don't even want to get into it. I don't even understand it myself. But the thing is that the price shock that we're seeing right now is nothing to what we're going to be seeing two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and months down the road here when uh when the this thing war finally comes to an end at some point. And then the problem becomes getting these fields back up to producing what they were before the shutdown. And that's going to take months and months. So the full effect of, you know, higher oil prices, we have yet to see. And of course at some point uh hopefully it will have a price you know positive impact on the precious metals but like I said you know the big four and big eight traders and the plunge protection team may have other ideas but sooner or later Mr. Market's going to take over and one thing that we haven't talked about yet which I'll just mention briefly and everybody knows about so I'm not going to dwell on it is that we're in the sixth year of a uh supply demand deficit in silver and uh it hasn't gone away. it's not going to go away and that brick wall is uh coming up and I think that's one of the reasons why you're seeing this the silver market um you know trying to a spike higher in price and all these people you know rushing into buying as much uh silver as they can get their hands on which has been going on for many months now >> well assuming that the oil price does continue to rise and get perhaps into those high triple digits as reality sets in we see issues with the straight of Hormuse of course very few ships able to transit safely through that area. We're seeing oil refineries get bombed. Um we're seeing panic and uh obviously the Trump administration, the last thing they want is incredibly high gasoline prices as they go into the midterms, but they might not necessarily be able to get a handle on that through market manipulation or other methods. So assuming oil does continue to rise, what would that do to inflation and what would the overall impact do you think would be on the global economy? Well, you know, inflation is baked in the cake. Um, there's no way they're going to be able to hide this, you know. It's not just the transportation cost, you know. I mean, the you look at the price of the pumps. I looked at it yesterday. I said, "What?" Cuz it took a 40 40 cent um or 25 cent a liter a jump here in Canada at the pumps. And it's going to go much higher, too. And it's not just in the cost of driving my car or driving the truck down the highway. It's the cost of producing all goods, okay? Whether it be growing food, processing food, manufacturing, whatever. It goes through the entire supply and production chain. And the most obvious one that we as consumers see is the price at the pump. But it infects the entire supply production uh uh cycle. And once it gets embedded in that, well, good luck uh getting it out. It's not going to come out tomorrow or next week or next month. It's a long-term process and uh you know right now it's it's very dynamic, very fluid, but uh you know higher inflation is baked in the cake and of course that's going to uh certainly affect the economies and I I I just you know they're keeping the stock markets propped up as best they can but sooner or later uh uh you know reality is going to set in and we're going to see uh we're going to see the economies not just in the US but the entire world world decline. I want to talk about these so-called technical glitches that have been coming up at the CME Comx recently because first we had the server cooling issues supposedly at the end of November last year that halted trading for hours. Early February this year, another glitch briefly halted natural gas futures with a spillover to metals including silver. Most recently February 25th, there was a 90minute halt in all metals and natural gas futures due to quote technical issues. How suspicious is all of this? And do you think the CME Group is complicit in using its platform to serve the interests of these big eight uh commercial traders trying to suppress metals prices? >> You know, and you see this stuff, you know, of course, you know, you know, everybody gets their paranoid level up, including me. I'm not immune to this, by the way. You know, I look, oh god, you know, is this is what are they trying to do now? What are they trying to hide? I mean every you know but I got a bottle of pills here and I when as soon as I get feeling like that I take a blue pill and then lay down until the feeling goes away. So you know it's pos it's possible this is happening but the fact of the matter is that you know I follow the like I said I follow the co commitment traders report the bank participation reports every week and I'm looking at the numbers right down to the contract and I've seen nothing in there okay that indicates there's any kind of hanky panky going on. If there was, I'd be uh I'd be uh jumping up and down and and hollering about it in my column, but I've seen nothing to that effect. The only thing I have noticed, and I will point it out because I did didn't mention it before, and I'm just going to haul out this piece of paper I've got here. In the last um in the last uh uh 3 weeks, the short position of the big four traders has dropped by about 4,500 contracts. So you can see that they are aggressively covering their short positions and I wouldn't be surprised that the price action that we saw yesterday and today is is more of the same trying to do the same thing. So you know I'm suspicious of this stuff. You know everybody's the CME uh is basically a criminal organization and as Ted Butler said he says basically their entire purpose is to protect the shorts. They're not there to protect the longs. They're there to protect the shorts, especially the big four and the big eight traders that uh you know that that's most of their business. So that's what they're there for. So you know the if the comix went the way of the dodo bird um I would be very very happy to see that and then prices would be allowed to trade freely without options and futures market attached to it and of course that would result immediately in uh three-digit silver price and um price disco true price discovery in all the commodities which are far far higher than they are today and including crude oil. even at crude oil at $80 a barrel is still pretty cheap when you look at it historically. >> And what about the circuit breakers not triggering when silver plunged 206% in a single day? I've spoken to a couple of people uh David Jensen and Andy Sheckchman both believe that that was certainly something suspicious. Although other people have posted that actually according to the rules of the comx they didn't necessarily have to trigger on that particular day. As you said, people love to put their tinfoil hats on and who can be helped in today's world with the Epstein files out there and all of this craziness going on. You almost have to default to the conspiracy theory first. But do you have any thoughts on on what occurred that way and the lack of of circuit breakers triggering a silver plunged? You know, if you take a look at the entire United States administration, okay, uh the White House, Justice Department, uh this House, the Senate, it is as corrupt as you can possibly imagine. is the most I mean it is just unbel as a Canadian looking at what's going on in the US you know from what it was you know when I was a kid back in the 1950s and 1960s you know it it is metastasized into this absolutely grotesque and corrupt entity you know and you know Trump had bas and his administration basically said we're not following international rules we're not following any rules we're going to do out go do our own thing and we don't care what you think we're going to just do it and obviously that's what they're So this is just another example of that where you know Terry Duffy over at the CME Group you know who runs the show he says you know we're not going to put the 10% circuit breakers on. We know we're supposed to but we're just not going to. So the all the rules are out the window about what they can and can't do. So the rules be damned. So you know I Jensen and whoever else David um uh Andy Shackman thank you. I they're absolutely correct. You know, they should have kicked in, but they didn't. And I'm sure without doubt that that was deliberate move because they wanted the price to go down as much as possible to protect the shorts, the big short holders, which is what they're in business for. So, it's like, like I said, everything is so crooked out there. You can't you can't believe any of the prices you see today because they're all managed. >> Yes. And I believe even internationally, international law has been completely thrown in the dust bin and seems to be nowhere in sight. No accountability for anybody doing anything anymore. >> Well, look at look at what's going on. Iran, you know, whether what you regardless of what your opinion of Iran is, Iran and the United States were in negotiations last June, and when those ne negotiations were ongoing, they bombed the hell out of it. Last month they were in the middle of negotiations and Israel and United States attacked them for there was absolutely no reason. They they attacked them uh it was completely premeditated attack for no reason. Okay, which is the biggest war crime of all. So I mean there there's no rules anywhere. You just you could throw them out the window. I mean they just don't exist at home, abroad, domestically. It does it doesn't matter. I mean, the US is doing bloody what what it pleases. And uh they they've become a rogue nation, which, you know, looking back at the end of World War II, it it's really I'm really sad about it. Not only for the good citizens of the US, but also for everybody else on planet Earth because we're all suffering uh the consequences of it. >> Absolutely. Post World War II, how many regime regime change operations has the US initiated? 100, something insane like that. And um I mean the the most harrowing reports perhaps coming out of the Iran conflict is the potential double tap uh strike on the girls school. Now a double tap strike is one of the most abhorrent war crimes you could imagine where you attack a civilian target, wait for rescue crews and the families to come look for the deceased and try to rescue those who survived and then attack again uh killing all those people as well. and and uh I I don't know if we have 100% confirmation on that, but a lot of reports are circulating to that effect, targeting civilian infrastructure in general. Um it's a it's a rough world out there right now, guys. And uh that there's not really many good people to be found in terms of geopolitical actors, politicians, and the political elite. But let's get off of that for a moment here. I want to get your thoughts on the silver mining sector because interestingly they have yet to provide any sort of levered play on the silver price. If we look at the SEL ETF as a proxy, it's barely outperforming silver itself over the course of a year, which is uh completely insane considering how much the price of silver has gone up. Why do you think this is and do you think this disconnect has to correct itself at some point? Okay. I've been pointing out in my newsletter starting about the middle of last year, there were times it looks like somebody was fooling around with the precious metal uh uh precious metal stocks, mostly the silver stocks. And I squawkked about it two or three times last year, but then it really became obvious in October that there was they were un you know the stocks were vastly underperforming silver and also underperforming the gold stocks as well. And uh it was only until uh somebody sent me a chart of SEL versus the silver price where the discontinuity became obvious. It was the middle of September where it was sort of tracking the silver stocks. Okay. Then all of a sudden it just cratered. Okay. So somebody is actively managing the silver stocks right now. And they're also managing the gold stocks too, but not to the same extent. This has been going on now um heavily since the middle of September. And will it correct itself? You know, one would assume they it would, but like I said, I mean, they're managing everything. And there's you can't believe anything you're seeing out there. In my opinion, the silver stocks, if you look at your portfolio, it should be worth about double what it is today. That's how bad the manipulation is. It's just grotesque. So, you know, you have to look at, you know, our our stock portfolios, the oil price, the stock market, the dollar index, uh the treasury yields, the wars, the un unprovoked war against Iran, all of this stuff is all part of the same thing of a completely corrupted financial and monetary system. >> Well, if we look at the gold miners, the story is somewhat different. The GDX ETF has doubled the performance of gold in that same time frame of one year. Perhaps still not what many speculators were anticipating. You mentioned you think that they could be manipulating the gold stocks as well, but to a lesser extent. Is that why they're performing while the silver miners lag? And what's your overall assessment of the gold mining sector at present? >> You know, they've only really stuck their nose into the gold stocks in the last two or three months. Okay. Last year it wasn't a factor at all. Okay. But it's just recently where if you look at the the Huey versus the gold price or you know this SILJ or SILD and you could just track it. You can see the silver is like up two or$3 dollars and the silver stocks aren't doing anything. Okay. Um the gold sector is fine. I mean they're making enormous profits. The silver miners are making enormous profits. Everybody's doing wonderfully well. And uh there's it's blue skies uh as far as I can see not not only now but even greater blue skies in the future. And uh as far as the precious metal stocks uh they'll be allowed to rise as much as they're allowed to rise. I mean uh look at the silver price this morning. They're in the silver price this morning, the gold price this morning and they're also in the Why is anybody not surprised they're that they're managing the silver stocks and the gold stocks as well? And somebody asked me how they were doing this. And uh I don't think they're shorting the stocks like going in and they could be doing that, but you know, I follow the short positions pretty carefully and I don't see anything like that happening. Although it could be going on and I'm just not smart enough to see it. But what what I see what I know they're doing, I believe I know they're doing is like like the big price decline of on January 27th or what it was. Every time there's a monster engineered price decline, the stocks of course follow. And the people buying those stocks aren't not value investors. So they're people, they're the the boys, the big 48 shorts. They buy up billions and billions of dollars worth of silver stocks and then on days when the silver's taking off higher, they sell them into the market to to cap the the rally in the silver equities. I've seen that countless times. And that's when I started squawking about it in in October and no in November and December. So you know the the markets everything is working fine except for the fact that the um eight large traders and the powers that be are in the markets to ensure that uh that current events whether they be in Iran or whether they be in in the dollar index or the stock markets isn't reflected in the um in the uh in the you know the two precious metals that have been money for all of recorded history. you know, it's a losing battle, but they're still fighting at hammer and tongue all the way up. >> Well, for those who are value investors and who have a long-term time horizon, could this, you know, disconnect, particularly in the silver miners, but also the gold miners, be presenting an opportunity potentially for those who are willing to do the time and due diligence to find those companies that are perhaps best positioned as gold and silver continue to rise ahead. You know, I I had a one of my subscribers asked me that today. Uh and I said, you know, if you're if you're looking for an entry point, you know, this is as good as they get. Um you know, I'm like most of my subscribers know I'm all in. I've got a very very large sum in the precious metals market and I've been all in for 20 years. So my stock portfolio has done very well in the last year. But uh you know there's a limit to how low they can beat the price and with the everything washed out in the comx futures market there's very limited downside in the precious metals and if I was going to invest a dollar if I had the I have the money but I just got so much in the market I don't want to put any more in it. It's as simple as that. You know I've got a very very handsome sum in the market and I got cash laying around I could put in there and I said you know how much money have I got in the market? I just think to myself, you know, and like I said, I take one of those blue pills and lay down until I get until the feeling of buying something goes away cuz I've just got enough in the markets already. But, you know, this is as good an entry point as you're ever going to see. >> I'd love you to break down the latest information you have when it comes to inventory levels, transactions, and deliveries on the CME, COMX, LBMA, and Shanghai futures exchange and the picture they paint about the current state of gold and silver markets globally. Well, you know, you know, I referred earlier to the number of contracts that um that are being traded in March uh in the last two days where the paper short holders are rushing to buy physical silver and physical gold. Gold yesterday and silver today. Well, you know, that that on on a macro level when you when you look at everything going on, you know, we had the problem in the LBMA back in October which surprised the hell out of everybody including me. And then of course in the comx so far this year in January and February combined uh there were 51 million ounces shipped out of the comx in January 51 same 50 another 51 million in uh February and so far month to date in March uh only six business days long. There's another 12 million shipped out. Um the uh ZKB Zurka Cannel Bank in in in uh Europe, their biggest silver ETF that's down big on the year. Uh and you know, you talk about things like the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange. You know, I keep track of them religious. I report on them every day. The inventory levels in silver on the Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange are at their lowest levels since the start of 2015. And that's like 11 years ago now. I mean, they have virtually nothing left. I think between the two of them, they have about 18 million ounces in inventory. I remember when they had like 10 times that amount. It's down to absolutely fumes and vapors and more silver came out of the Shanghai futures exchange today. And last week, 2.6 million ounces came out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. You 2.6 million ounce silver came out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. So the the giant sucking sound of of metal being drawn out of all the inventories and depositories in the world is absolutely enormous. And it's not just confined to the big bill. It's if you take a look at all the um mutual funds and ETFs and silver over the last couple of months, they've, you know, it's the amount of silver just being sucked out of the system is just absolutely amazing to feed this deficit. Uh it's uh I I look every day I look at these numbers and say my god why is price of silver in the three-digit category right now but and it like it should be and it will be at some point once the boys decided that that that time has come. So, you know, all the signs are there. The setup in the ComX futures market, the draw downs of the inventory levels, the rush for physical metals in the ComX futures market we've been witnessed to for the last 3 months, but especially in the last two days. You know, the signs are all there. This whole thing is going to come crashing down and uh we're going to get this great what they call the great reset, which I'm not disagreeing with. And uh even if we don't get a great financial reset, we could get a uh reset in the price of of physical commodities and that in and of itself will be a great reset which we'll we'll be talking about a thousand years from now. So you know the setup is all there. All the signs are good. All we have to do is wait for these paper hangers to decide that it's time to go. >> Well, for those who want to dive deeper into all the topics we've discussed today, tell us about Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest. >> Okay. uh you know I write a daily factbased column uh on the internet uh uh 5 days a week u about 260 columns a year and it's uh basically about almost all exclusively about the precious metals and uh if uh you're interested uh it costs uh US $100 a year and u uh if you're just go to my website and I'm sure you'll post it in the description down below and sign up if you if you feel what I have to say is worth the while. >> I will put a link in the description below. I received your newsletter. I cannot believe how cheap it is considering the amount of content that you put in there. Incredibly detailed, so much info. So, I really recommend people do take a look at that. Ed, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been a blast. >> My pleasure. >> Thank you for joining us today. Our sponsor Arc Silver Gold Osmio has some great prices on precious metals bullion products. They are on your screen right now. These are subject to change and while supplies last. So reach out to owner Ian Everard today at 307264-9441 or by email at ianarchsggo.com and make sure to tell him that commodity culture sent you and represent sound money in style with the exclusive commodity culture stacks not fiat t-shirt available in the shop using the link in the description below and I will see you guys in the next episode. Commodity Culture is a series on commodities and natural resources. If you would like to see more, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell notification so you're always up to date with the latest episodes.