Long Silver - Market Analysis for Oct 20th, 2008

Needless to say, the iShares Silver ETF (AMEX: SLV) has been in the grasp of a vicious and relentless multi-month bear phase in the aftermath of a 7-month powerful advance from 11.00 to 20.73. In fact, spot silver prices have not been this low since Februay 2006 and have retraced all of the bull move from around $9 to $21.50. Compared to the weakness in gold, silver has crashed, losing 65% of its value versus 23% in gold. Clearly, the need to deleverage and to raise cash hit the silver market much more severely than it did the gold market, which cut in half the gold/silver ratio -- no reflecting 82+ ounces of silver needed to equal the value of 1 ounce of gold. My work on the gold/silver ratio is screaming at me that silver has to appreciate vis-