➡ The silver market is experiencing unusual activity, with large amounts of physical silver leaving the western vault system and big investors securing real physical metal instead of trading paper contracts. This suggests a potential financial storm is approaching. The silver market has been operating on the illusion of enormous supply through paper contracts, but the actual physical metal is only a fraction of what exists on paper. If more investors start demanding physical silver, the system could crack, especially as the global financial system is entering a period of uncertainty with governments in debt and currencies losing purchasing power.
➡ The silver market operates like a bank, using a fraction of physical silver to back up a larger amount of paper contracts. This works as long as people don’t demand their physical silver all at once. However, recently, more silver has been taken out of the system than is being delivered, which is unusual and could indicate a lack of confidence in the system. If this continues, the price of silver could be affected by the demand for physical silver rather than paper contracts.
➡ Large, well-informed investors are buying huge amounts of physical silver, moving it from Western vaults to Eastern markets, especially Shanghai. This shift is causing a price difference between Western and Eastern markets, creating a profitable opportunity for traders. This trend suggests a shift in financial power, with the East focusing on acquiring physical precious metals while the West relies on paper derivatives. If this continues, the paper price may not reflect the real value of physical silver, leading to a potential market imbalance.
➡ Large entities are increasingly choosing to own physical silver rather than just trading paper contracts, indicating a long-term strategy. This could put pressure on the market, which has long assumed most traders wouldn’t actually request the silver they technically own. The silver market is built on a large number of paper contracts on top of a small amount of physical silver. If more traders start asking for real silver, it could reveal an imbalance and potentially lead to a sudden, drastic increase in silver prices.
➡ The value of silver is influenced by various factors, including market manipulation and the global monetary system. Recently, central banks worldwide have been accumulating gold, causing nations to diversify into physical gold instead of relying on US Dollar reserves. This shift indicates a strain in the current debt-based financial system. As gold’s value increases, silver, being gold’s more volatile counterpart, is expected to follow suit with greater momentum due to its smaller market and tighter supply dynamics. The article also discusses the suppression of silver prices to incentivize domestic mining in the US and the potential for significant price increases if market manipulation ceases.
➡ Silver, a key component in modern technology and manufacturing, is seeing a surge in demand due to its dual role as a monetary and industrial metal. This demand, coupled with limited supply, could lead to a significant increase in its price. Countries and large entities are buying up silver, indicating its value is higher than the paper dollars used to purchase it. The imbalance between supply and demand, along with the growing use of silver in industries like solar energy and electric vehicles, could lead to a dramatic price increase.
➡ The silver market is facing multiple pressures such as increasing demand, decreasing supply, and unstable monetary systems. This could lead to a sudden increase in silver prices, catching many investors off guard. The situation is further complicated by logistical issues and high hedging costs. This could potentially lead to a major shift in how silver is valued, treating it as a strategic monetary and industrial asset rather than a cheap commodity.
➡ The silver market is showing signs of potential drastic changes due to various factors. These include physical metal leaving exchange vaults, increasing industrial demand, and investors seeking tangible assets as faith in the financial system weakens. If these conditions coincide with a shortage of physical supply and global monetary instability, the price of silver could significantly increase. This is not just speculation, but a potential response to the world competing for a limited supply of a crucial metal in money, technology, and energy sectors.

I believe the movement of stablecoins through the genius act will indeed incentivize much higher gold. Do they get to a point where they put it massively higher just by decree? Don’t even need congressional approval? Maybe without question, they want gold massively higher because it is the ultimate measuring stick of a devalued dollar, not the dollar index. You’re watching Silver News daily. Subscribe for more. Silver may be on the verge of the most explosive move in financial history. And if what Andy Schectman is inside the physical metals market is even remotely accurate, the world could be heading toward a moment that will shock investors, governments, and the entire financial system.

Right now, most people still believe silver is just another commodity, quietly trading on the exchanges, moving a few dollars up or down as markets fluctuate. But beneath that calm surface, something far more dramatic is unfolding, something that very few people are paying attention to. Behind the scenes, massive amounts of physical silver are quietly leaving the western vault system. Contracts representing hundreds of millions of ounces are stacked on top of a shrinking pool of real metal. And the biggest money in the world is positioning itself in a way that suggests they see a storm approaching that the public cannot yet see.

Andy Schectman has spent decades in the precious metals market watching how institutions behave when pressure builds inside the system. And what he’s pointing to right now is something deeply unusual. We are seeing levels of physical metal withdrawals and delivery demands that simply do not occur in a healthy, balanced market. When sophisticated investors begin spending hundreds of millions of dollars to secure real physical metal, rather than simply trading paper contracts, it sends a powerful signal. These are not casual buyers speculating on short term price moves. These are the types of players who understand where the puck is going long before the rest of the market realizes what is happening.

For years, the silver market has operated on a delicate illusion. Paper contracts traded on major exchanges create the appearance of enormous supply. But the actual physical metal backing those claims is only a small fraction of of what exists on paper. As long as most traders roll their contracts forward instead of asking for real delivery, the system keeps functioning smoothly. But the moment large numbers of investors begin demanding physical silver instead of accepting paper settlements, that illusion starts to crack. And right now, the data suggests that this exact process may already be underway. At the same time, the global financial system itself is entering a period of extraordinary uncertainty.

Governments around the world are drowning in debt, currencies are quietly losing purchasing power, and central banks are accumulating hard assets at a pace not seen in generations. Throughout history, moments like this have always driven capital toward tangible stores of value. Gold traditionally moves first as the world’s monetary anchor, but silver has always followed with far more explosive energy once the market finally wakes up. This is why some analysts are beginning to talk about price targets that sound almost unbelievable today. When Schectman discusses the possibility of silver moving dramatically higher, even toward levels like $1,000 in a major monetary reset, he is not speaking about a simple supply and demand imbalance.

He is talking about a structural shift in the financial system itself, where confidence in paper assets begins to fracture and investors rush toward real tangible wealth all at once. And if that shift is beginning right now, the early signals would not appear first in the headlines or even in the price of silver itself. They would appear deep inside the plumbing of the market, in the delivery mechanics, the vault withdrawals and the quiet accumulation by those who understand the system better than anyone else. Because when the biggest and most informed money in the world starts moving physical silver out of the system, history shows that they are rarely doing it without a very good reason.

And what they may be preparing for could change the entire trajectory of the silver market in ways most investors are completely unprepared for. Noticed anything along the way, with the exception of at the top or as it was getting near the top, that it was overbought. And could this be 1980 again or 2011? Even those that spun it even, I mean, look, Reuters calls it the devil’s metal and all this stuff. So I mean, even if it was spun in a positive light, one out of a million articles, they missed the entire bullseye completely and totally.

The question is who’s standing for delivery to these, to these numbers? That’s all that matters. And that’s the part that is strangely, and I think kind of conspicuously, if you will, omitted. Because to me, that’s all that matters. When you have an environment where information is worth probably more than anything these people are informed. You don’t spend nine figures a month for a year and a half almost, or a year and a third every month by taking delivery, which is ridiculously unusual. Outlier, I mean, the majority of the contracts that posted in February have stood for delivery.

That’s unusual as all can be. Normally it’s 1% or less. So who is standing for delivery at these levels? That’s the only question that should be asked. And the answer, and the silence of its reporting to me speaks volumes. This is connecting the dots and realizing that the people who have pulled these strings are powerful enough to pull the strings in violation of Antitrust law powerful enough to have Bart Chilton, the former head of the cftc, to be told to back down. Bart, It’s a political decision powerful enough to let JP Morgan continue to run the world’s largest silver trust after paying a $920 million fine for manipulating the market.

And the second or third largest stockpile of gold in the world. Well, maybe not that large, fourth or fifth if you had central banks, but a massive stockpile. They are the primary custodians with BlackRock, of SLV and GLD and yet they paid this insane fine. So they’re powerful enough to do all this. I’m sure they’re powerful enough to ask the media to please let this one go and don’t bring it up because it is on behalf of the United States government. It’s about national security. So I mean again, there is a fine line between conspiracy reality and how things are going down, down.

But I ask myself, is this really is journalism and what it stood for gone and dead, or are they just blind to what is the most obvious thing that I’ve seen maybe in my career and that is the most well informed money. Starting with the central banks in 2017 and now not stopping, and now moving also into the big traders here doing it. That’s all that matters to me. That’s all that matters because it tells you that price is just being used to misdirect you or to shake you off the back of the bull. And the rest of it to me is moot.

It’s easy to rest calmly in the face of massive drawdowns when you see the deliveries by these people. For decades, the silver market has operated on a structure that very few investors truly understand. On the surface, it appears enormous, liquid and stable, with billions of dollars worth of silver trading hands. Every sing day on exchanges like Comex, prices move up and down as traders speculate, hedge and rotate capital between assets. But beneath that surface lies a system built heavily on leverage, where paper claims representing silver are traded in volumes that dwarf the actual physical metal sitting inside vaults.

This structure has functioned smoothly for years because most traders never intend to take delivery of the silver they are buying. Instead, they simply roll their contracts forward or settle them in cash, allowing the system to continue operating without ever being forced to produce the physical metal behind those claims. The problem begins when the number of paper contracts starts to tower over the amount of real metal available for delivery. Each standard Comex silver contract represents 5,000 ounces of silver. And at any given time there can be tens of thousands of These contracts opened simultaneously. When you multiply that number out, the amount of silver theoretically promised to the market can reach hundreds of millions of ounces.

Under normal conditions, this isn’t considered a problem, because only a small percentage of contract holders ever request the physical metal. The rest simply trade the contracts as financial instruments. But the entire system depends on one critical assumption. It assumes that most participants will continue treating silver as a paper trade rather than demanding the real asset. What Andy Schechtman has been pointing out is that the numbers inside this system are beginning to look increasingly unstable. There are moments when the open interest in silver contracts, meaning the total number of outstanding paper claims, represents vastly more silver than what is actually registered and available for delivery inside the exchange vaults.

In some cases, the paper claims can represent multiples of the physical inventory. That means if even a modest percentage of contract holders suddenly decided they wanted real metal instead of paper settlement, the system could find itself under immediate strain. This is where the idea of a paper silver market begins to resemble a highly leveraged structure that functions as long as confidence remains intact. It is similar to a bank that holds only a fraction of deposits in cash while lending out the rest. As long as most depositors don’t try to withdraw their money at the same time, the system operates normally.

But if confidence begins to erode and too many people demand their funds simultaneously, the imbalance becomes impossible to hide. The same principle applies to the silver market. Paper contracts have multiplied over the years because they provide liquidity and allow institutions to trade massive volumes quickly. But those contracts ultimately represent claims on a much smaller pool of physical metal. Shechtman argues that the danger lies in how little attention this imbalance receives. In the mainstream financial conversation. Most investors focus entirely on the spot price of silver, without understanding the mechanics behind how that price is discovered. The spot price is heavily influenced by the paper trading system, meaning the price investors see on their screens is determined largely by derivatives rather than by the physical buying and selling of metal.

As long as the paper system remains stable, the price remains contained. But if physical demand begins to challenge the ability of the exchanges to deliver real metal, the price discovery mechanism itself could begin to change. And this is why the structure of the paper market matters so much right now. Because if confidence in that system begins to weaken, the consequences could move through the silver market with extraordinary speed. Prices that appear calm today could suddenly begin reacting to a completely different set of forces. Not paper speculation, but the urgent demand for actual physical metal. Million 195,000 ounces of this is silver, by the way.

Excuse me. 23,000. 23,195,000 ounces of silver. So 4,639 contracts times 5,000 ounces is 23,195,000 ounce. Okay, so that’s about the low end of what we’ve seen since a year ago November. Every single month. Every single month, it’s been between typically 30 and 70 million ounces that stand for delivery. So that’s a big deal, right? But here’s a bigger deal. So while we have seen 23,195,000 ounces stand for delivery in the month of February, we have seen 38,082,934 ounces leave. COMEX. Leave. Now, if I keep saying this to put it in perspective. If the mint box of Silver Eagles weighs 42 pounds for 500 ounces, who took possession of 38,082,934 ounces? How many semi trucks is that and where is it going? And so I would say to the people that are doing this, understand where the puck is going.

The people that are spending this kind of money and withdrawing it out of the ecosystem where the Vault withdrawals are 164% of the February delivery demand. So far, that means more metal is being pulled out than delivery alone. Can explain. This is highly unusual. Highly. Let’s talk about the March contract. Now, I haven’t updated it over the last two days, but a couple of days ago, there was still 47,847 contracts in silver outstanding with four days left till it comes off the board. That’s 239.2 million ounces of silver. In contrast, the total registered silver inventory, that is the category of metal specifically earmarked for physical delivery, stands at 88 million ounces.

What this is is a paper Ponzi scheme, and it’s a looming game of musical chairs. If even half of that open interest actually decided to stand for delivery, that’s 120 million ounces. With only 88 million ounces in registered. Do you see how that becomes a massive, massive problem? And so, you know, I think that this is how stress shows up. It’s not in price, but in the delivery mechanics. And when the paper claims tower over the deliverable pile, the market only stays calm until it doesn’t. And then you look at what happened in here In February where 38 million ounces left the building, 10 million ounces more than stood for delivery.

That is exactly what this is saying. It’s just before we get going, we just launched the official Silver News Daily Telegram to kick things off, we’re running a 10 ounce silver giveaway. Yes, real physical silver. Not a voucher, not digital credits, actual bullion. This telegram will be our new home for real time silver discussions, market insights, collection picks and everything precious metals. It’s where the community truly comes alive. Here’s how to enter the 10 ounce silver giveaway. Be subscribed to Silver News Daily on YouTube, turn on the notification bell, comment 10 ounce giveaway on three separate videos, be an active member of the Telegram group and say hi.

Once we hit 500 Active Telegram members, we’ll pick one lucky winner to receive 10 ounces of silver shipped directly to you. So get in early. Stay active One of the most important signals Andy Schectman keeps pointing to is not the silver price itself, but the physical metal that is quietly leaving the system. Because if you really want to understand where this market might be heading, you have to stop looking only at charts and start looking at the vaults. And what the vault data is showing right now is something that simply does not happen in a normal, balanced market.

Consider what has been happening inside the COMEX silver system. Over the course of a single month, more than 23 million ounces of silver stood for delivery through futures contracts. Now, by itself, that may not sound extraordinary, but here is where things begin to get strange. During that same period, more than 38 million ounces of silver actually left the COMEX vaults entirely. That means far more metal was withdrawn from the system than what was required to fulfill the delivery obligations of the contracts that month. In other words, investors were not just taking delivery of silver through the exchange mechanism, they were actively pulling additional metal out of the vault network and removing it from the trading ecosystem altogether.

To really grasp the scale of that movement, you have to picture what tens of millions of ounces of silver actually looks like. A standard mint box of silver coins contains about 500 ounces and weighs over 40 pounds. When you start talking about withdrawals measured in the tens of millions of ounces, you are talking about an enormous logistical operation involving truckloads of metal leaving secure vaults and being transported to private storage facilities or shipped overseas. These are not retail investors buying a few coins at a time. This kind of movement can only be carried out by extremely well funded participants who are willing to spend enormous sums of money to secure physical metal.

And that raises the most important question of all. Who exactly is taking this metal and why are they doing it now? Because the people capable of withdrawing tens of millions of ounces of silver are not casual traders These are institutions, sovereign entities, and large private investors with access to deep market intelligence. When players of that size begin removing metal from the system at this scale, it sends a powerful signal that something significant may be developing beneath the surface of the market. What makes this even more unusual is that the withdrawals have been larger than the actual delivery demand.

Through the futures contracts themselves. In February alone, the vault withdrawals reached roughly 164% of the delivery demand. That means far more silver left the system than what the contract mechanics required. Situations like that are extremely rare and suggest that some investors are choosing not just to take delivery, but to permanently remove their metal from the exchange structure. This matters because the entire paper trading system relies on the assumption that most of the physical metal remains inside the vault network, where it can support future trading activity. When large amounts of silver begin leaving that system, the available pool of metal supporting the paper market shrinks.

At first, the impact may not be visible in the price, but over time, the structural pressure builds beneath the surface. And that is exactly the kind of pressure that experienced market observers like Schectman are watching very closely because history shows that when physical metal begins disappearing from exchange vaults at an accelerating pace, it often signals that the smartest money in the world is preparing for something long before the rest of the market even realizes what is happening. Really been the hallmark of this industry or of this platform unwinds and when the leverage unwinds and commodities moves become really violent.

But I think it’s also important to look at the more explosive brother or sister or cousin of gold. A gold and that’s silver. Let’s start with the February contract again because you know, everyone’s focusing on March, but I want to focus on the paper claims versus deliverable supply. It’s important to understand that one COMEX contract equals 5,000 ounces of silver. Right? We know that and we’ve talked a lot about the deliveries. It’s been really like, as far as I’m concerned, all that people need to understand is that the biggest, most well informed money in the world.

In fact, since I met you, this is really what we’ve talked a lot about. I mean, we’ve talked about a lot of things, bricks and everything, but go back five, six years, we started talking about deliveries coming out of Colmex with the others. And it’s been what we’ve focused on because the people that are standing for delivery in these quantities are, are well informed, not just well funded, very well informed. And they, they know where the puck is going. Like Wayne Gretzky used to say, I don’t skate to the puck, I skate to where it’s going.

And when you’re spending nine figures buying metals, in this case every month, question needs to be asked. And the only question needs to be asked, who the hell’s doing it and where’s it going? Now the where is it going part, some people will debate. Well, a lot of it stays in Comex, Andy. They’ll say, okay, some of it does. That’s called the eligible category, where it could be sold if wanted to be sold, but it doesn’t want to be sold. I’ve mentioned how we have eight Brinks facilities throughout the country. One is in New York City.

That is a, a Brinks facility. I mean, excuse me, a Comex facility. Of the eight Brinks facilities we have in North America, one is Comex, it’s Brinks jfk and I have lots of clients in there that, and you probably do too, that have thousand ounce bars inside of the eligible category. They’re not for sale and they’re not backing the that are listed on the COMEX exchange right now. Although they could be if they wanted to anyways. So we’ve seen in February, 4,639 contracts delivered. That equals what does that equal? 23. Another critical piece of this story is where that silver is actually going once it leaves the Western vault system.

Because the movement of physical metal across the globe tells a much larger story about how the balance of financial power may be shifting. For years, precious metals have quietly flowed from west to east. But what we are seeing now suggests that this migration may be accelerating, particularly when it comes to silver. One of the clearest examples of this shift appears in the pricing differences between Western exchanges and Asian markets, especially Shanghai. At times, the price of silver in Shanghai has traded significantly higher than the price in the United States and Europe. Normally, when price differences like this appear between global markets, sophisticated traders immediately move to capture the arbitrage opportunity.

They buy silver where it is cheaper and transport it to where it is more expensive, locking in the price difference as profit. Under normal conditions, this arbitrage quickly closes the gap between markets. But in the case of silver, the premium in Eastern markets has persisted far longer than most analysts would expect. That persistence tells us something extremely important. It suggests that the demand for physical silver in those markets is strong enough to keep absorbing large quantities of metal, even after traders exploit the price difference. When a premium remains in place despite the arbitrage pressure, it means the demand behind that premium is relentless.

And according to Schectman, this is exactly what has been happening as silver moves from Western vaults toward Asia. Think about what that looks like in practice. Large traders can purchase silver contracts in the west, stand for delivery of the physical metal, and then ship those thousand ounce bars to Hong Kong or directly into the Chinese market. Once that metal arrives in Shanghai, it can be sold at a significantly higher price, creating an enormous profit opportunity. When that price gap reaches 10, 15 or even $20 per ounce, the financial incentive to move metal across the world becomes massive.

Entire shipments of silver can be mobilized simply because the economics make it irresistible. But what matters even more than the arbitrage profit is what this flow represents. In the bigger picture, it shows that the Eastern financial system is actively absorbing physical precious metals, while Western markets continue to rely heavily on paper derivatives to determine price. In other words, while the west trades contracts and financial instruments, the east is increasingly focused on acquiring the actual metal itself. This dynamic creates a powerful long term shift in the structure of the market. Every ounce of silver that leaves Western vaults and moves into long term storage in another part of the world is an ounce that may not easily return to the trading system.

Over time, this gradually tightens the available supply inside the exchanges that set the global benchmark price. At first, the impact may be subtle, but if the flow continues long enough, the imbalance between paper claims and physical supply becomes more and more difficult to maintain. And that is why the global migration of silver matters so much right now. Because if the west continues exporting physical metal while maintaining a massive paper trading system on top of a shrinking physical base, the moment could eventually arrive when the market is forced to confront a very uncomfortable reality. The price being discovered on paper exchanges may no longer reflect the true value of physical silver in the real world.

Could we could start with, well, we’ll talk about gold and silver. Everyone’s focusing on the March contract, but with the February contract, which completely is gone in a couple of days, right? Like three days as of yesterday for February gold contract, right, there was still 4,366 contracts open. That’s 436,600 ounces or 13.5 tons of gold. Now what’s unusual about that, in fact, insanely unusual, is that it’s insanely high, that number for this late in the cycle. In fact, it’s 24 times normal. It’s even bigger than the upcoming March contract, which I don’t know if that’s ever happened.

That’s a massive red flag. And really what it means, what most people would tell you it means Is a classic fingerprint of a big short that sold gold that they may not actually have to pay back. And if they were planning to buy it back, one would assume that they’re somewhat trapped because liquidity is this late in the February contract is very thin. So normally when a contract goes off the board, like for example, the March contract goes off the board on Friday here, meaning it’s time to either roll forward to probably the May contract, cash, settle or stand for delivery.

And so when you see things this late into the February contract, where there’s that much gold that could stand for delivery, that hasn’t yet, it’s very, very, very, very unusual. And this is the kind of environment where everything that the west has done for a long time is all about confidence. And for a long time, no one questioned the integrity or motivation of the west or of the United States. But that might be changing. And the moment the market believes that there isn’t enough gold, the leverage that has. When Andy Schectman talks about the biggest players in the silver market, he often emphasizes a simple but powerful idea.

The people with the deepest pockets and the most information rarely behave randomly. Their actions tend to reveal where they believe the market is heading long before the broader public catches on. And right now, some of those players appear to be making a very deliberate choice. Instead of simply trading silver contracts for short term profit, they are demanding physical delivery of the metal itself. In the futures market, this is actually quite unusual. Most participants never take delivery. They use futures contracts as financial tools to speculate on price movements, hedge risk, or manage large portfolios. When a contract approaches expiration, traders usually roll their position forward into a future month or settle the contract in cash.

This allows them to maintain exposure to the silver price without ever dealing with the physical metal. It keeps the market liquid and efficient, and it is the way the system has operated for decades. But standing for delivery is a completely different decision. When a trader chooses to stand for delivery, they are effectively saying they want the real metal, not the paper representation of it. They are requesting thousands of ounces of silver to be physically transferred out of the exchange vault system into their ownership. And when that decision is made repeatedly by large players, it signals that their motivation goes beyond short term speculation.

Schectman often points out that the entities capable of taking delivery in massive quantities are not retail investors. These are institutions and ultra high net worth buyers who have access to extensive research and deep insight into how the global financial system operates. When those players commit nine figure sums to acquiring physical silver month after month, the Obvious question becomes why? Because moving that much metal is not convenient, and it certainly is not necessary if the goal is simply to trade or price movements. One possible explanation is that these investors see growing risks within the financial system itself.

When confidence in currencies, bonds or financial institutions begins to weaken, physical assets suddenly become far more attractive. Silver and gold have served as monetary anchors for thousands of years precisely because they exist outside the banking system. They cannot be printed by central banks, and they do not depend on the solvency of any financial institution. For investors who are concerned about systemic instability, holding physical metal can act as a form of financial insurance. Another possibility is that these players understand the structural imbalance developing within the silver market itself. If the number of paper claims continues to grow while the available supply of physical silver continues to shrink, the eventual outcome could be a dramatic repricing of the metal.

In that scenario, those who already control large quantities of physical silver would be positioned extremely well when the market begins to revalue the asset. And this is what makes the behavior of the smart money so important. Markets are often driven by information that is not immediately visible to the public. Institutional investors frequently move early because they recognize patterns or risks long before they become obvious. By the time the headlines begin discussing shortages or price spikes, the most informed players have usually already built their positions. So when large entities repeatedly choose to stand for delivery rather than simply trade paper contracts, it suggests that their strategy may be focused on long term ownership of the metal, rather than short term speculation.

And if that trend continues, it could place increasing pressure on a market structure that has depended for years on the assumption that most traders would never actually ask for the silver they technically own into SLV by an authorized participant at the bottom where the shares are created. Does it seem interesting that they sell it up here, they deposit it down here, and then the metal moves from the COMEX into the SLV vaults that are institutionally controlled by those commercial banks that issue the shares. And they continually do what’s called share redemption and stand for delivery on metal inside the SLV ecosystem and GLD with great privacy.

It’s far more difficult to tell who did that than it is to look at the COMEX COT reports or the delivery reports. So lots of stuff going on. But again, the movement of metal is, to your point, really all that needs to be seen. Whether it be deliveries on comex, deliveries out of the COMEX ecosystem, we’re standing for delivery across the globe and with people at this level are the most well informed traders on the planet. That’s all you need to know and understand that price is the greatest tool of misdirection and they will do all they can to shake people from the bushes.

This is no different. The paper price still is in control until it’s not. Because we’re getting to the point where paper suppression and manipulation that is naked, meaning you cannot come up with the metal to deliver. Perhaps like we see happening here in February with this big gold short, who knows where it ultimately goes? So I think to be on the wrong side of this trade in a naked position right now is as silly as a mud wall. And, and maybe that’s what this was all about last time. One other point, I don’t think you’ll see this again.

I think it was a Hail Mary because I think it really disrupted much of the economy. When you look at what it did to the refiners and how the refiners have a far greater. They’re not just providing liquidity to this industry, the refiners. These refiners in the US have a big role in many industries. And this is something that had many, many corollary effects that were far removed from the COMEX leverage. And I think they probably got a lot of crap about this, whoever they are. I don’t expect to see this kind of margin increase that will really cripple the industry from the top on down because of lack of liquidity.

And you know, it certainly worked at getting the leverage out of comex, but it also had some profound effects on this industry. From the refiners to all the big companies and even the companies who don’t hedge are facing the issue of this kind of volatility that has been induced by raising margins where you see these very unusual synthetically induced drops. So I think it was kind of a one off maybe to get these banks in the United States who, according to the COT report and the Economic Times article, have been largely net long in silver and gold.

But that doesn’t mean long. That means you could have 12 long and 11 short. You’re still net long by one. Maybe it was done specifically to get them far more on sides as we get more and more serious with the inventory problems at COMEX and lbma. The deeper you look into the structure of the silver market, the more it begins to resemble something far less stable than most investors realize. Because at its core, the modern silver market is built on a massive pyramid of paper contracts sitting on top of a relatively small pool of physical metal.

As long as the majority of participants are content trading paper claims, the system continues functioning smoothly. But the moment a meaningful percentage of those claims begin turning into requests for real silver, the imbalance becomes impossible to ignore. To understand why Schectman often refers to this as a kind of paper Ponzi structure, you have to look at the relationship between open interest and registered inventory. Open interest represents the total number of active futures contracts in the market, each representing 5,000 ounces of silver. When those contracts are multiplied out, the theoretical amount of silver promised through paper trading can easily reach hundreds of millions of ounces.

At times, the number has approached levels where the paper market represents two or even three times the amount of silver that is actually registered and available for delivery. Now consider what that means in practical terms. If the exchange vaults hold around 80 to 90 million ounces of silver that are designated as registered inventory, that metal is the portion specifically available to fulfill delivery requests. Yet the open contracts in the market can represent well over 200 million ounces. This creates a situation where multiple owners effectively hold claims to the same pool of metal. Under normal conditions, this is not viewed as a problem because only a small percentage of contracts ever result in delivery.

The rest are rolled forward or settled in cash long before delivery becomes necessary. But Schectman often compares this structure to a high stakes game of musical chairs. As long as the music is playing and most participants continue trading paper, the system appears stable. The moment the music stops and enough players attempt to claim their chairs, the imbalance becomes immediately visible. There simply are not enough chairs for everyone in the silver market. That translates into a situation where the physical supply available inside the exchange vaults may be insufficient if a large wave of contract holders suddenly decides they want real metal instead of paper settlement.

What makes this situation even more fragile is that price discovery in the silver market is dominated by this paper trading system. The spot price investors see each day is heavily influenced by the futures market, where enormous volumes of contracts change hands electronically. Because those trades are largely detached from the physical movement of silver, the price can remain relatively stable even while physical supply is quietly tightening beneath the surface. That disconnect is where the real risk begins to emerge. If confidence in the paper system begins to weaken, traders may increasingly demand physical delivery rather than trusting paper contracts.

Once that shift begins, the market can transition very quickly from a highly liquid trading environment into a scramble for real metal. The leverage that once created efficiency suddenly becomes the source of instability. This is why Schectman believes the silver market could experience an extremely violent repricing if the physical supply shortage ever collides. With the enormous structure of paper claims sitting on Top of it. Because when a market built on leverage begins to unwind, the adjustment rarely happens slowly. It tends to happen all at once as participants rush to secure the real asset before everyone else realizes what is happening.

The people that want this metal do not trust the ecosystem. And at that level, at that kind of volume, at that kind of logistics, that should say something to people. So I think when you talk about where the metal is moving, whether it be standing for delivery here or the continued arbitrage that we see in, in Shanghai, where the silver, silver price has been between 10 and $20 an ounce more than in the West. Enticing arbitrage, normally an opportunity like that doesn’t last very long as the sophisticated traders capitalize on that arbitrage. But when you realize that it is staying strong, that tells you that the Chinese are saying, look, we’re choking on dollars.

The dollars are not worth as much as the silver. Keep the arbitrage, keep that higher premium so that you get the traders who will buy 20 million ounces in the west. And in China, typically, there’s a COMEX contract that goes right to Hong Kong, where a Brinks truck would pick it up or a truck would pick it up and bring it to Shanghai. At a $20 or 15 or $20 an ounce premium on 20 million ounces, you’re making enough to change your life 10 times over. And are they doing it? Sure. And it’s not even that premium that they’re paying, the Chinese are paying to buy that.

On top of that premium, there’s a VAT tax. That VAT tax is not the responsibility of the. The exporter into China. It is the responsibility of the recipient. When it leaves the Shanghai Metals Exchange, they will be charged a VAT tax. So they’re willing to pay a 13, 14, 15% VAT tax and a 13 or 14, $15 premium on top of that to entice the Western traders to send it. That tells you where the real value of silver is and the movements and the mechanics and the. Everything we’ve seen so far in terms of price to the downside in many respects is contrived through raising margin requirements, through trying to squeeze the speculators out.

And you can see that by the open interest, which has fallen considerably. It worked. It did. And that metal then has moved into the strong hands who don’t use margin, who I would venture to say, over the next several days, plan on standing for delivery in huge amounts. Now that Shanghai is open today and you see the price down a little bit, it’s interesting as we get right to the end of the delivery cycle is this is what they’re gonna do Again, where we saw before the price got hammered, not only did JP Morgan cover 800, almost 800 contracts at the very, very, very bottom.

Interesting how they did that. But how about SLV? You know, during Silver Squeeze, SLV said BlackRock amended the prospectus, I think on a Saturday night. And they said there’s such inflow coming and there could be a lag between the time that we indeed confirm this as a good trade and when the shares are issued because it’s coming so fast and there could be a discrepancy there. Shares are issued when the metal is deposited into the exchange. So right before the market collapses, it’s at $115,020 an ounce, record volume into SLV, it collapses. And right at the bottom, guess what? 38 million ounces of silver are deposited as the pressure inside the silver market builds.

Shechtman believes the conversation cannot be limited to silver alone, because the deeper force shaping everything right now is the global monetary system itself. And at the center of that system sits gold. For thousands of years, gold has served as the ultimate measuring stick for the health of currencies. When governments expand debt, print money and inflate their economies, gold has historically responded by rising in value, not because the metal itself changes, but because the currency it is measured in loses purchasing power. What makes the current moment so significant is that central banks around the world appear to be quietly acknowledging this reality.

Over the last several years, global central banks have been accumulating gold at one of the fastest rates ever recorded. Nations that once relied heavily on US Dollar reserves are now diversifying into physical gold, storing it within their own borders rather than leaving it in foreign vaults. This shift is not random. It reflects a growing awareness that the current debt based financial system is under extraordinary strain. Schectman has often suggested that in a future monetary reset, gold could play a central role in restoring confidence to the system. Governments facing unsustainable debt levels may eventually require a mechanism to stabilize their currencies and re anchor financial credibility.

Historically, gold has been used for exactly that purpose. When currencies lose trust, a higher gold price can effectively revalue national reserves and rebalance the monetary system without requiring immediate default on sovereign debt. And this is where the situation becomes even more interesting. Unlike most financial assets, gold does not require congressional approval or complex legislative frameworks to change its valuation. Markets can reprice gold extremely quickly if confidence in fiat currencies begins to erode in such a scenario, governments might even welcome a dramatically higher gold price because it reflects the weakening purchasing power of their currency, while simultaneously strengthening, lengthening the value of the gold reserves they hold.

But if gold were to be revalued significantly higher as part of a global monetary shift, silver would almost certainly be pulled along for the ride. Throughout history, silver has acted as gold’s more volatile counterpart. When gold begins rising in response to monetary stress, silver often follows with far more explosive momentum. The reason is simple. Silver’s market is far smaller, its supply dynamics are tighter, and its price movements tend to amplify the trends already underway in gold. This is why Schectman believes the conversation about silver cannot be separated from the broader transformation happening in the global monetary landscape.

If gold is quietly preparing to reassert itself as the ultimate reference point for currencies, then silver may eventually experience the same kind of repricing, only with far greater volatility. And when that process begins, the moves in silver could be far larger than anything the market has experienced in modern history. Well, you know, in a world where price has been suppressed forever to support the military industrial complex and their ability to accumulate cheap silver to make high tech weapons for years, price has never, I mean, it’s never found price discovery. But what that has done in particular by keeping it so ridiculously undervalued based upon its value and utility, I mean, in contrast to its value and utility, its real value and its utility, it is disincentivized domestic mining.

And so when you try and find a mine, not only, you know, silver, of all the metal mined last year, only about 20% came from companies that exclusively mine silver. About 160 million ounces, but that’s it. Out of the 850 million or so that was mined, it’s the sixth year in a row of a strict, of a systemic shortage. About 200 million plus ounces for six years in a row. 1.2, 1.3 billion ounce shortfall over the last five, six years. And so when you talk about why would they do this, it’s being done to incentivize mining here in the United States to make it economical because you have to dig further.

I mean, silver is found in a form very near the surface, epithermal, normal. It’s called like your skin being epidermis. And so the big deposits were found a long time ago. To find more deposits, you would have to spend more money that currently are uneconomical or not currently. But most of the time I’ve known you they would have been. And so to raise the level to this degree, which is not really something I agree with, instead, just let the market trade freely and you won’t need the price floor. But nonetheless, what it signals to the, the investors and to the domestic mining companies is, hey, let’s, you know, if we can get above our all in a sustaining cost enough to find this other silver, you know, here in North America, let’s do it.

And they’ll put a floor underneath it to incentivize it so that we don’t end up doing something uneconomical. I think that’s really what it’s about more than anything. But my pushback would be just get the hell out of the way of allowing these banks to take on what has been for 30 years the largest concentrated short position of any commodity traded on the comex market, that being silver. Stop manipulating it. Get out of the way of it. Let the market trade freely. You won’t need a price floor. But nonetheless, that’s what they’re going to do. And I think it’s more of sending a signal to domestic mining.

Silver has always lived in gold’s shadow. But history shows that when gold begins moving during major monetary shifts, silver doesn’t just follow quietly. It accelerates with a level of volatility that often shocks the entire financial world. This is one of the most consistent patterns in the precious metals market. Gold typically leads the move because it is viewed as the primary monetary asset. But once momentum builds and investors begin searching for leverage to that move, capital floods into silver. And because the silver market is dramatically smaller than gold, even a modest wave of investment demand can push the price upward with incredible force.

We have seen this pattern many times before. In the late 1970s, gold began climbing rapidly as inflation surged and confidence in the dollar weakened. Silver initially lagged behind trading quietly, while gold captured most of the headlines. But once the market fully woke up to the monetary crisis unfolding at the time, silver exploded from under $6 an ounce to nearly 50 in a matter of months. That move wasn’t gradual. It was violent, fast, and completely overwhelming for traders who were positioned on the wrong side of the market. The same dynamic appeared again during the financial crisis cycle that peaked around 2011.

Gold surged toward $1900 as central banks unleashed massive stimulus programs to stabilize the global economy. Once again, silver followed with amplified energy, rising from roughly $9 to almost $50 per ounce in just a few years. In both of these historical episodes, silver dramatically outperformed gold in percentage terms. It moved later. But when it moved. It did so with extraordinary speed. The reason for this amplification is rooted in the structure of the silver market itself. The total value of the global silver market is only a fraction of the size of the gold market. That means it takes far less capital to move silver prices significantly.

When institutional money begins rotating into precious metals during periods of monetary instability, gold absorbs the first wave because it is considered the safest and most liquid asset. But eventually, investors searching for higher returns begin moving into silver. And when that capital enters such a small market, the impact can be explosive. There is also another factor that adds fuel to silver’s upside potential, and that is its dual identity as both a monetary and industrial metal. Silver is essential for modern technology, playing a critical role in electronics, solar energy systems, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing. This means that even during periods of economic expansion, industrial demand continues pulling large amounts of silver out of circulation.

When investment demand suddenly rises on top of that industrial consumption, the supply available to the market can tighten very quickly. Schectman often emphasizes that this is why silver has the potential to move far more dramatically than gold during a major monetary shift. Gold may rise steadily as central banks and institutions accumulate reserves, but silver reacts like a compressed spring. Once investor interest returns, the market simply isn’t large enough to absorb massive inflows without dramatic price movement. And if the forces we have been discussing begin converging at the same time, the monetary instability, the physical supply pressure, and the growing awareness among investors that silver may be deeply undervalued, the move could be far larger than what we saw in previous cycles.

Because when a small market suddenly becomes the focus of global capital, looking for protection against a failing financial system, the resulting price surge can be nothing short of historic banks of Eastern Europe and the Global South. Okay, so Poland and Hungary and Turkey and the Czech national bank and the Dutch and Saudis and the Chinese and the Indians and the Russians, they’re all buying gold and silver. So, so what? Oh, but now it’s here. When those entities were doing it, not a word about what was happening here. But now you see it here. And that’s what’s so vastly different.

And so too is of course, the way that this administration has classified platinum and silver critical minerals. And of course, the Judy Shelton talking about what she believes gold’s role will be in the future for the US treasury, of course, gold and its expanding role in the Global south as a settlement vehicle, these things are happening. Media doesn’t talk about it at all. So that should tell you this is why and how big Money repositions, they reposition under the COVID of media silence and of rhetoric that is contrary to what they’re doing and of price. And when you have the ability with tremendous leverage to move the price, it’s easy to do to create that narrative.

And again, when you see the price get hammered and then you see JP Morgan cover and metal put into SLV and the deliveries continue at a massive clip, that should tell you all you need to know about really what the, what the motivation is. When we’re getting to the point where countries just like they don’t want to hold dollar treasuries because they don’t trust them anymore, many of them, they won’t want to have metal held within the COMEX or the lbma. They don’t trust it. And maybe that’s why you’re seeing metal move at such a clip.

And one of the things that people have such a hard time with is, you know, your mind says, well, why not just buy it all right? Why doesn’t a wealthy guy like Bill Gates just buy it all? Doesn’t work that way. If the Chinese or a wealthy guide says, I’m gonna buy it all, good luck getting it all. Because the minute that that happens, not only do you blow things up within the exchange, but the minute that gets out, everyone will beat you at it and, and, and stand for delivery themselves. So this is done by, you know, you bleed out the victim by 10 million paper cuts rather than, you know, one samurai sword to the whole thing.

And I think that’s the part people have a hard time understanding. They’re dismissive of a, of a, of the, really, I think of the well thought out strategy of those in the Global south to do this methodically. And you can see it if you look closely, it’s increasing exponentially from we started talking about it five years ago. And they’re doing it the right way, just slowly enough to keep it from being on the mainstream, but not slow enough to where we don’t notice it. I see it very, very clearly. And again, I will say it for the one millionth time, the only thing that matters is that the most well funded and well informed traders on the planet, from the central banks to the commercial traders here in the United States, are telling you through their actions that gold and silver are worth far more than the paper dollars they’re using to buy it.

That’s all I need to say. And I could drop the mic right there and shut this off and walk away. And I would feel if people really listened, they would understand where this is going. You would see massive institutional selling, not buying if indeed this was just before we get going, we just launched the official Silver News Daily Telegram. To kick things off, we’re running a 10 ounce silver giveaway. Yes, real physical silver. Not a voucher, not digital credits, actual bullion. This telegram will be our new home for real time silver discussions, market insights, collection picks and everything precious metals.

It’s where the community truly comes alive. Here’s how to enter the 10 ounce silver giveaway be subscribed to Silver News Daily on YouTube, turn on the notification bell, comment 10 ounce giveaway on three separate videos, be an active member of the Telegram group and say hi. Once we hit 500 Active Telegram members, we’ll pick one lucky winner to receive 10 ounces of silver shipped directly to you. So get in early. Stay active Another factor that makes the silver market particularly vulnerable to a dramatic price move is the growing imbalance between supply and demand. For years, the global silver market has quietly been running structural deficits, meaning that the amount of silver consumed each year has exceeded the amount produced by mining operations and recycling.

When that happens, the difference has to be filled by drawing down existing above ground stockpiles. At first, this process can continue without attracting much attention because large inventories built up over decades can temporarily bridge the gap. But over time, those inventories shrink and eventually the market begins to feel the pressure. One of the biggest drivers behind this tightening supply picture is industrial demand. Silver is not just a precious metal held for investment, it is also one of the most important industrial materials in the modern world. Its unmatched electrical conductivity, thermal properties, and resistance to corrosion make it essential for technologies that power the global economy.

Every smartphone, every advanced computer system, and virtually every major electronics component relies on silver in some form. But the fastest growing demand is coming from entirely new industries that are expanding at an extraordinary pace. Solar energy is perhaps the most powerful example. Modern solar panels rely on silver paste to conduct electricity within photovoltaic cells. As governments push aggressively toward renewable energy and build massive solar installations around the world, the amount of silver required for these systems continues to grow. Each panel may only use a small quantity of silver, but when millions upon millions of panels are produced every year, the cumulative demand becomes enormous.

The global transition toward electrification and renewable infrastructure is quietly absorbing vast amounts of silver that may never return to the market. Electric vehicles represent another rapidly expanding source of consumption. Modern EVs contain significantly more silver than traditional internal combustion vehicles because of their complex electrical systems, sensors, and battery technologies. As automakers accelerate the Transition toward electric transportation. The demand for silver embedded within these systems Continues rising year after year. Add to that the expansion of 5G networks, advanced medical technologies, and high performance computing, and the list of industries Dependent on silver Keeps expanding. At the same time, increasing supply Is not nearly as simple as opening a few new mines.

Silver production faces several structural limitations that make rapid supply expansion Extremely difficult. Unlike gold, the majority of silver is produced As a byproduct of mining for other metals, Such as copper, lead, and zinc. This means silver output Is often dependent on the economics of entirely different commodities. Even if the price of silver rises, Miners cannot always increase production quickly because the silver is tied to the production cycle of those base metals. On top of that, bringing a new mine online can take a decade or more, Due to environmental approvals, Infrastructure development, and financing challenges. By the time new supply finally reaches the market, Demand may have already surged Far beyond what those mines can provide.

This creates a situation where the supply response to rising prices Is extremely slow, Allowing demand pressures to build for years before the market can rebalance. When you combine this industrial demand surge with the investment demand we discussed earlier, and the steady drawdown of existing inventories, the silver market begins to look increasingly tight. For years, the deficits have been quietly absorbed by above ground stockpiles. But those stockpiles are not infinite. If the current trajectory continues, the market could eventually reach a point where available supply struggles to keep pace with the world’s growing appetite for silver. And when a commodity that is critical to both technology and monetary stability Begins running, Persistent shortages, the price adjustment that follows can be dramatic, because once the market realizes that the available supply Is no longer sufficient to satisfy demand, Prices tend to move quickly in order to ration the remaining metal to the highest bidders.

So that would make those companies that don’t hedge Create a huge spread between what they’re comfortable paying and what the actual metal is worth. The refiners, they have metal in their working capital or working stockpile that they’ve already paid for, and, you know, takes a long time to break things down and then put them in a form that can be melted to pure silver, Pull out the impurities, Take that, turn it into shot shot, Then melted down into bars and rounds. It takes time. They’ve been getting margin called all the way up, not only with the increase in the price of silver continuously, but also the margin increases, they stop taking business.

So you have the companies that do hedge Facing an immeasurably high cost and expense. You have the people that don’t hedge Having A real big problem about buying stuff from the public or hedging what they. Or finding a way to protect the inventory that they do have. Because you don’t make enough money in this industry to mess around with a large percentage move. So they’re afraid to do anything including buy stuff from the public because by the time they buy and they walk out the door, they could be out of business. Done if it’s large enough.

And then you have the refiners, which are a tremendous form of liquidity. The market gummed up completely and totally because of this. This is why I don’t think you’re going to see it happen again. I think whoever pulled this lever got a lot of flack about it because the unintended consequences reverberated not even into this industry. More so the refining industry and what that does to real businesses that need not just precious metals but that need refining capabilities for whatever it is that they’re doing. Not a good move. And so. But it seems like a drive by shooting out of desperation.

But all of this combined with the record volume in January created an environment I’ve never seen before. And I want to apologize to people for how long it’s taken for things to get completed. It’s very difficult to hire people in this industry. When you walk into a precious metals warehouse and there’s far more money there than it is in a half a dozen and savings and loans in the neighborhood. And so you have. Hiring people is difficult. The intake procedure and the releasing procedure is something we’re proud of. And it’s regimented and it’s videoed and it’s filmed and it’s under dual custody and it’s all of these things that need to be done.

But we’re getting so much coming in and moving out and it’s crazy. And then you get the gum up with, you know, well, this guy, this refinery, you know, was supposed to send us the money. They’ve shut down. They’re slow. We’re waiting three months to get paid by the refinery. We’re waiting, you know, six weeks longer than normal to get the stuff out of, you know, the depository and the, and the IRS custodian is just crawling because of the amount of volume that came out of nowhere. And it’s like they’re, they’re. It’s either all out fire hose or, you know, a drip, drip, drip.

There, there hasn’t been much in the way of middle ground recently. So it went from very slow to insanely fast. Coupled with CME Group’s attempt to squash leverage, and it spilled over. When you begin connecting all of these forces together, the picture that emerges becomes difficult to ignore. The silver market is not just dealing with one isolated factor. Instead, multiple pressures are building at the same time. Physical silver is steadily leaving western vault systems. Institutional buyers are choosing to take delivery rather than simply trading paper contracts. Global industrial demand is accelerating, and the monetary system itself is entering one of the most unstable periods in modern history.

Each of these forces alone would be significant, but when they begin converging simultaneously, the potential impact on the silver price becomes extraordinary. This is why some analysts, including Andy Schectman, believe the current environment may be setting the stage for a repricing event that most investors are completely unprepared for. Because when markets operate under extreme leverage for long periods of time, the adjustment rarely happens slowly. It tends to occur in sudden bursts when the underlying structure finally reaches its limits. The paper market that has dominated silver price discovery for decades depends heavily on the assumption that physical supply will always be available when needed.

But if the physical metal continues flowing out of the system while demand keeps rising, that assumption may eventually be tested. Imagine what happens if the gap between paper claims and physical silver becomes too large to ignore. If enough investors begin demanding real metal at the same time, the exchange system could face a moment where fulfilling those obligations becomes increasingly difficult. In that scenario, the market would have only one mechanism available to restore balance. The price of silver would have to rise dramatically in order to slow demand, attract new supply, and force weaker hands out of the market.

And when that kind of repricing begins in a relatively small market like silver, the move can become extremely powerful. Capital that has ignored the metal for years can suddenly rush in. Once momentum begins building, institutional investors who previously viewed silver as a niche asset, may begin allocating significant capital once the breakout confirms that something fundamental has changed. At the same time, retail investors, who have watched the market quietly for years, may rush in out of fear of missing the opportunity. This is how major commodity bull markets tend to unfold. The early stages are quiet and largely ignored.

The structural pressures build slowly beneath the surface, while most people remain focused on other parts of the financial world. Then at some point, the market begins to move. And once it does, the speed of the rally can accelerate dramatically as more and more participants realize what is happening. For Schectman, the path toward triple digit silver, or even the more extreme long term projections some analysts discuss, would not necessarily require a single dramatic event. Instead, it could unfold through a series of structural shifts that gradually change how the Market values, the metal, a tightening supply, rising industrial demand, institutional accumulation, and growing distrust in paper assets could all contribute to a new pricing environment where silver is no longer treated as a cheap commodity, but as a strategic monetary and industrial asset.

And if that transition does occur, the move could unfold far faster than most people expect, because markets built on leverage can remain stable for years, right up until the moment they suddenly are not. When that turning point arrives, the repricing of silver could become one of the most dramatic financial stories of the decade. As a company, in 35 years, 36 years, roughly one third the volume we did in January, that we did the entire year, last year, of the entire year, last year, which is one of our biggest years ever. And the entire. I know you understand that you were part of that and all the other companies were too.

So you had, for the first time in a couple of years, the public starting to, I think, increase their awareness. Price makes people aware. That’s why, you know, the big money, the successful money, who was free from the crowd, was in long before price made it. Something that caught people’s collective conscience or awareness. But we saw a massively expanding demand at the same time. Excuse me. You see, massive leverage on COMEX. And the leverage being a trader says on December 1st. Geez, man. And price has been going up week over week over week without stopping. Look, we got 5 million bucks in our margin account.

Let’s buy a bunch of contracts for 15 or $16,000. Back then we can control 5,000 ounces at 60 bucks an ounce. Back then, that’s 300,000. So that leverage is fantastic. And it’s nonstop going up. So they lever up and buy a bunch of contracts. And again, at $15,000 in your margin account, what? That’s seven. That’s like 70 contracts you could have, right? And you could control 70 times 5,350 thousand ounces of metal. You just have to have that money in your margin account. Okay, great. Margin limits have gone up 300%. And so if you don’t post more money in your margin, well, then everything is sold.

And selling begets, selling begets, selling begets, selling. The prices collapse. This is done specifically to target the speculation, the leverage on comex, the people that shouldn’t be playing in this big sandbox. But the corollary effects were you had massive volume, which did put strain on the logistics, on the depositories, on the custodians, the IRA custodians, just on the logistics in and out of the companies. But the cost of hedging Is something that if you don’t hedge, and we would like to typically have 2 million ounces or more of silver in our warehouse. The cost of hedging is extraordinary.

And that doesn’t take into account gold, platinum, and palladium, which all are expensive, too. But you don’t have 50 million in your margin account. What are you going to do? You’re not going to hedge or you’re going to have a small inventory and the cost kept going higher and higher and higher. But if you don’t hedge and the price falls by $30 in a day, in an industry where if you make 2%, you’re ecstatic and the price falls by 30%, what do you do? You’re out of business. If you have a big enough position that just got hammered.

So for the companies that do hedge, the cost became 300% more expensive on top of everything else. The companies who don’t hedge, well, they just literally stared into the abyss when this happened. Huge positions that are now massively underwater. You can’t sell it. You have to wait it out. And has it come back yet? No. As Andy Schectman sees it, the silver market may be approaching a moment that only appears obvious after it has already happened. For years, the warning signs have been quietly building beneath the surface. Physical metal leaving the exchange vaults, enormous paper leverage sitting on top of shrinking supplies, industrial demand accelerating, and global investors increasingly searching for real assets as confidence in the financial system begins to weaken.

Each of these signals by itself might seem manageable. But when they begin appearing all at once, they start to form a pattern that becomes difficult to dismiss. The silver market has always had the potential for explosive moves. Because of its size and structure, it is small compared to most global asset classes. Yet it plays a critical role in both the monetary system and modern technology. That combination creates a powerful dynamic. When financial uncertainty rises and investors begin seeking protection in tangible assets, silver suddenly becomes attractive not only as a store of value, but also as a strategic industrial resource.

And when large pools of capital begin chasing an asset that small, the resulting price movements can be dramatic. Schectman’s warning is not necessarily that silver will move tomorrow or next week. Markets rarely follow a predictable timeline. What he is pointing out is that the conditions capable of producing a historic repricing are already forming. If the paper leverage inside the market collides with a tightening physical supply, and if that happens during a period of global monetary instability, the adjustment could be far larger than anything the market has experienced in decades. In that environment, the price of silver would not simply rise because of speculation.

It would rise because the world is suddenly competing for a limited supply of a metal that sits at the intersection of money, technology and energy. And that is where the possibility of extreme price targets begins to enter the conversation. When analysts talk about silver reaching levels that sound unimaginable today, they are not simply projecting a normal bull market. They are imagining a scenario where confidence in paper systems erodes and investors rush into physical assets all at once. In that kind of environment, the repricing of real commodities can move far beyond what traditional valuation models would predict.

Whether the future ultimately brings triple digit silver or even the more dramatic outcomes some analysts discuss, the key message remains the same. The structure of the silver market is changing, and the signals emerging from the physical market suggest that some of the most informed participants are already positioning themselves for what may come next. For investors watching from the sidelines, the most important step is simply understanding how these forces fit together and why the silver market could look very different in the years ahead. If you want to stay ahead of major shifts in the gold and silver markets and understand what the biggest players are doing before the headlines catch up, make sure you subscribe to the channel and stay connected for future updates.

And remember, this discussion is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice, so always speak with a qualified professional before making any financial decisions.
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