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The silver chart looks considerably less inspiring than the gold chart at
this juncture, which is perhaps not so surprising as after outperforming gold
last year, it has been underperforming it so far this year. On the 10-year
chart the trading range that has followed the ramp from September 2005 through
April last year does not look to be of sufficient duration to support another
strong advance, and the uptrend channel drawn on this chart looks unsustainably
steep and for these reasons the chances of a breakdown are considered to be
quite high.

The situation is complicated by the Iran factor, for if an attack on Iran
occurs soon, both gold and silver would be expected to break strongly higher
and they are certainly in position to do so. Oil has already broken higher
last week from a Head-and-Shoulders bottom, as we have observed in the Oil
Market update, although there is still the chance that this was a false breakout.
On the 2-year chart we can see that silver is now in a critical technical
situation - it must break above last year's highs soon to avoid the risk of
breaking down from the uptrend channel shown. Observe that if it does break
down here it will quickly take out both its 200-day and 300-day moving averages
which would not be good news. Such a development would be expected to at least
result in the price "retiring" into a much more drawn out consolidation pattern,
and at worst it would signify the completion of a top area.

Traders can remain long here for a possible upside breakout, but should bail
immediately if it breaks below the 2 trendlines shown, as this may lead to
a plunge, a routine event with silver, as it tends to go down a lot faster
than it goes up. The creeping advance during March just above the trendline,
following the plungelet at the start of the month does not give grounds for
confidence - it needs to get away from this zone quickly as it is in danger
of getting slammed here.
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