Talk is...Expensive

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Norman said that ETFs, which represent a basket of assets and traded on stock exchanges, have been growing by as much as 30 per cent per annum. "With more pension funds and industrial funds moving into the gold market, ETFs will grow significantly," he added.

Steel warned, however, against relying mainly on ETFs as regards investment projections in gold. "The phenomenal success with gold has spawned ETFs in other sectors," he said, adding that agricultural products would also have their own ETFs soon."

Finally, a brief report on platinum for today, from Bloomberg: "Citigroup Inc. raised its 2008 forecast for platinum by 18 percent to $2,005 and for palladium by 17 percent to $443. Both metals are used in jewelry and autocatalysts to cut emissions. ``Key contributors to these prices are not only the current tight market conditions, but also the continued weakness in the U.S. dollar,'' Citigroup said in a report e-mailed today. ``Demand is set to continue on its growth path as new emission standards are set in Europe in 2009. Demand for Chinese jewelry also appears unaffected.''

The markets are looking a bit indecisive at this point in the day, but stay tuned for changes - and not necessarily small ones - ahead. The closing of the Cambridge House Calgary Conference had a number of analysts assuring us that volatility and surprise shifts in values will very much stay with us before the summer doldrums roll around.

On a final note, if you are interested in silver (and who isn't these days?) and want to get the real picture of what is going on in that market, do yourself a favor and make a small investment into the CPM Group's 2008 Silver Yearbook, set to be released on the 29th of the month. Rather than trying to decide which particular silver pundit may be in possession of the correct set of facts regarding current market conditions, you now have the opportunity to go straight to the source that actually gathers and dissects data for a living and learn the hard numbers and actual trends in the metal. You will find the book available here: http://store.cpmgroup.com/

Happy Trading.

PS- Due to travel schedules, we may be unable to post an afternoon update today. Thanks for understanding.