This is a comment made elsewhere, but I spent enough time on it I thought I'd post it. The info will not surprise most of the Steemit community, but I think reaffirming the obvious is sometimes necessary in times like these, if for no other reason than to defend against discouragement.
All markets are manipulated by the banksters these days, but precious metals are the most manipulated of them all. The spot price is the most direct barometer of the health of a currency, and in the case of the U$D, the health is flagging, so the PTB simply cannot let metals even approach their true market value lest the cat be let out of the bag regarding the entire ponzi scheme.
JPMorgan is widely known as the ultimate silver fixer, for instance. It regularly smacks down the price by flooding the market with naked shorts, then scoops up all the Ag it can at the decimated price. The precipitous two-week smack-down last month was unprecedented, and totally indefensible given the high demand and low inventory of silver.
I firmly believe all these banksters know full well what's coming down the pike, and are stringing out the downfall of the dollar (and with it all fiat) as long as they can to rake in the wealth. It's beyond immoral, or illegal, or perfidious... in my view, the banksters are committing evil acts of outright theft amounting to a monetary war against the people. It should be punishable by death, yet it's business as usual for these scumbags.
I've been stacking for years, buying a little every week regardless of price. Only recently have I begun diverting some income into cryptos, and that not because I feel all that comfortable with cryptos yet, but because I'm tired of seeing the rapid rise in the crypto market and not having at least a bit of exposure to it.
I feel that cryptos are indeed a game changer, and may very well hasten the collapse of the ponzi scheme, but it will be the metals finally breaking free of the paper market and achieving their true physical market value that will be the cause of the collapse. That day rapidly approaches.
For those so inclined, I can recommend OWNX as a solid, US-based resource for buying, selling, storing and taking delivery of PMs. Been with them for years, and have utilized every tool in their arsenal.