TRULY INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS
Don't forget to mention John Kaiser. Many consider his Bottom-Fishing report http://www.kaiserbottomfish.com/s/Home.asp to be the best in the business. Best of all, he cannot be greased like most of the other newsletters. In fact, he has a little ditty at his website:

"In so far that independent analysis is targeted at typical investors, the quest for economic viability pushes newsletter writers into the conflict of interest role historically played by brokerage firm analysts, namely generating market interest in specific stocks rather than objectively describing the situation and the associated risk-reward potential. Independent analysts acquire conflicts of interest in three ways: 1) they own the stock personally, and even if they make full disclosure and match their trading with the advice given to subscribers, their analysis will be biased toward optimism, 2) they get compensated by the companies either directly or indirectly, which usually discourages critical followup analysis of negative developments, and 3) the willingness of companies to distribute friendly analysis widely spares the newsletter a significant marketing cost associated with generating new subscribers, many of whom subscribe because they already own the stock and like the independent analyst's reinforcing comments. Thanks to the ease with which cyberspace facilitates copyright violation, the credibility of independent analysts as a source of subscription compensated commentary on speculative companies or plays for general audiences has nowhere to go but down in the long run."

BROKER WITH INDEPENDENT THINKING
Andrew Muir from Canaccord is the one that I would personally speak to if I had a question concerning a junior exploration company. He tells it like it is, unlike anyone with "research department" obligations. Andy has Geology degree from UBC and is has been a Chartered Financial Analyst since 1990. He was a mining analyst for years, specializing in junior exploration plays.

Teresa

GLD just hit $50 for the first time!

Bill,

I have noted in the past how the large commercial traders have pushed gold prices their way, and the little guy buys into tops and sells into bottoms.

The commercials are very much net short. Could this be the start of a very large short squeeze? They even took off longs from the last report.

If anyone wants to see positions, simply go here: http://www.cftc.gov/cftc/cftccotreports.htm Gold trades at the Comex.

I have often wondered how much these traders make personally through what has always been viewed to me as collusion, silent or not. They are due their comeuppance, hope it's now!