It looks like we are on the way to test the historic high (50.00) whether sooner or later.
FTS

Today gold closed up .30 at $1002.80 and silver closed down .56 at $20.11 after trading at $21.18 during the night  and as low as $19.71 during the day.

Today gold closed down $21.50 at $981.30 and silver closed down .44 at $19.67.  For the two days gold is down $21.20 and silver is down $1.00.

Finally, silver has dropped 10.8% in the past few days.  There has not been a 10 to 15% drop in the price of silver for nearly four months.  We were accustomed to having this happen every few weeks.  Now we can get back to the slow methodical rise in the price of silver.  Yesterday three of the lease forward rates were in the negative.  This morning all five of the rates went up by approximately 1/3%.  The Bullion Banks are no longer paying the shorts to enter contracts.   The paper players are ridding themselves of their contracts in huge amounts.

To put this in perspective, less than one month ago silver reached $18.00 for the 1st time in 28 years.  This morning it dropped to $18.33 and has now rebounded to $19.01.  The total drop from the recent high was 13.5%.

Popeye, does it mean that kind of a short correction could be nearly over and slow but steady climbing of POS is about to resume?
FTS

That's it Sapper.  This is what has happened many times in the past during this bull market.  There will be wide swings on the way up but it should be slow and steady.

And as you wrote "The paper players are ridding themselves of their contracts in huge amounts" - is this fact suppose to be a "key" that contriburtes to the opening of the door for POS to embark upon the route to higher levels?

Yes.  The reason being that the paper players have been playing short for about 28 years.  They have been artificially holding down the price of silver for that long although there was a glut of silver when it 1st started.

What are the chances of physical being extensively depleted from the stock?

Physical silver is the only thing that I will deal with and I hold it myself, no paper and no funds.  Silver bullion has been in the act of being depleted for decades.  The US had about seven billion ounces at one time and about 30 years ago had about two billion ounces.  Now they are out and are now a purchaser of silver every November to satisfy the silver eagle production that takes place each year.  It is only a matter of time (a short time) before the shortfall becomes common knowledge.   With thousands of applications in the industrial arena silver will be in huge demand for years to come.

I posted a few weeks ago that I expected a 10 to 15% drop but it didn't happen until now. We were a bit overdue. The reason that I feel that the drop is about over is because of the pullbacks in the past. Following are the Friday closing prices on the largest drops in silver over the past four years.

4-8-04----$8.14
5-7-04----$5.56 a 31.7$ drop

12-3-04---$7.99
12-10-04--$6.68 a 16.4% drop

5-12-06---$14.21
6-16-06---$10.31 a 28.7% drop

8-25-06---$12.33
9-15-06---$10.72 a 13% drop

2-23-07---$14.49
3-2-07----$12.82 an 11.5% drop

7-20-07---$13.28
8-17-07---$11.73 an 11.7% drop

3-14-08---$20.67
Today-----$18.35 an 11.2% drop

Silver is hit hard so far. Down over 1.00. Too much volatility. Much more than I was expecting.

Sapper,  A little more than I was expecting also but I was expecting a 10 to 15% drop for several weeks. Time
for more silver.  

Perhaps tommorow will be the last red day in line. Even better spot price