Last night, silver experienced a sharp decline, and many people thought a major correction was coming. Actually, there's no need to panic so much. The CME raised margin requirements, and combined with overly enthusiastic sentiment, some speculative funds closed their positions en masse.

Silver's gains have indeed been substantial, and a correction was expected. However, this doesn't mean that the long-term fundamentals for silver or other non-ferrous metals are deteriorating. The current safety cushion for silver's correction hasn't been broken yet. From the perspective of futures market positioning, it remains in an uptrend.

There is actually a good indicator to judge whether silver's subsequent trend will weaken: the silver leasing rate. Looking at the leasing rate, the long end is tight while the short term is loose. This suggests that short-term silver volatility could be quite significant.

Last night, taking advantage of the silver correction, I added a bit to my positions. My reason for building positions was mainly to seek some emotional recovery, plus the profit margin for silver is quite thick...

Whether silver will continue to reach new highs or fall into a larger correction before January 15th remains uncertain. The battle between bulls and bears is happening in London. My prediction is that January will see a significant dip in gold, and silver will regroup in the first quarter (March next year will again be a very complicated delivery month).