When Flash Surges and Flash Crashes Collide: Silver's Post-Christmas Magic Trick

Ah, the holidays—family gatherings, stockings pinned to the chimney with care, and... an 11% surge in Silver, on thinner-than-mulled cider trading volume? Welcome to the wonderful world of year-end market anomalies, where liquidity dries up and craziness takes over. 

Same story as last week:

1. "tight supply". Same bs story they sold investors when Natural Gas ran to $10. 

 2. "Safe haven demand", because after all Silver (unlike gas) has intrinsic value blah blah - look Silver is an industrial metal, not Gold. 

3. What the silver bugs don't want to talk about is that speculative money that exited crypto markets has somehow found it's way into - you got it! - Silver.        

Proof: Google searches for Crypto hit yearly lows, as Silver surges 

Makes you wonder what internet searches for "pawn shop" are doing—I hit my local one yesterday, and the broker admitted most retail folks are selling silver, not buying. We joked about how we both sold our main Silver hoards around closer to $30. Then I Walked out with a fancy price for a heavy men's bracelet I paid way less for back in the '90s.
Window Dressing 101: Whatever crushed it all year (this time, materials/ metals/ AI), funds gotta show they're fully invested when books close. Delay profit-taking till 2026 to dodge brutal short-term cap gains taxes— we're talking millions saved for whales and hedgies.
Short Squeeze Fuel: After getting silver wrong earlier my levered short in paper contracts got obliterated—better fake money lessons than real! Holiday squeezes aren't new, and this one just put some extra tinsel on the tree.  

Thin Volume Flying Daggers Cut Both Ways 

Same low-liquidity conditions that fuel parabolic surges can also trigger unexplained flash crashes... and lately, some of those crashes seem to mysteriously disappear from the record overnight. If you recall, we recently saw a classic bear fund (Leuthold Grizzly Short) quietly taken down like a penny stock with no bid underneath [link] . Lately though, I've spotted the opposite: several bull mutual funds showing sharp intraday drops that vanish from charts days later. Even Grok couldn't shed light on it. 

Enter $OGLIX Oppenheimer Global - Flash Crash 

$FRCSX Franklin Small Caps This is one of my favorites, because there are no excessive trading restrictions on it. This 401(k) “Excessive Trading” Loophole Is Still Wide Open in 2026 [link] 

Confirmed on the weekly chart - the day after Christmas. Will Santa's elves come in and fix this chart over the weekend? I can't wait! lol    

Speaking of Small Caps: Did you know that the Russell ETF recently made new all time highs, while S&P 600 small caps continue to totally underperform. Just goes to show that ETF charts can be way off. 

Re: Friday's 10-11% flash surge in Silver same type of anomalies.  Watch for markets to come to their senses once volume begins to pick up next week, or the week after... 

As long as these phantom flash crashes and overnight 'repairs' keep happening, the wife's 401k stays sidelined— in a safe fund. No Russian roulette with the nest egg. Broader market? Still predictable Q4 window dressing...

Final: Word on the Street is traders are planning to take cover in energy stocks, during the great unwind, but I wouldn't put any of my eggs in that basket.  

Take Cover, 

AA 

P.S. I have my own theory on what's really going on, as we continue to see markets 'fixed' in the middle of the night. Santa's elves are hard at work, dressing the windows for the holidays.

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