I'm surprised the WSJ didn't have any depth on what's happened and why. "Backwardation" is a term that must be used here. That's where the spot price was highe

I'm surprised the WSJ didn't have any depth on what's happened and why. "Backwardation" is a term that must be used here. That's where the spot price was higher than the future price. For anyone unfamiliar, pretty much any commodity can trade under a futures contract. That means you as a producer or consumer can lock in a price at a future point. But you must come up with the commodity on that date or come up with the money and take delivery. So imagine the spot (current) price is $70/oz but the future price is $65/oz. That means nobody is really buying at $70 when a price a month out is $65. So how does this happen/ Because dealers in the market have written futures contracts for silver they don't have and they will have to buy at the spot price to cover it at some point. They either don't want to or can't. Best case scenario, they're going to take a massive loss. Worst case, they are insolvent. So there was little to no activity at the spot price even though it's at a record high. Refiners weren't buying. There's a market for borrowing silver from people who have it and that market exploded this year as these dealers sought temporary relief for the futures contracts they had to cover. All of this signaled that banks and refiners were essentially conspiring to suppress silver prices to remain solvent and that at some point the dam was going to burst. And it did because China, who refines 60-70% of the world's silver, decided they would cease exports because of local demand for things like solar panels. So here we are.