Transcription
Hello everybody, and welcome into Commodity Culture, where we break down commodity markets, sound money principles, and geopolitics, all with the goal of making you a better investor in the commodities sector. My name is Jesse Day. Today is December 30th, 2025, and I'm thrilled to welcome Ed Steer to the program, a precious metals expert who has been analyzing the space for over 20 years, a former contributor to Casey Research, and the founder of Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest.
Ed thinks the parabolic run we've had in silver to close out the year is just the tip of the iceberg. Ed points out that this rally was largely driven by bullion banks covering their short positions as they get decimated. But the party is just getting started. When the supply deficit hits the proverbial brick wall and prices keep climbing, the shorts are going to be annihilated in an event the late, great Ted Butler referred to as the bonfire of the silver shorts. And that event will send silver prices to levels previously thought unimaginable. All of this and so much more ahead.
But if you love silver, get yourself a "Stack Silver, Not Fiat" Commodity Culture t-shirt. Link is in the description. And now, strap yourselves in for my conversation with Ed Steer.
Ed Steer, it is great to have you back on Commodity Culture. What an incredible year it's been for silver here in 2025. And what a dramatic end we've had so far, with silver soaring over 10% in a single trading day on Friday of last week, only to lose most of those gains this week. Now, once again, we've got a green candle. We're at 5% or so right now on the day. $75.73 is on my screen at the moment. It's been a wild ride. I mean, just being over $70 silver by the end of this year was something that was not on a lot of people's cards. Most people I spoke to throughout the year said maybe we'll get to 50. Um, but here we are. I'd love to get your thoughts on silver's rise so far this year and the recent roller coaster price action in the silver market.
Well, I'll tell you what. You know, as we, as I mentioned just before we started, you hit the record button on this, you know, there are a lot of pieces in motion on the precious metals chessboard right now, especially in silver. I mean, uh, just before we get into this particular year in, in specifically, you, you have to look back at, you know, the last 50 years in silver where, you know, it's been basically, uh, managed in price along with the other precious metals. And as a result, for the last five or so years, we've had this increase in, uh, in, in the structural deficit in silver where there's far more silver being used than being mined. And, you know, there's a, there's a finite amount of silver above ground that the, uh, the bullion banks are prepared to part with and, and feed this deficit. And sooner or later, I mean, we're going to hit a brick wall. And, uh, we started to see signs of this of that this year and with the price rising. But what I, what I want to point out about this price rise is that the price is rising mainly because there's a lot of short covering going on in the market right now. That's what causes prices to rise. You know, people buying new long positions are covering shorts. And what I've discovered with, in the bank participation report over the last three or four months since July, you know, the US bullion banks have gone from a short position of, see what it was back in April. They were short 29,000 Comex contracts in silver and or net short, and now they're, now they're net long 773 contracts. So they've covered 29,000 short contracts in since April. And every time you cover a short contract, I mean, the price starts to rise. So it's been the covering of of the short contracts by the US bullion banks that has driven the price higher. And of course, other people are covering as well. As the price goes higher, their short position goes further and further underwater and they say, you know, before we lose too much money, we better, we better start covering. So this thing is becoming [clears throat] came close to going parabolic. Matter of fact, it was parabolic on Friday. I mean, that when we saw that big rise, everybody, you know, took a deep breath. But you know what that was is the was the beginning of Ted Butler's bonfire of the silver shorts where all the silver shorties have been, if I don't cover now, I'm going to be in real trouble. And if they, if they, uh, if they let the price run like that, you know, the price would be heaven only knows what and there'd be a lot of bankruptcies around. So, they stepped in with a margin call increase on Friday from the CFTC. But if you carefully note the Globex open on Sunday evening in New York, all four precious metals took off higher, you know, right out of the gate. And silver was the spectacular one. It was up $4.50 50 cents in the first 10 minutes of trading. I mean, it was just, me basically no ask and they were forced to step in and and drive the price down because, uh, you know, we're at the situation now where the shorts are in dire, dire straits. So this rise is a combination of of massive short covering and also the fact that we are approaching the sixth, we're now coming up on the sixth year of a supply demand deficit and sooner or later, this is going to hit a brick wall and, uh, you know, we're in the final throes of this price management scheme in silver and all the other precious metals and, um, basically what we're doing is we're living through history right now.
And very interesting action in the platinum market as well, um, seeming to go parabolic along with silver on Friday and and experiencing similar price action. Gold, obviously, we're going to get into that in a moment, but I have a follow-up there regarding the bullion banks and their longtime manipulation of the silver market and all of these short contracts. Do you think that game is completely up now? Um, obviously a lot of them covering going long, as you mentioned, that was a big part of the driver behind the rise in price we've seen recently. Is there a world where they jump back into the bonfire and and try to continue shorting silver and manipulating prices to the downside? Is there going to be an opening for them to do that, or do you think we're reaching a stage where they're deciding this is not a game that I want to play anymore?
Well, I'll tell you what. You know, what we saw on Monday, uh, was pure desperation on their part. You know, they had to get the price down or there were going to be a lot of trading houses that were going to meet have margin calls they couldn't possibly meet. Yeah. You know, I've written in my column, you know, over the years, especially this year, that, you know, there, how are the shorts going to get out of this? They're mass, they're still massively short the market because, you know, look, right now the open interest in silver is at around 157,000 contracts. So, which means there's 157,000 long contracts and 157,000 short contracts. Those guys that are short are in a world of hurt and there's just no way out. Um, it's, it's impossible to tell how this is going to turn out. The banks are basically playing a losing game here. And the US banks, like I said, they're net long the market now. But the other thing to point out about the US banks is their gross short position. Because if you take the difference between their long position and their short position, they're, they're long 773 contracts, which is the first time in history that the bullion US bullion banks have been net long silver. But they still have a huge short gross short position of 18,000 contracts, which they have to cover. And if they do jump into the market, all they're doing is slitting their own throats because this is a market that just cannot be stopped to the upside. Because like I just said, instead of answering the previous question, is that, you know, even if the deficit is only 100 million ounces this year, I mean, how long can this go on? I mean, it's, it's, it's impossible. It, it's and, and of course, China has stepped up to the bar and we'll get into that later, I'm sure [snorts] with these new, uh, export licenses you need for silver. So, you know, if the bullion banks, it's a lose-lose situation. Not only for the bullion banks, but for anybody that's short the market right now. I would not want to short silver or any other precious metal for all the tea in China. It's a, it's a losing game. And, uh, it's just a matter of how many bodies are going to float to the surface by the time this, uh, this short covering rally and, uh, uh, breathes its last, because it's, it's, we still have a lot of room to go to the upside yet.
Well, you mentioned before on this show that you think silver will reach prices most would find unimaginable. Obviously, all the confluence of events that we've discussed has led us to this point. You think prices are going much higher from here. Many would agree with you. The highest call I've heard for silver so far on this show is Lynette Zang, who said that if true price discovery were to occur, silver should be worth over $1,000 an ounce. I wonder what your thoughts are there. Obviously, we're in a very hyperbolic space. People love to throw around big numbers when it comes to gold and silver. Um, do you think silver could eventually hit four digits at some point? And and when you say unimaginable prices, um, what, what do you mean there?
Just try to imagine the fact that, you know, Lynette said four digits. If, if the bullion banks and the big eight shorts like you decided to put turned off their computers and not do anything, okay, and not short go short anybody that wanted to go long. There would be nobody to go short against, uh, to sell a long to the shorts. And the shorts would have to bid the price up to some unimaginable price before somebody would prepare to go short against them. You know, she's not wrong, but the thing is that a four-digit silver price would bankrupt just about the entire financial system that's short silver. You know, the US bullion banks, the foreign bullion banks, they just can't allow that to happen. Um, even a three-digit silver price is going to are going to put a lot of trading houses and small traders and even large financial institutions, uh, in insolvency immediately. Look what happened to Bear Stearns back in 2008. As Ted Butler pointed out way back then, [clears throat] the reason that Bear Stearns went under, not because of their mortgage-backed securities and all the garbage they were holding in the in the real estate market, but they were, they was a $2 billion margin call in silver and gold they could not meet and, um, they refused, the, uh, Fed refused to save them. So JP Morgan was forced to was coerced into taking over their short positions way back then. So if you can imagine if silver price, what I don't even know what the silver price went to $30 to $40 or something like that, or 40 to 45, it was like a $10 move in silver and I don't know how much it was in gold, you like three or $400, it was a big move percentage-wise and that caused $2 billion worth of margin call. The just take a look at Friday, silver was up seven or eight, the margin call that and gold was up, how much was it? Three-digit number of some, the margin call that went out to all the players there would have would have certainly put some people in the red in big time. And if they let the price run to say a hundred or $200, I mean, the margin calls, nobody could meet them because they just don't have the cash laying around because it's money they have to put up upfront right away. The CME Group takes it straight out of their account and if their account and if they don't have the money there, they liquidate their position into a market that's basically no ask. So, you know, a hyper spike in prices like that is theoretically possible, but the financial damage to the world's financial system would be just incalculable.
The sponsor of today's episode is Arc Silver, Gold, Osmium. Owner Ian Everard is praised even by his competitors as one of the most honest and level-headed bullion dealers in the [music] United States. They have some great prices. You can see some of them displayed right now on screen. You can take advantage of these specials today by reaching out to Ian at 307-264-9441 [music] or by email at ian@arcsggo.com. Make sure to tell him, of course, that Commodity Culture sent you. And now, back to [music] the interview.
Well, as silver soared in that final trading day last week, Elon Musk chimed in on X and said that silver rising so quickly would be bad for all the industries that rely on it. Do you think we could see tech company CEOs like Elon and other companies that rely on silver for their products start to stack silver, keep a silver inventory on hand to hedge further upside in the price?
Yeah, there's that's entirely possible. I mean, um, the fact that there's a silver shortage out there is starting to seep into the, uh, mainstream, uh, mainstream business community now. And, you know, Elon's nobody's fool. And if he can see it, there's a lot of other people that can see it too. And he may decide to take a position, um, uh, in the Comex futures market by going long, which would drive up the price, or he could go to London and pick up some silver there and hope they have it. Okay. Or you can go buy a mining company. Okay. I mean, we are in this situation now where, s, you know, the silver users, the big ones, I think there was a silver miner was in Japan or China or whatever, bought a silver mine or something to go into production to produce silver for them. I can't remember the name of the company, but that's just the thin edge of the wedge. Once this supply demand deficit really hits the wall, then you're going to see these, um, these used, big users, uh, go to any lengths to get the stuff, including, of course, drive the price higher if they can even get the physical silver. But, uh, no, uh, it's impossible to imagine, uh, just, um, how desperately, um, the companies will come get their hands on it. That's slowly, they're slowly coming to the realization and this spike higher that you know, we've been seeing for the last two or three months and ending on Friday, you know, is just, you know, you know, a foreshock of of of what's to come. I mean, it, the impact really hasn't hit, but, um, you know, Elon is absolutely right that, uh, it's not good for, you know, good for the, um, for the users. But most users, as everybody knows, I mean, the computer manufacturer, TV, or whatever, you know, they use a fraction of an ounce in their product. You know, some of the products out there use more than that, but it's a small portion of the product. So, if it goes, if silver goes from $70 to $700, you know, it's going to make not much difference in the price of their product. But there are products out there that use a fair amount of silver and of course, it will affect the price. But the fact of the matter is, it's not the price, it's whether or not they're going to be able to get the stuff or not. And as how this is going to unfold, uh, going forward, I don't know. But, uh, sooner or later, there's going to be a mad panic.
And moving from corporations to governments, you know, we have seen a push from the Trump administration to find domestic sources of critical minerals. Rare earths has been a big one up in the headlines. They did add silver to the critical minerals list. Uh, do you think governments will start to take stakes in perhaps large silver miners? Obviously, we know China produces a ton of silver. The government is definitely involved there as well, as you know, stacking a lot of it as well. We've heard the stories in me of you have discussed about, you know, Chinese representatives in South America buying, uh, silver concentrate. Um, but do you think we could see that in other countries where governments start to get more actively involved as they realize how, how short silver supply is and and how vital it is for for industry and for strategic purposes?
Oh, absolutely 100%. I said in my column a couple of days ago, I said the, the change in silver, the rise in silver price and the structural demand supply deficit and it, copper and a bunch of other things will become a geostrategic problem for nations as a whole. And, you know, the strategic minerals, silver being on the strategic mineral list in the US is just another brick in the wall for the boys who are short the silver market. Okay. I mean, you know, this has been building now for, you know, for the last year or so. And like you said, you know, the, the Chinese companies have been scouring South and Central America for all the, uh, concentrate and and dory they can get their hands on. I'm sure they have long-term contracts with several companies to, uh, to ship it all to them. And like, as you know, they're going to start having an export license in a couple of days. So, no, there's no question about it that when this supply demand deficit hits, whether it be in silver or cobalt or copper or whatever it is, uh, the governments, including the US government, going to be actively and aggressively, uh, seeking out a source of supply, whether it be, you know, buying miners themselves. I think there was a Chinese company just bought a copper deposit in South America someplace, just the other day. [snorts] And, uh, so no, this is, uh, this process is just starting and it's going to accelerate by a huge amount in the weeks and months ahead. There's no question about it.
Well, talk to us about those export controls coming out of China kicking in here in a few days, as you said. Um, what are the details of it as far as you know, and and how much of an impact do you think it could have on restricting silver leaving the country?
Okay, first of all, if you want to export silver, uh, from, uh, China, you need a license. Okay? I don't know whether the, the miners have to get the license, or the refiners, or whoever has to get the license, or the person that wants to export, import it, export it from China, that's going to use it, the end user. I don't know how that exactly works, but all I know is that there's now that wall there where they can, um, you know, they can approve it or disapprove it. How it's going to work, I don't know. Uh, there's just no way of telling. I mean, this thing hasn't started yet. Can they use it? Could China use it as a weapon? Absolutely. I mean, they're already using the rare earths against the United States. So, you know, there's a chance, there's a good chance that they could be, what I call, you know, become a weapon of financial mass destruction if they choose to do so. But, uh, there's no question. I mean, the Chinese are not stupid. They know perfectly well. They know everything that, you know, I know, and everybody listening to this program knows, okay? They know it all. Okay? So do the Russians. So do the Indians. I mean, this is not something that a little group of us silver enthusiasts, uh, you know, are are talking about in a vacuum. I mean, this information is being sucked up worldwide and what we're seeing is a slow, steady response to it, which is about to go parabolic and came close to it on Friday. So, you know, how this is, this licensing system is going to work, a, and b, how soon they're going to use it, I have no idea. The best we can do is just sit here and watch, watch and, you know, blow the, blow the froth off a cold one and just watch and see how this turns out.
I love that. Now, the mainstream press hasn't really been discussing silver very much, despite the fact that it's now up around 140% year to date, obviously massively outperforming the broad market. Is it possible we're still early in this trade? I know you mentioned that prices could go parabolic from here. What signs? First of all, how early do you think we are, given the lack of attention from the mainstream? And secondly, what would the signs be that you would look for that we've entered a mania phase of the silver market?
Okay. Well, to tell you the truth, you know, um, there's been a fair number of stories about silver in the mainstream press just in the last two or three weeks. So, I, you know, I've carried them in my column. I know that they're there and there's far more of it now than there was six months ago, where there was absolutely nothing. Uh, it's, it's amazing, uh, to see that there's any press on it at all. And, you know, it, like I said, it's just another brick in the wall. This thing has been building slowly, slowly, slowly over the last, you know, I've been in this big game now for 25 years, more than 25 years, and it's been slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly building up. And we had a big peak in 2011, another in 2021, but this is the main, this is the main event coming up right now. Okay? We are in, let's see, inning of a ball game. We're probably in the second inning. Maybe we've got a long way to go. The thing is that the third, fourth, and the all the way up to the ninth inning could unfold very quickly. Other words, this thing could go, go supernova very quickly. According to Ted Butler's bonfire of the silver shorts, where he says, you know, the shorts are going to be panicked one day. And they, they, they panicked on Friday and only because the bullion banks and the and the short sellers of last resort came in and and killed the rally like they did on Monday and they're doing again today, right now as we speak. They know that kept this thing from going supernova. So, you know, this thing has a long way to go, but it could unfold very quickly when it does.
Now, I had Gary Savage on the show a few times, and he says there will come a time, and he believes it's in the next few years, and potentially sooner. I believe he would say when it comes to gold and silver, we're more in the later innings, um, getting close to the end, but he thinks that it could go parabolic in those end, in that end phase. And he thinks at that time, you want to get out of the metals completely, physical or otherwise. Now, this is in contrast to a lot of guests on my show. You know, gold and silver bugs tend to be, um, you know, believe that gold and silver is money and that they will hold that money for as long as possible, perhaps hand it down to the next generation and of course, take some profits where it makes sense. But Gary pointed out, hey, in 1980, in 2011, if you didn't sell your whole stack of silver, for example, how long were you waiting for it to come back? You know, an incredible amount of time. So, there will come a time where it's time to get out of this trade and sell and move on to something else. Do you have a similar mentality, or or or are you holding on to your silver and gold for the long run, perhaps taking profits along the way? What's your strategy there?
This time it's different. This is not 1980. I remember I lived through 1980. I bought silver at that time. I made a bunch of money, lost a bunch of money, been there, done that, but don't have the t-shirt. So, I do have big recollection to that. Okay. Was there and did it. The thing is, this time it is totally different. Okay? We are in a structural supply demand deficit. The population of the world has went, has gone from 3 billion or whatever it is people up to 11 billion people. They've suppressed the price of the of silver for the last 50 plus years. The thing is, this supply demand deficit, when it does hit a wall, is not going away. It is not. It will be with us for 5, 10, 15 years. Like, I mean, a hundred million, 100 million ounce deficit. Think about it. The average silver miner, Phil Baker, the CEO of Hecla Mining, said is about 3 to 5 million ounces, you know, and a big one would be 10. So if you had 20 small mines, where's, where's the silver going to come from to fill the supply demand deficit? It isn't there. It isn't in the pipeline. It hasn't been dis, the silver that they need to fill this deficit has yet to be discovered. Okay? I'm about 77 years old and I will not live to see the silver market back in the supply demand balance. Okay, unless there's some sort of, you know, uh, restrictions put on it on its use. So, when silver goes up this time to whatever three-digit number it's going to be, Keith Neumeier has been predicting three-digit silver. He's been right. And let's say it ends up at $500, which is not unreasonable. Okay, $500 for an ounce of silver. It's going to go up there and it's going to stay there. It's the new price. You know, I have a fair amount of physical silver stashed away in in a vault. And I can guarantee you I ain't going to be selling an ounce of it. Okay? It is pure, unadulterated wealth. Silver is money. Gold is money. And I'll be passing it down to my, to my daughter. And, um, I'll sell my shares. There's where I'm going to do. I'm going to wait till this thing really soars and then I'm going to take the money off the table and by selling my shares, buy my physical. I won't sell an ounce.
Very interesting perspective. Now I want to go back to China for a moment, because there's been a massive spread between the Western and Chinese silver markets which recently hit as high as an $11 spread. Why is the Chinese market pricing silver so much higher? And does that price represent a more accurate picture of the silver price in your view?
Well, it's just supply and demand. I mean, they don't have a paper market in China. It's all physical. Uh, the drain out of the, uh, Shanghai Futures Exchange and Shanghai Gold Exchange, uh, is just absolutely enormous. There was 1.3 million taken out of the Shanghai futures exchange today, and there was another million yesterday. So what they're doing is they're trading physical silver and it's, you know, they just can't refine it from good delivery form into retail form fast enough. And so therefore the, the demand is there, so the price goes up. It's as simple as that. There's more demand than there is supply, you know. And, and the other thing that's happened, and, uh, it was in my column this morning, is that the, uh, the difference between the US silver price and the, and the, uh, Chinese silver price is 13.8, 13% over 13% yesterday. It's been going up steadily the last four days in a row and it's only a matter of time before, uh, you know, the US, the paper price catches up. But when you've got these short sellers of last resort, uh, not for-profit sellers, the big eight shorts, whatever you want to call these, uh, commercial traders out there, the banks and investment houses that are desperately trying to keep the price down as long as they're in charge, okay? And they're losing control. It's obvious. I mean, just take a look at the chart. These are desperate. These are desperate times for them. And as, but as long as they're controlling the paper price, uh, we're not going to know what the true price of silver is. And, uh, that's through all of recorded history up until now, we have never known what that is. But I guarantee you before this is all over, we're going to find out.
Now, I want to talk about the silver miners for a moment, because interestingly, they have generally speaking been providing leverage on the silver price. That has all started to change as of right now. I said silver was up around 140% year to date. Um, it's actually 158% as we speak. The SIL ETF year to date is only 159%, just a single percentage point over the price of physical silver. This is a phenomenon that has just started to unfold recently. It seems like the miners have not yet caught up to this massive parabolic, or I don't, some might call it parabolic at this point, but this very rapid rise in the silver price. Do you think there's a, that gap's going to close here? Because it shouldn't the price of silver miners, particularly the ones producing, go up much more considering how much more valuable the product they're producing is?
Okay. Um, this is something that I've been talking about in my column for the last year, okay? And I have the charts in it every Saturday. I have the chart right in front of me right now. I've got my calculator out. Right now, the Huey, the, the gold stocks are outperforming the underlying precious metal gold itself by 2.35 times. Okay? And as you correctly pointed out, okay, the silver shares are just absolutely terrible performance this year. And I'll just tell you what the math is on that right now. They are up 1.14 times the price of silver. That they should be double the price they are now to equal the price of of where the gold shares are versus the gold price. So if you take a look at, I don't know, First Majestic Silver, which is selling for, I don't know what it's selling for, $18 or $17, that should be a $35 or $36 stock right now, if not more, should be up around $40. And the gold stocks should be selling for about 25 to 30% more than they are right now. So, the equities are horribly lacking, especially the silver equities. And I've been moaning about that all year long. And, um, it's, it's, it's, it's just horrible to watch. Like month to date, uh, right now, silver, a month to date, as of yesterday, was up 27%. Okay? Silver stocks are up 11%. Okay? Gold is up 2.7% this month, and the silver stocks are up 4%. So, you know, the gold stocks haven't been setting the world on fire, but, you know, I mean, the silver price itself is outperforming the, the silver stocks by three to one. I mean, you know, this is unheard of before. And I've been, like I said, I've been pissing and moaning about this all year long. And I don't know when it's going to change. You know, I have the impression, and I've said it several times, especially in the last month or so, that there's somebody out there definitely suppressing the price. If you take a look at the, uh, silver stocks, they were way up in the futures market like they were yesterday, Friday, and and all last week, and only to get hammered the moment that the equity markets open at 9:30. This, what happened this morning. So, they had to dig themselves out of a huge hole. There's somebody in there that was like say, that bought all the silver stocks that were being sold on Mon, Friday in a panic, or Monday in a panic, and we're selling them into the market today to suppress the price. It's my opinion that the silver equities are being actively, actively managed right now. But that's like the silver price. One of these days, that's going to change. Uh, but, you know, it hasn't changed all year. But if you're looking for, you know, cheap stocks, the silver stocks are the bargain of the century right now.
And so when approaching the silver mining space, you know, let's say you didn't have a stake in it today, would you be just looking more towards the big names, the producers, your Pan-American Silvers, etc., those type of names? Um, would you be a bit more willing to expose yourself to risk? I mean, I guess this is a combination of what, what your personal approaches and and what you think somebody who's new to the space maybe should approach it. We don't give investment advice here, but I'd just love to get your thoughts on where you're seeing the most value in the silver mining sector at present.
Okay. I'm not an investment advisor, okay? And most people listening to this show are already loaded up on silver stocks and gold stocks, etc. But if you're new, okay? Okay. We're, we're preaching to the choir here, okay? The thing, the thing is this, you know, I've been, I've been buying s, I remember buying, um, First Majestic Silver for like about $3 and Pan-American for about $4. And I bought Sprott Physical Precious Metals when it was 95. Okay. You know, okay, [clears throat] this was way back like 20, 20 years ago. The thing is that today is different. I, I recommend anybody, if I had to do it all over again, okay, start all over, I would have just bought SILJ in the US, okay? And here in Canada, 9point Silver Equities Fund, which is a Canadian silver equities fund that's also available in the US, but I would have bought a general equity fund and just forgot about it because if you're a newbie in this business, even if you've been around a while, it's not, you know, it's not a good idea to rifle shoot a sector like this, which is so highly volatile. You mean Hecla, Cordelane, I own Hecla, Cordelane, Pan-American Silver, First Majestic Silver, and about 20 other silver stocks, you know, some juniors and some exploration companies and stuff like that, you know. But I've been around this, this, this, this business for a while. But if you're a newbie, and even if you're not a newbie, I mean, you could sleep perfectly well at night buying a general purpose, um, silver equity fund, like I said, SILJ or, uh, here in Canada or in the US, you can get 9point Silver Equities. Put your money in there and sleep tight at night. Uh, but like I said, you know, unless you know this market, uh, I wouldn't be buying a single stock.
Yeah, I love that approach. That's actually my approach. I, I've only been in this game for around five years. I stick to the SILJ, Sprott Physical Precious Metals, and the GDXJ, and I just kind of set it and forget it. When it comes to my equity exposure outside the physical metals, I, I think, uh, you know, speculating on single stocks when it comes to the mining business, like you said, you got to have a lot of experience and knowledge to understand how to evaluate these companies. Um, Ed, this has been a fantastic conversation as always. Tell us about Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest.
You know, I'll tell you what. Tell you what, I'm really not looking for new subscribers. You know, as this market has t, this market has taken off in the last six months, I mean, I've just been overwhelmed. Uh, but if they want to look me up, uh, just Google my name, Ed Steer, Ed Steer Gold and Silver. Um, and my website will pop up. There's a tab on there where you can, uh, click on it, get a free sample column, and you can read. That's the kind of information I get, which is very fact-based, okay? There's none of this wild ass speculation that you see on the in the lunatic fringe area. It's all fact-based stuff. And, you know, I spent 15 years learning at the knee of the greatest silver analyst there was, silver analyst Ted Butler. And, uh, I'm his emissary and his disciple. And, uh, um, everything I learned about the silver market, I learned from him. And I'm just trying to pass it along now that he's, uh, passed from our sight.
Fantastic. Amazing mission. Uh, you're one of the most knowledgeable people in the space. Always love chatting with you. I am going to put a link in the description below to your subscription service. Even though you're not looking for new subscribers, maybe we'll get a few extra here. And, uh, I'm looking forward to to circling back at some point in 2026 and continuing the conversation.
Okay. Thanks very much and happy new year to you and to all your listeners.
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