Begin with what we know:

• Death and taxes.

• Political influence affects almost everything including most markets and much of the economy.

• MSM news is NOT a reliable source of information upon which to make decisions regarding silver investments.

• Certain very large financial institutions regularly supply trusted employees to fill important positions in the US government, such as Secretary of the Treasury. If those same institutions are active in the silver markets, we can reliably assume they have the "inside track."

• Similarly, when those large financial institutions issue a news release or recommendation regarding silver, we can assume they have an agenda and investment that will benefit from the market response to their "news release." We should also assume that, in some way, they are lining up the "sheep to be sheared."

• Whether you call it criminal behavior, manipulation, or merely business as usual, the silver market is strongly affected, from time to time, by large interests with an opaque agenda that usually conflicts with that of the small silver investor.

It is a dangerous world!

The number 12 is important in nature, human anatomy, and mathematics:

• 12 months in the year
• 12 apostles
• 12 signs in the zodiac
• 12 cranial nerve pairs emerge from the human brain
• 12 is the sum of the first 5 Fibonacci numbers (1,1,2,3,5)
• 12 is the sum of the sides of a right triangle (3,4,5)

and

• Further, 12 words can tell us much about the silver market.

Really? Okay, it is a bit contrived, but consider:

• You can't win! These three words tell you that large financial institutions can and do overwhelm the silver market, on a short term basis, anytime they want to. Yes, you can "win" with long-term investments, such as buying silver at $6 a decade ago and selling at $40 in April 2011, but it is much tougher in the paper markets.

• The fix is in! These four words should remind us of the institutions that provide the employees for the Department of Treasury. TAARP cost $700,000,000,000 and helped the banks, large financial institutions, and who else? The Federal Reserve is a private bank that helps the banking cartel remain profitable. As a reasonable guess, the Fed would not like to see gold or silver, as measured in US dollars, at high prices or rising rapidly. Ultimately, the Fed must continue printing digital currency (monetizing bonds - injecting liquidity) and that guarantees prices for most consumer goods will rise along with the price of silver. Do you remember five cent coffee, 15 cent gasoline, and $20 gold?

• You must play the game! Those five words (twelve in total) tell us that if we use paper investments and digital currency we are involved in the "game." This is especially true if we buy paper silver on the futures markets or paper promises from the large financial institutions. Even your bank account is no longer "your money" but a liability of the bank.

Those twelve words describe the problems, for the average investor, with the paper silver market. You win by NOT playing the paper game, and by placing some of your savings and investments into real, physical silver and gold.

Summary

You can't (generally speaking) win if you play the paper silver game. Large institutions have the "inside track" with the government, the regulators, lobbyists, congress, CFTC, margin requirements, and the High Frequency Trading computers that account for most of the actual volume on the paper market. You might "win" for a while, but don't forget the paper disasters from recent history: MFGlobal, Cyprus banks, the May 2011 silver crash, the April 2013 silver takedown, and the June 2013 silver smackdown.

You buy insurance to protect against unlikely but possible destruction of your assets. Have you purchased silver or gold insurance against the all but inevitable destruction of your paper assets? Do you feel safer and more protected knowing that your silver and gold is physical, not paper, and stored in a secure, off-site, out of the banking system, depository?

Or, are you still waiting to act? Like, what could go wrong? It's all good, right?

Read: Back to Basics - Gold, Silver & the Economy
Read: Silver - Keep It Simple - Part 2