What a superb performance by silver last week - silver investors really can't ask for better technical action than this, for while it rose a lot on Thursday, the move was not of the silly proportions that would be expected to provoke a significant reaction. In the last update we looked for silver to outperform gold - and it has.

We can examine the fine uptrend in silver in detail on the 1-year chart. There is no sign of weakness here and no reason to sell, except that traders may want to take profits when the price hits the upper return line of the channel, depending on other factors prevailing at the time, and a break of the lower line of the channel will obviously be a sell signal. Otherwise, investors should stay long.

The remarkable strength of the advance on Thursday - which was a breakout, not a blowoff move - signals that the uptrend may well be set to accelerate, and thus, it may not make sense for traders to automatically sell silver when the price contacts the upper return line of the channel, as there is a good chance that it will break above it and arc higher, possibly entering a period of near vertical ascent.

The increasingly large gap between the 50 and 200-day moving averages reminds us that no uptrend lasts for ever, and we should continue to keep an eye on this gap whatever happens, as it's usually a big help in deciding when to hit the exits.