Originally published January 14th, 2008.

Silver is at last breaking out of its massive 20-month consolidation pattern. It tried to do this last November, but the attempt was premature and it slumped back into pattern. Now it is expected to succeed and the advance should accelerate noticeably going forward.

The target for the major uptrend now just beginning is the top return line of the channel shown on the 8-year chart. This is obviously a very big move that will result in spectacular gains in silver stocks. This is nice to know because as gold and silver generally top out in unison, we can therefore expect gold to continue to advance until silver hits this top line, although as gold leads silver, it can be expected to slow as it approaches its target, even as silver continues to make strong gains.

There is a major technical development pending in silver that we should watch out for, and that is a breakout from its 20-month consolidation on the Euro chart. Not only will this event confirm the silver breakout on the normal dollar chart (although given what's happening to the dollar this can no longer be regarded as a normal chart), but it will also mark the point where "the afterburners kick in" and silver advance starts to accelerate dramatically.