[BigTex]

Anybody have a guess about why platinum is doing worse than silver? I sort of get the bottom falling out of silver, but the platinum thing is harder for me to follow.

It seems like platinum is in many ways superior to both gold and silver. It has lots of industrial uses, including in alternative energy, it makes great jewelry and it is truly scarce. I would understand if it tracked gold in percentage moves, but the recent moves have been way more dramatic.

So why did the bottom fall out? Anyone buying platinum eagles?

[eastbay]

Ya know, I looked at platinum eagles and the $90/oz spread always bothered me a bit. The $20 gold spread is more palatable.

With that said, I suspect we're in a fantastic precious metals buying window which we see drift our way periodically. At these levels it probably doesn't matter which metal you buy.

As far as platinum is concerned, it may be associated with dropping demand from auto manufacturers, but in this weird market, who knows?

[Dreamtwister]

I can't find any articles at the moment, but I would imagine the platinum market is as flooded with paper ounces as gold and silver are at the moment.

[Pretorian]

Dont underestimate the Fed&co. Its their planet after all.

[BigTex]

It will be interesting to see what kind of moves silver and platinum take from here. The big move down, which gold didn't fully participate in, now puts the ratios between gold and silver and gold and platinum in totally different places than they have been for a long time.

I know the ratios don't really mean anything, but this kind of volatility for some PMs and not others is interesting.

[wxman]

Considering the awful state of the auto industry, I guess it isn't surprising that platinum was set up for a fall.



Platinum demand by application in 2006

[JoeW]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', '
')As far as platinum is concerned, it may be associated with dropping demand from auto manufacturers, but in this weird market, who knows?

[BigTex]

For reasons I can't fully explain, I feel drawn to platinum.

I wake up in the middle of the night, sit up in bed, my wife looks at me and says "are you okay?"

I look at her blankly and say "platinum."

I feel like this is a great buying opportunity, but I need to think it through a little more.

It seems like the ultimate PM to me. Way more intrinsically valuable than gold (based on its uses), and way more precious than silver (based on its scarcity).

There is also a lot less of it floating around the world, unlike gold and silver, a lot of which is sitting around in coins and jewelry.

[bobaloo]

I think platinum is a good buy at the moment. While car sales are down in the US the EPA today announced that they are requiring catalytic converters for all lawn mowers, weed eaters, boat motors and ATVs. That's going to require a LOT of platinum.