If PMs start running again, remember 2011.

Silver didn’t just “cool off” in 2011. It was kneecapped.

From March 1 to April 29, silver surged from about $34.43 to $48.70 per ounce, a 41% increase in under two months. Physical demand was exploding, retail was charging in, and momentum was white-hot. For a moment, it looked like silver was going to rip the lid off a decades-long suppression.

Then the CME Group stepped in.

They raised margin requirements five times in nine trading days. The final hike on May 5 meant traders had to post 84% more cash than they did just two weeks earlier. That’s not risk management. That’s sabotage.

The result? A 13% drop on May 2 alone, followed by a nosedive to around $34 per ounce by May 5. In just six days, silver lost 30% of its value. Billions evaporated, retail got slaughtered, and the big shorts, like JPMorgan, walked away untouched.

Trading volume during this period was enormous. In 2010, COMEX silver futures were already churning 254 million ounces per day, and volume only climbed as the frenzy peaked. But none of that mattered. Fundamentals were irrelevant. Price discovery was a joke.

And when the CFTC investigated the collapse? They spent five years and found “nothing.” The foxes assured us the henhouse was secure.

This wasn’t a bubble popping. It was a market returning to its cage. The silver market is a controlled environment where price is permitted to rise, until it threatens the system that needs it suppressed.

So when silver runs again, and it will, expect the same playbook. Margin hikes. Media fear porn. Maybe even regulatory “concerns.” But don’t forget: that’s not the market breaking.

That’s the system doing its job.