I want to start by saying that I love to CRH and stack silver. I also want the price of silver and gold to rise at least as much as the rest of my fellow CRH'ers do. With that being said, I think the price of silver and gold is going to continue to slide for the next couple of years or at least until we hit another recession. If you read any of the hundreds of gold/silver bug websites they are all making claims that silver and gold prices are on the brink of going through the roof. They do this because they make money through the sale of gold and silver. If you read what the real analysts are saying then you will see that the prediction is that gold and silver is expected to continue to drop for the next couple of years.
The reasons that led to the massive rise in gold and silver were the great recession, massive unemployment, collapse of the housing market, the huge stimulus program of the US government, too much borrowing by the U.S. governemnt leading to a lack of faith in U.S. treasuries, the inability of U.S. politicians to even begin addressing the defecit, etc, etc.
Since that time, many of these conditions have slowed down or begun to reverse. The recession is over, unemployment is getting better, stocks have rebounded, the housing market has rebounded, the stimulus has been discontinued, not to mention many of the huge bailouts actually led to profits for the U.S. government, there has been no large increase in inflation, international demand for U.S. treasuries has not slowed, and though there is still much work to be done on the defecit, the politicians have actually begun to address it through sequestration, ending unemployment extensions, cutting medicare, etc.
I think that the silver and gold spot prices will increase, but I do not think we are going to see even $30 per ounce any time soon. In the near term, I think we are going to continue to see prices in the same trading range they have been for the last year or so or lower. We won't see a huge run up in prices again until some of the aforementioned indicators start looking really bad again or until we get hit with another recession. Again, I'm not a financial guy or anything like that. This is just my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own.