A lot of people are excited by silver's breakout activity over the past two trading sessions. Rightfully so, too. Prices did bust through a critical resistance area left over from the metal's early-summer decline when spot was trimmed by $2.65 an ounce over three weeks.

After the break in gold prices this month, a fair amount of questions popped up ‘round the water cooler about the money flows into and out of the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE Arca: SLV). The queries were prompted by the dissonance between the money flows and share prices in the SPDR Gold Shares Trust (NYSE Arca: GLD) examined in a preceding column (see "Gold's Waning Strength").

Regulators have launched investigations into J.P. Morgan's activities in the silver markets. But is this the proof of silver manipulation we've been looking for?

• How silver has been ‘typecast’
• Is faith in the gold/silver ratio well-placed?
• Using silver to purify water, make clothes less stinky

• Behind correlations between gold, silver and the dollar
• Building a better historical model
• How do you play a gold-silver-dollar spread?

Last week, the CFTC held hearings on position limits for the gold, silver and copper markets. But are more limits really a good idea?

Wanna have some fun today? Got some hours to spare listening to testimony about the possible imposition of federal position limits on the metals futures—gold, silver, copper, mostly?

We write too much about gold, according to some of our readers. "What about silver?" is a plaint we've heard more than once this past week.