01/23/26 Afternoon CommStock Report – More about the Metal Mania

New metal price highs were being recorded once again to close the week. Gold, silver, platinum, and copper seem to have bullish inputs from all sides considering the flows of buying interest coming from central banks, institutional funds and swap dealers, private wealth offices, retail traders and commercial end users. Metal bulls have their reasons, whether it is a long play based on inflation and currency expectations, safe-haven demand driven from geopolitical tension, industrial rationing for use in hot-topic applications like electric vehicles and artificial intelligence, or for speculative gaming around short squeezes and the physical delivery market. Traders are left to weigh long-term metal price expectations against the potential for extreme volatility in the short-run, projecting not only how high metal prices could reach, but also how far prices could fall while still remaining within the current cycle.   The CME just this month changed its silver margin rates to a higher floating percentage set at 9 percent. Notional value of the 5,000 ounce silver contract trading at $100 per ounce is $500,000, which will factor into a minimum silver futures margin requirement near $45,000 and higher based on individual risk assessments. Since the start of the month, the…