It’s an odd feeling for me to be bullish on something and to keep reading about how The Top Is In, but the “thing” just keeps going up. I’m referring, of course, to precious metals, about which I’ve been blatantly bullish (particularly on my Tasty trade segment).

The shoe is truly on the other foot for someone like me to own a bunch of stuff at a low price, believe in its long-term uptrend, and respond to all the cries of a “top!!” with “OK, whatever.” It must be what it’s felt like to be a stock bull since 2009.

Gold zipped higher on an otherwise quiet holiday weekend…

And silver, the poor man’s gold, is doing even better.

See, what I’ve realized isn’t that I’m not obsessed with stocks going down. I’m obsessed with the failure of central bankers. And that’s precisely why I am completely comfortable and enthusiastic being a permabull about precious metals, because not only are they doing great, but they are gathering together to form the earth’s largest, shiniest, metallic middle finger pointed directly at all the central bankers of the world.

Of course, just like people like me have been lashing out at every push up in stocks, the moment I tweeted something positive about metals during the rally, I got this response:

I’m not sure what modest downtick is being referenced, but “all” the gains were not gone. So, as for precious metals – – God bless ’em, and may they simply keep lurching higher evermore. And if between July 4 and 5 they weaken a bit, I say again: whatever.

As a side note, I’ve got to say something of no interest to anyone: it’s about fencing tournaments. Fencing is very much a kid sport, and most of these events are populated with children from about 10 to 18, as well as their parents.

At national events, though, such as the one I’m at right now, all the adult fencers come out too. However, I’ve noticed an enormous difference in these two groups, and I’m not referring to their age.

If you were, for some reason, mounting an army, I don’t think there’s a better pool from which to draw than the kids here. They are, from pre-teens through college, the sharpest, smartest, most athletic, and dedicated humans you might hope to find. These are people you would want on your side. They’re terrific, and I’m delighted my own kids are a part of this clan. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Mark Zuckerberg was a fencer in high school.

The adults, though, bless their hearts, have got to be some of the weirdest freakin’ people roaming the earth. It’s like walking into a D&D convention. The men are these funky old farts who talk way too much, and the women tend to be lesbians with really short hair, some of them morbidly obese. It’s a freak show.

I suspect the vast, vast majority of young fencers never return to the sport, and I further suspect the older fencers get into it as beginners when they’re well into their middle aged years, having at last found something that doesn’t require raw brute strength to succeed. Funky old farts and fat lesbians can actually make the medals podium in fencing.

In other words, I don’t think anything “happens” to the muscular, trim young fencers that turns them into these garish freaks, but I couldn’t help at least mentioning in the hallowed walls of Slope that this, like so many other pointless subjects, is on my mind.

Have a good holiday. God bless America.