this has actually been going on for over a year. there are now four principal parties that essentially control the short term price of silver. no one knows who they are, but its a good bet they are familiar names (think banking families)
these people could make SERIOUS cash simply by manipulating the short term price, then shorting if they expect it to fall or buying if they expect it to rise.
from wiki
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The CFTC publishes a weekly Commitment of Traders Report which shows that the four or fewer largest traders are holding 90% of all short silver contracts. This level of concentration is unprecedented in any commodity and should arouse suspicion. Furthermore, these four or fewer traders are short a total of 245 million ounces (as of April 2007), which is equivalent to 140 days of production. [6]