Gold, silver surged, but why couldn't they hold on

Towards the end of last month, gold and silver soared to fresh all-time highs. Gold came within a couple of bucks of $5,600 while silver topped above $121 per ounce. The final upside moves were extraordinary, representing unprecedented parabolic blow-off tops, bigger than those that, in hindsight, marked the multi-year peaks in both metals from back in 2011. And this time round, the subsequent reversal was even more horrific. From its new record high, gold fell to a low just above $4,680, a drop of 16% in a day. Never to be outdone, silver gave back 40% of its value over the same few hours. That was on a Friday. On Monday, the pain continued. Gold fell to $4,400, for…