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Q: Hi Bill - Is the short position in Wesdome large enough to fuel a short-covering rally? Do you believe the shorts in the stock are close to capitulation? Seems like such a boneheaded short to me.

Fleck: Yes, if the data is accurate, it is huge.

I have no idea. There is never any way to tell.

Q: Love to see gold miners move like this, finally!

Fleck: Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Q: I suppose you might take a quick trip to undo the jinx,

Fleck: If I knew it would work, I would.

Q: Hi Bill,

Larry McDonald talks about his new book on inflation and commodities.

Larry McDonald

Thanks for your service.

Fleck: OK, thanks. I imagine his rationale will be pretty familiar to readers of my stuff.

Q: Hi Bill, This isn't a question for you, since I know you don't offer tax advice or follow the IRS details for PFICs, but since you probably have many astute investors who won PFICs in taxable accounts I'm hoping someone knows how to handle this.

Usually each year the earnings and capital gains for the Sprott PFICs like PHYS, PSLV and CEF are zero. This year there was a capital gain for PHYS, which amounted to nearly $1,000 in my case. I filled out the 8621, but now I'm not sure how to enter the gain into TurboTax. Do I just enter it like it was a stock sale and the cost basis was zero?

I'd really appreciate it if any of your readers know.

Fleck: I don't normally like to use Ask Fleck as a message board, but in this case I'll post the question.

Q: While it is not perhaps as macro as “The End Game” should be, the Williams-Beatty-Fleckenstein congress might offer—at least for me—some useful reality to world events. Personally, I can’t get my mind around the macro cross-currents: debt, liquidity, government spending, de globalization, increasing wars and international tension, the passive investing trend, unreliable government data, etc. The list goes on.

And, PM mining is being killed by a lack of investment. While very smart and experienced people are talking about what should be happening, stock market new highs are belittling their models. So, I’ve somewhat given up on macro predictions; instead, I find myself wondering how hard-headed folks like Beatty are weathering it and also preparing for a change—that doesn’t seem to happen.

Mike Green is as good as they get. The guy reads, thinks deeply and cogently about the macro. His FIG fund is barely treading water over the last year. Greenlight Capital has completely changed their model to focus on yield—not about capital appreciation. I’m trying to figure out how to survive in a world which makes no sense to me.

Fleck: It isn't easy to get one's head around all the moving parts, so I try to cover all the ones that may matter to me (and readers) over time so folks are aware of them.

You are wrong about mining. It's been killed by lack of interest as much as anything. As for the stock market, models are useless. It's mostly about passive and the Fed.

Also, you have mischaracterized Einhorn's approach. You are partially correct, but not quite. He wants appreciation, but has changed what he thinks he needs in order to get it.

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