Ironically, the five stanzas of unbridled confidence in the present became the overture to the woeful Great Depression years of the not too distant future. Primary trends are broad movements that usually last 4-6 years. So long as each successive rally reaches a higher level than the one before and each correction stops at a higher level than the one before, the primary trend is up and we are in a bull market. Conversely, when each intermediate decline carries prices to successively lower levels, and each intervening rally fails to exceed the top of the previous rally, the primary trend is down and we are in a bear market. The major advance in the market that started in spring 1995 is an example of a primary trend or bull market.
Investors purchase stocks in order to make money.
The more money the investor makes from a stock, the more that stock was worth when she bought it. There are two ways in which an investor can make money from a stock. One is by collecting dividend payments from the stock. The other is by selling the stock to someone else at a higher price than what one paid for it. Opinions about silver's future run the gamut from complete pessimism to an almost religious optimism.