Monday, October 13th is Columbus Day. This is a federal holiday the government would honor if it was not shut down. Although the stock market is open, most banks will be closed in its observance.

It will be important to watch the opening of the Asian financial markets on Sunday night. Gold and silver are breaking out from its manipulation by banks and the London metal exchange: gold has become the reserve currency as the USD collapses and silver is exploding for multiple reasons.

We should be focusing on the price of silver. According to Grok, US banks have lost $15 billion so far at a price of $50.33 an ounce. Here is Grok’s evaluation if silver shorts are called:

If all silver shorts (primarily in futures contracts on exchanges like COMEX) are forced to cover—meaning longs demand physical delivery—and there’s insufficient physical silver available, the shorts would first attempt to acquire silver in the open market to fulfill obligations, driving prices sharply upward in a classic short squeeze. If they still cannot deliver (e.g., due to genuine shortages), delivery failures occur: the exchange enforces cash settlements where shorts pay longs the difference between the contract price and the elevated market price, plus any assessed damages. This results in massive financial losses for shorts, potential penalties from the exchange for unexcused failures, and possible escalation to default proceedings against the short’s clearing member or broker. In extreme cases, the exchange could declare force majeure or intervene with emergency rules to stabilize the market, but physical delivery isn’t guaranteed—focus shifts to financial resolution.

This will be a three day holiday to watch as banks will be closed but the market will be open. If the silver market cannot stabilize and/or certain stocks are impacted, force majeure could be called and those stocks halted for trade. Let’s see if the banks will be successful today in manipulating the price of gold and silver down. Based on the wild swings in the price of gold already today, the next few days will be interesting.