Silver and China are coming full circle. In the mid-1930s the academic journal Foreign Affairs noted how "the world was startled by the news that China had abandoned the silver standard" after foreign miners began dumping surplus metal into China.

Seventy-eight years later, this coming Thursday, the Shanghai Futures Exchange begins trading silver contracts. China Daily noted there had been an absence of silver trading ability in China and -- significantly -- it would make the market more liquid.

The silver buffs jumped on that one, predicting the end of big Western speculators manipulating the price, which so many of them believe has been occurring.

However, silver still tends to behave as it did more than 80 years ago. That Foreign Affairs article noted "the ups and downs of silver have been more marked than those of any other commodity." Same now. China Daily noted "the price of silver has long been volatile," recalling last year it dropped 13 per cent in a single session.