Contributed Opinion

1. Silver North Resources Ltd. is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports and pays SWR a monthly sponsorship fee between US$4,000 and US$5,000. 
2. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Silver North Resources Ltd. 
3. Rick Mills: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own securities of: Silver North Resources Ltd. and Harvest Gold Corp. My company has a financial relationship with:  Silver North Resources Ltd. and Harvest Gold Corp.  I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.
4. Bob Moriarty: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own securities of:  Silver North Resources Ltd. and Harvest Gold Corp.  My company has a financial relationship with:  Silver North Resources Ltd. and Harvest Gold Corp.  I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.
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Ahead of the Herd Disclosures

Ahead of the Herd newsletter, aheadoftheherd.com, hereafter known as AOTH.
Please read the entire Disclaimer carefully before you use this website or read the newsletter. If you do not agree to all the AOTH/Richard Mills Disclaimer, do not access/read this website/newsletter/article, or any of its pages. By reading/using this AOTH/Richard Mills website/newsletter/article, and whether you actually read this Disclaimer, you are deemed to have accepted it.

Below is an interview by Rick Mills, the editor and publisher of Ahead of the Herd, with Bob Moriarty of 321 Gold.

Rick Mills, Publisher of Ahead of the Herd (RM):

I notice platinum just shattered a long-standing resistance level that's held for ten years. We're consistently discussing acquiring undervalued assets: gold, junior miners, silver, platinum, palladium.

Several factors are currently working in our favor.

Bob Moriarty, Founder of 321gold (BM):

That's beneficial because you're leveraging extensive past knowledge to assess value and you're connecting with the appropriate people and posing the right questions.

I could mention certain individuals, though I won't specify names, but those self-proclaimed gold experts, those self-declared silver gurus of the past three decades have consistently missed the mark on everything and it's bewildering why people follow them, but they do so because these individuals tell audiences what they desire to hear.

We avoid telling people what they want to hear, instead providing what they need to understand. Here's another excellent illustration. We're experiencing a healthy correction in gold, silver and platinum currently, but within about 7-10 days we'll be entering seasonally the strongest period annually for gold. And approximately 40 days from now we'll be entering seasonally the optimal period for silver, so it's advantageous to utilize experience and knowledge to make accurate forecasts.

RM: We're going to offer several more predictions today. I'll present some information for your commentary, and to establish context here, market concentration hasn't reached these levels since the Great Depression.

Let me elaborate slightly. If you had invested $10,000 across the entire S&P in 2015, you'd currently have $25,000. If you had distributed $10,000 across just seven tech stocks, those magnificent seven, you'd now possess $65,000.

This indicates that the market we're witnessing, which we already recognize is in the melt-up phase, is heavily concentrated in merely seven stocks. Its breadth is so restricted that it's creating conditions perfectly suited for catastrophe. We'll demonstrate how the current melt-up transforms into a melt-down.

BM: Absolutely. We've been discussing a market melt-up for weeks and I've maintained that yes, we're experiencing a market melt-up but the next significant movement will be downward and I'm completely confident stating we'll experience some form of disaster between now and October.

Israel has expressed clear intentions to strike Iran again; Iran has clearly indicated they're fully prepared to defend themselves. Trump has adopted a completely militaristic stance regarding Ukraine and Trump's threatening Russia with a deadline, there are genuinely dangerous developments occurring financially as well as geopolitically.

RM: Definitely, we can demonstrate a crash is imminent and I'll explain how it will unfold financially.

Currently, numerous indicators of a speculative market bubble are present. Remember when a reliable sign of a market peak was your hairstylist discussing stocks or taxi drivers sharing investment tips? We've reached that point. Actually, we've surpassed that threshold.

Real Investment Advice published an article about generating wealth through day trading. They're not advocating it; rather, they're highlighting how retail speculation is again dominating the markets. They discuss how "a recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the latest retail gambling vehicle" — these are ODTE, zero days to expiration options, which have seen tremendous growth in popularity.

Retail traders now represent over half of all transactions, beginning with speculative options in 2020 and gaining momentum since then. Bob, this transcends being merely an unusual market statistic. According to RIA, it's a glaring warning of risk-taking behavior, and historical patterns consistently reveal — which validates your point — that markets peak when average investors begin pursuing lottery-like returns.

What's occurred, and continues growing, is a substantial behavioral shift from investing to outright gambling. Consequently, this day-trading speculative enthusiasm is overtaking the market.

It's evident in meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, high-performing tech companies, and it continues building momentum. Now they'll intensify the situation because day-trading restrictions will be completely relaxed under a proposed regulation change.

"The U.S. regulators are finalizing plans and they're going to replace the controversial rule that would lower the threshold for retail investors to trade equities and options more often."

Current regulations limit investors with under $25,000 in margin accounts to trading four times within a five-day period. They plan to eliminate that restriction and reduce the required $25k to $2,000.

Considering developments like these makes you realize that yes, we're experiencing a melt-up, but when retail investors behave this way, it invariably signals serious trouble ahead, Bob.

BM: Let me provide a perfect example. We've discussed the Japanese bond market, the Japanese carry trade and its impact on the U.S. bond market. These are all indicators of extreme danger. What action did China recently take regarding cryptocurrencies? They prohibited them.

RM: Correct.

BM: Well, that's the most dangerous development globally for cryptocurrencies. It resembles Warren Buffett divesting from Bank of America and Apple stock; one of history's most sophisticated investors liquidating literally hundreds of billions worth of stock — that's a significant indicator. When China outlaws cryptocurrencies, they're assessing the situation thinking, "We understand how dangerous that is."

The United States is establishing conditions for an explosion in danger — the risk-return ratio will skyrocket — it's a $4 trillion market. Cryptocurrencies aren't tangible, they're imaginary, they're fictional numbers, you cannot physically hold a bitcoin. It's an imaginary investment but at $4 trillion. If $4T suddenly disappears from the market, numerous people will face complete financial ruin.

RM: That's what everything is building toward. Another concurrent development, besides the retail speculative bubble and its deliberate acceleration, we'll soon discover much about Powell in the coming days, because the Fed meets on the 31st, and according to their own metrics they're already confronting the loosest monetary conditions since '21.

The Chicago Fed's National Financial Conditions index has declined to its lowest point in over three years. This suggests financing throughout the economy is more than sufficient. The index incorporates numerous different metrics and Goldman Sachs' U.S. equivalent index has returned to late-year levels, just marginally above its three-year low.

The conclusion from these two indicators is that despite trade uncertainty and borrowing expenses, the overall economy appears healthy and genuinely has adequate 'financial oxygen' to continue progressing, perhaps even excessively so.

U.S. household deposits total $4.46 trillion, just under $100 billion below the 2020 record peak, and cash-equivalent money-market fund assets reached a record $7.1 trillion, while US stocks continue pushing further into record territory.

Guess what? Retail investors are the primary force driving those stock values, so now they'll receive additional stimulus with lowered margin requirements, and everything ultimately relates to Trump wanting 1% interest rates — not to help more Americans purchase homes, but considering his Big Beautiful Bill and if financing commences at higher interest rates, the U.S. Treasury debt that requires refinancing, he'll face devastating consequences, so he wants Powell to reduce rates. We'll soon discover whether Powell possesses sufficient fortitude to maintain course, as rates cannot be reduced currently.

Obviously, lower interest rates would further fuel the retail speculative gambling bubble. Reducing rates would intensify a speculative bubble far beyond what's already been initiated and is being deliberately accelerated.

It will eventually happen because Powell will be replaced in May, but all this merely adds fuel to that speculative retail environment, and we understand what occurs when these conditions approach their limit as they are now — a market crash is inevitable, there's simply no preventing it.

BM: We've addressed this numerous times, the United States is experiencing imperial decline.

A Bottom of Juniors

RM: Precisely, but let's outline broadly what we initiated several months ago. We identified the bottom for junior miners, and indicated we would begin purchasing stocks in the market and participating in private placements because they were inexpensive based on market capitalization and raising capital for drilling operations.

It appears we've performed quite well. All those stocks have now commenced drilling, they were appreciating beforehand and now show significant gains based on visual indicators and some preliminary results. I believe we're well-positioned in that sector, but now another wave of stocks we helped finance and recommended to readers, like Harvest Gold Corp. (HVG:TSX.V) and Silver North Resources Ltd. (SNAG:TSX.V; TARSF: OTCQB), have successfully raised funds, identified targets and will soon begin drilling, both commencing very shortly.

I believe we should focus attention on some of these stocks. Let me provide brief updates: Harvest Gold primarily employs a greenfields approach across several projects — two haven't been thoroughly examined previously, that's changing soon, and their Mosseau project contains gold with numerous high-quality drill targets developed in both central and northern sections of this greenstone property.

SNAG is drilling into their silver discoveries in the Keno silver district adjacent to Hecla. Silver North represents a pure silver opportunity where the team has already made several discoveries, documented substantial silver ounces and I believe is progressing toward defining another Keno silver deposit.

I'm quite pleased seeing these two companies entering the field and commencing drilling operations.

BM: Two elements are essential for actually receiving rewards when purchasing stocks. First, and you understand how crucial I consider this, you want to acquire assets when they're undervalued, but you also want to invest in companies undertaking activities that create meaningful progress, and both these companies are drilling in favorable locations with competent management.

They have financial resources, representing the ideal circumstances because we're experiencing an obvious bull market, we discussed these stocks when they were undervalued, and they'll soon release results. Will every company we've mentioned produce excellent results? Probably not, but some certainly will.

Unavoidable Risks

RM: You must protect yourself by distributing risk across several investments, similar to our previous popcorn seed analogy, correct? Some will pop, compensating for those that don't. Those unsuccessful ones will reassess, reconsider strategies and attempt again.

That's the reality of the junior sector — unavoidable risks exist, perfection isn't achievable — but successful investments, rather than day trading, allow companies to operate and produce results, which generates substantial returns.

Major mining companies are reporting unprecedented income levels, their financial performance this year exceeds anything I've previously observed. When technology stocks eventually collapse, which they will, the destination for that capital is obvious. We haven't yet witnessed significant capital flowing into the junior resource sector because it hasn't substantially entered the major companies yet.

They're generating considerable cash, maintaining excellent margins, and investors will begin recognizing this, along with attractive dividends they're offering. Teck recently announced a 12.5-cent dividend. The timing is perfect, creating ideal conditions.

I'll recommend Adam Hamilton, who produces an excellent weekly newsletter. I receive complimentary access to his content, but his freely available material, not to mention what's available for a modest monthly fee, provides outstanding information. Last week he wrote about 'Gold stocks priming to run' and I firmly believe anyone involved in the gold sector who isn't reading Adam's Zeal Speculator publication should be.

He stated "the gold miner stocks are priming to run, nearing their next major surge higher, they've proven quite resilient this summer" — which is accurate — "through gold's weakest time of the year seasonally. They're about to report their best quarterly results ever by far, they remain very undervalued relative to prevailing gold price and gold is heading into its strong autumn rally season. All this convergence ought to fuel increasing gold stock buying." I can't identify any flaws in that assessment.

BM: We've been featuring Adam's work for years, probably two decades every Friday and he provides significantly more valuable information freely than most newsletter publishers who charge for their content.

Stock Market Crash and Junior Miners

AT: I have a question, when discussing the impending stock market crash, what impact if any will that have on junior miners? We have numerous companies currently drilling, with results emerging simultaneously with Bob's predicted market crash, so what effect will that produce on junior miners, is that concerning?

BM: Here's the situation. Only one individual I know comprehends it, that Swiss doctor residing in Thailand. Capital always requires destination and the reason junior miners and gold shares declined is because everything flowed into cryptocurrency and the stock market. Capital will exit the stock market and cryptocurrency, requiring new destinations.

Rick Rule provided the perfect analogy. He noted the average resource stock weighting is 3% but currently it's half a percent so I'm completely comfortable owning resource stocks; any decline would prove temporary.

RM: Examining historical precedent through crash charts, you observe the junior miners, our focus, getting discarded indiscriminately. Both junior miners and broader markets crash, but reviewing charts reveals that barely two weeks post-crash you begin observing recovery in gold and silver sectors, typically providing exceptional buying opportunities.

I become selective, potentially acquiring more positions in companies I already hold that haven't appreciated significantly, and I enjoy purchasing stocks that have performed well but I hadn't previously invested in, they succeeded once and will likely repeat.