David Fuller's view I increased my platinum (weekly & daily) long by 50% today, buying another October position at $1776.4, including the $2 spread-bet dealing cost.

I also bought a little more silver (weekly & daily) on a pullback, paying $40.038 for another September position. When this bounced, I protected it with a breakeven stop which was triggered at $40.073. These prices include spread-bet dealing costs of 3¢, for each transaction. These were cautious tactics but the market is a little overbought in the short term.

There is a possibility that some of the recent fear buying in precious metals may exit, resulting in temporary pullbacks. Wall Street is firmer today, as is the euro and markets may be discounting favourable noises from the European Central Bank - ECB Governing Council meeting on Thursday. Also, I assume that there will be some sort of last minute compromise on the US debt ceiling deadline before it expires on 2nd August, although the situation is certainly messy, as you can see in this latest report from Bloomberg. I would regard any pullback in precious metals as a buying opportunity.

Stop Press: Some profit taking in precious metals occurred as Wall Street indices soared over 1.5%. With small key day reversals showing for both gold and silver approximately 90 minutes before the day's official close, I took the precautionary move of taking profits on my leveraged trades. Half of my remaining long positions in September silver were sold at $39.388 and $39.400 against purchases at $39.300 and $38.753, respectively, on 14th July. The remaining half was sold at $39.428 against my purchase at $37.143 on 13th July.

With palladium (weekly & daily), my October long was sold at $792.93 against my purchase at $781.55 on 13th July.

In my discussion of both the fear of events and the love of gold as reasons for buying the yellow metal in last night's Audio, it looks as if we have seen some profit taking from the fear buyers today. As for me, I certainly have a fondness for precious metals but I also tend to trade on the basis of price chart action. I am hoping to buy back slightly lower as the short-term overbought condition is unwound.

Prices above include all spread-bet dealing costs.