This technical move comes as silver has just experienced a historic rally. On Monday, silver crossed the symbolic threshold of $80 an ounce for the first time, climbing as high as $84. Then the metal fell, down 11.7% currently, dragging the entire precious metals complex lower after they, too, had hit highs.

Note that the increase in margins required to trade CME contracts mainly widens the gap between paper metal and physical metal, for which supply (controlled largely by China) remains tight (very low inventories).

This correction was compounded by jitters fueled by the flow of information on social networks, notably a post by Elon Musk mentioning new Chinese restrictions on silver exports.