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Commodity ETFs to Get a Bernanke Boost: Think Silver

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"There's very little reason to expect anything to change on the precious metals front."

The Street, Gary Gordon - With the Fed standing pat on its ridiculously easy money policy, there's very little reason to expect anything to change on the precious metals front. In the short term, the dollar will continue to weaken and commodity ETFs will garner additional inflows.

That said, traders should begin to consider a near-term possibility of shorting silver via ProShares UltraShort Silver. The historical ratio between silver and gold prices has contracted to 33:1 from 90:1 in about 6 months time.

What's more, even with the Fed's policy, markets tend to anticipate change before it happens; that means, in the very near term, the dollar will get a bit of a bounce and silver will take a bit of a beating.

Of course, the main story Wednesday was that Chairman Bernanke addressed the central bank's monetary policy in a 45-minute Q&A session was the actual headliner.

The "big moment" came when Bernanke expressed that 0% inflation, or even deflation, is every bit as undesirable for a country's economy. With that, the Fed chairman went on to explain how central banks worldwide typically seek 2% year-over-year cost of living increases as a primary target.

Did anyone catch that curveball? Do not trouble yourself with the reality that coffee, corn, copper, silver, coal, cotton. . .well, just about every input into manufacturing is skyrocketing.

Why not? Because the Fed is using "core inflation" as its measure—a measure that excludes food and energy. The 2% inflation target for central banks around the globe reflects the total cost of living and does not exclude food and energy. So why is the Bernanke Fed selling us the "core" concept, except as a means to continue devaluing the U.S. dollar and as a way to decree soaring commodity prices as "transitory?"

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