@GT55 the problem with the theory you put forward is it is entirely susceptible to a silver bull run isn't it? The retail investors would win in that case even under your theory, and that is the only case I would recommend to buy MKR, if you think silver will significantly increase. As to whether the company had doubt in 2018 about the viability why wouldn't they? They are the "third buyer of the hotel so to speak" as
@goldbear77 put it and silver price in 2018 was unimpressive when you spoke to them. It's been unimpressive for quite a long time and killed many a company.
Technical analysis on gold and silver are nearly pointless because they are manipulated markets. They have been heavily manipulated since USA went completely fiat. Yet even with heavy manipulation the Hunt brothers nearly blew silver up in 1980, as did Buffet in the 90s and as will "we the people" in 2022.
The reason silver is susceptible to being wrung free from their manipulation is it is being used and destroyed by industry whilst at the same time being kept artificially low in price. The pace that it is being used and destroyed is increasing and is off the charts in the last 10 years. They have been "recycling" 150-200M oz of silver per year for over 20 years now to meet demand. And due to heavy price suppression it has exacerbated the supply problem by reducing investment in production.
The problem with experts in the "status quo" is they miss big one-off events as they are experts in the normal. Housing crisis, recessions, cryptocurrency, etc, missed by most experts. When silver moves it will move hard because the reason behind its moving is a systemic, decades long problem that needs to be "market corrected" . Calling the timing off these large one-off events will always be incredibly difficult. It is like David Einhorn thinking there is no way that housing manipulation could go on as long as it did in 2008, the fundamental problem he saw was entirely accurate yet with the manipulation being entwined it is just very difficult to know exactly when the dam is going to break.
