Monday 2:10 am, silver futures surged to a multi-year high of $49.82 per ounce and after nine hours later, in the US stock market trading ,the May Silver contract was down 8 % and before midnight Monday, futures touched a low $44.61, correcting 10.5%. On tuesday, silver has recovered a bit and closed at $45.06.

Regardless, this veritable "Flash Crash" in silver should serve as a reminder, especially to the retail investors jumping in now, of the volatility that is possible with commodities. It may also be the sign of a top in the best trade since shorting the housing market, traders said.

“There was no fundamental cause for the pullback, because there was no real fundamental cause for the 30 percent rally in a month,” said Dan Nathan of RiskReversal.com. “We know how this ends. That was a blow-off top.”

Silver was below $10 in 2009, so a move above $50 would represent a more than fivefold increase. Silver has been outpacing its precious peer, gold, as hedge funds have looked elsewhere for a metal with a similar "store of value" quality while the Federal Reserve devalues the dollar through its easy money policy. Silver coin advertisements may soon start to rival the gold advertisements on TV.

“Absolutely this serves as a warning that ‘buyers should beware’ in any market that makes stratospheric or parabolic moves, especially when trading leveraged positions,” said John Person, president of Nationalfutures.com and co-author of the Commodity Trader’s Almanac.

Speaking of leverage, CME and the Shanghai Gold Exchange raised margins on silver Monday, making it more expensive to borrow and buy the metal. Some traders blamed this margin increase for the fall. Others said jitters before the Federal Reserve’s policy statement Wednesday or simple technical reasons were the culprit for the 23-hour plunge.

“Using spot silver as a guide, we have looked for a test of the 1980 high near $49-50,” Mary Ann Bartels, head of U.S. technical and market analysis at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research, said in a note to clients.

“With the sharp downside reversal off this high, the risk is for a near-term buying climax for silver," she said. "While the longer-term pattern is bullish, shorter-term backing and filling is not ruled out and we would considered this a buying opportunity for silver.”