Montreal, Canada

The Russian have stopped dumping palladium. Combined with rising demand from car manufacturers to supplement expensive platinum in catalytic converters and hedge funds piling into the trade, palladium is now in a bull market. No other metal comes close to outpacing palladium in the precious metals family since October 2009.

From its all-time high in early 2002 at $1,090 an ounce, the spot price crashed to a low of $145 an ounce in 2003 – a spectacular collapse in a short period of time following its nadir. Russia was largely to blame for that washout as she dumped inventories on the open market. But that’s history.

Russia, by the way, was the largest net dumper of raw materials in the mid-1990s as she struggled to raise hard currency amid a collapse in government revenues. Jim Rogers, author and investor extraordinaire and one of my mentors in this business since 1990, clearly depicted this event more than 12 years ago ahead of the commodities bull market.

My Commodity Trend Alert service, or CTA, initially recommended palladium back in 2004 at just $215 an ounce; we’ve since taken profits.

Palladium prices closed at $628 an ounce on Wednesday – up 92% year-over-year – and easily the best-performing precious metal since October 2009. Palladium has rallied 57% in 2010.

Also buoying prices for the once unloved metal is the advent of exchange-traded-funds, or ETFs. Investors have purchased 96,900 ounces of palladium this year; according to NYMEX reports, speculative bets on palladium futures are also near record highs.

Next stop: Palladium $1,000/ounce.