Pan American Silver is a "go to" name in the silver space—the sort investors would pile into if/when silver breaks out again. There are so few great silver plays, I bought PAAS shares when I became extra bullish on silver this year. I wanted to have at least this poker in the fire while researching smaller companies with more upside potential. Not only that, there seem to be positive political developments in Guatemala, where the company has one of the biggest, highest-grade silver mines in the world on care and Maintenance, awaiting a court ruling on a case against the government more than the company. (And that's not to mention an even larger project on ice in Argentina.) So, big as it is, there's potential for large gains in this stock, if things go the company's way.

That's still my view, but four of the company's 10 mines are in Peru, where politics just took a turn for the worse. I hope nothing bad will happen to Pan American's operations, but the risk is simply too great for me to ignore, so I exited. If the risk blows over and the company still presents a compelling value proposition at that time, I may consider buying shares again.