Like gold, silver has slipped to a near-four-year low in recent months. "Neither of silver's split personalities" will do it much good for now, says Mary de Wet in Barron's.
Silver is used in a wide range of industries, and the tepid global recovery doesn't seem strong enough to give demand a significant fillip. Demand ebbed by 6%in 2014. Supplies, meanwhile, are healthy.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
But on a longer-term view this could be a promising entry point. New medical uses are being discovered for the metal, which should boost demand. A surge in inflation, while unlikely at present, can't be ruled out, given all the recent money printing.
Healthy emerging-market demand for gold should drum up more interest in silver too. Investors should keep gold in their portfolios as insurance and those who can stomach the volatility can play silver as a leveraged bet on the yellow metal. The exchange-traded commodity ETFS Physical Silver (LSE: PHAG) tracks the spot price.
-
Rishi Sunak: We need a cultural change to make people investPodcast On the MoneyWeek Talks podcast, Rishi Sunak tells Kalpana Fitzpatrick that we need better numeracy skills to improve financial literacy and boost the economy.
-
Crypto ETN warning: why adding them to your ISA could be riskyCrypto investors could be exposed to short-term market volatility thanks to HMRC rules if they buy cETNs into a stocks and shares ISA
