Gold shines, but silver is the moneymaker
Silver has been a better hunting ground for speculative profits than gold this year. A big reason is how much cheaper it is for a speculator to get into the metal.
The short answer is uncertainty. Uncertainty about European debt problems. Uncertainty about the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations and the health of the U.S. economy. Uncertainty about the health of European banks and even U.S. banks. Uncertainty about how serious China is about reining inflation.
But there's an additional very good reason silver moved 3.3% Monday, to $40.34, while gold was up only 0.9% to $1,600.
You can get a lot more silver for $1,602 -- nearly 40 1-ounce silver bars.
That's why silver has been much more volatile in the past few years and why volume in silver trading has exploded and why the metal is likely to remain volatile for some time.
Volume in the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) exchange-traded fund has averaged 44.7 million shares in each of the last six session, a third higher than the daily volume for the ETF in June.
The daily volume in the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) exchange-traded fund was just 21 million shares in the last six days. Admittedly, the volume jumped 57% from the June average.
And because silver is so much cheaper than gold -- at least on a nominal basis -- you could make a lot more money on silver than on gold.
Between the end of 1999 and 2008, gold jumped from about $290 an ounce to $884, a gain of some 245%. Silver moved from $5.41 an ounce to $11.27, a gain of 145%. Gold clearly was the better buy. Since the end of 2008 to now, gold is up 81%; silver is up nearly 120%.
So far in 2011, gold is up 12.7%, but silver is up 30.4%. So far this month, with talk about Greek debt default and its effect on other members of the European Union and the debt ceiling, gold is up 6.6%; silver if 15.8%.
If margin requirements for silver had not been boosted substantially, silver silver would be up a lot more. We know this because the silver ETF was up 56.6% for the year on April 28. After the margin requirement took effect, the silver ETf fell back to as low as $33. The ETF's return fell to as little as 9%. It's back up to 31%.
The gold ETF is up 13% for the year.
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ezwipe3, the article is stating the facts, (with a couple math mistakes) your response states nothing except you don't have a clue. Let me enlighten you...
Silver has always been a precious metal, like gold, for at least 6,000 years. Gold and silver was our money until the Federal reserve Dollar was taken off the gold standard in the 70's.
The dollar you have in your pocket is not a US dollar, it is a Federal Reserve note, and the Fed isn't Federal, they are 12 private banks... we do not own our own money, just like Spain, they use the Euro.
We are running out of silver, in 10 years they figure silver mines will be depleted, even now we use 10 times more than they can mine, as silver is mainly a by-product from most mines.
It's used in almost everything electronic, and because silver kills germs, it is used in medical equipment, and all of US Military underwear.
So collect your rocks, I'll buy silver, and in 10 yrs my silver may be worth as much as $1000 an oz.
Not a word in the article mentioning that silver is:
1) Indispensible for high tech and electronic usage as it is the element most reflective of light and most conductive of heat.
2) Most silver used in such applications is not recoverable (as in gone, no more)
3)There is less above ground silver today than there is gold. (the silver price has been manipulated and held down by collusive bank shorting in the paper markets since the early 1970s. Due to physical demand from Asia, this game will soon come to an end).
As Lyndon Johnson said when the US stripped it's circulating coinage of silver in 1965;
"Silver is much too valuable to be used as money."
Oh, boy - here comes a flood of "geez, you said that a long time ago (when silver was less than five dollars)"! It'll go a lot higher than $40, too. A lot.
The money-cheapening that is the real reason for the big precious metal numbers (it's a question of confidence which to you beleive in most - the value of gold or the [choke] "full faith and credit of the U.S. Government) has already been done. The phony money, in other words, has already been printed (can you say fourteen and a half trillion dollars in "public debt?").
People who know even a little history would rather have an ounce of gold than sixteen hundred of the government funny money dollars, in other words.
Ron Paul says 10,000; odd, but I started saying that in 1996.
As per some analyst Gold could top out at $6000 per oz ( not per pound) and ratio of Gold to silver at 10, Silver could go up to intraday high as much $600 per oz before this decade ends. Compare to all time high Gold before 1990 at $850/oz it is still cheaper at current price.
The simple reason is world leading economy will get ugly from worst before they get better any time soon. 
Google the phrase "invest in silver international" and you'll see a much better article by land of sheep. Very fitting title for all the people with a herd mentality.
Let's see, 80 years ago gold was $36 an ounce and now its $1600 but it's all driven by speculators. Speculators do distort the value of oil, gold, grain and other commodities but it’s not the only factor. Currencies by necessity devalue over time, but this is excessive. People in this country worked for a dollar a day and economists screamed that Henry Ford paying $5.00 would destroy our country.
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[BRIEFING.COM] Equities ended on their lows with the S&P 500 down 1.4%.
The S&P entered today's session with a week-to-date gain of 1.5% as investors expected reassuring words from today's Federal Open Market Committee Statement.
Stocks traded with slim losses until this afternoon's FOMC Statement and subsequent comments from Chairman Bernanke sent equities and Treasuries to their lows while also providing a significant boost to the dollar.
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