Silver: The Last Great Thing - For Now Greg Pinelli posted on: March 02, 2008
Silver, the most volatile substance on Earth aside from volcanos, is about to go parabolic. We've seen some nice gains so far, but silver is always the last horse out of the gate and it's always on steroids. Gold will continue to rise in US Dollar terms because it's the best barometer we have concerning credit/monetary inflation. Silver, however, is where the money will be made in March and April.
Silver has much to recommend it long term - several critical tech applications - and it remains one of the very few affordable hedges against inflation that we'll most certainly face for several years. But it is the short term you need to consider, in part because we are in an investment environment that is demanding and immediate on both the attention and reaction scale.
The two best, and simplest, ways to play silver are through an ETF and a silver developer and current producer. Physical silver is bulky, the markup is too great, and the resale is always - I repeat ALWAYS - marked below spot.
The ETF(s) are PowerShares DB Silver Fund (DBS) and iShares Silver Trust (SLV).
Each has something to recommend it, but either provides the practical investor with two advantages:
1. Either can be traded in seconds from any equity account.
2. Either charges a nominal management fee - much less than you would experience in either the physical buying or selling of silver.
The only - and by far the best - equity I'd suggest is Coeur D'Alene (CDE). It has the best of both worlds, a current productive capacity that is increasing in value as silver increases and development properties that are very near actual production. My minimum take on CDE's Net Asset Value [NAV] is $7.00 - and that is conservative.
Disclosure: Author holds positions in the above-mentioned securities
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
