Tom Szabo

Silver ETF Bull Market Remains Intact

Eviladam: Silver's use in industry is widespread and much of it is in consumer electronics and jewelry (a cheap substitute for gold when people don't have the money to buy the yellow stuff) which is unlikely to be greatly impacted even in an economic downturn. Contrast that with copper where 40% of its global use is in construction. In addtion, several major silver-lead-zinc projects have already been shuttered in by crashing lead and zinc prices so there may very well be less future supply than the recent projections. And of course investment demand is the wild card which actually appears to be accelerating. For perspective, consider the late 1970's when the global economy wasn't exactly hot either, there were about 1.5 billion ounces of silver in reported stockpiles, and industrial demand was a fraction of today's level; and yet silver was still able to rally to a high around $50 (almost $150 in today's dollars). If you don't like to judge price levels by spike highs, then try a 200 day moving average around $20 (almost $60 in today's dollars). Silver did have the Hunt Brothers back then but today there is SLV, which already has accumulated DOUBLE what the Hunt Brothers achieved at the peak of their stunt. Importantly, SLV is accumulating in an unleveraged manner and shows no signs of being stoppable. If silver does not outdo its 1979-1980 acrobatics this time, it will be for some reason that is currently unfathomable. Those who consider SLV the enemy of the silver investor have absolutely NO IDEA what they are talking about.