Why You Should Think about Silver*

While gold is the main attraction when it comes to precious metals, silver can be a very sensible and lucrative investment as well. Silver can hold as much intrinsic value as gold, it can be used as a currency and it also has lots of industrial uses.

Silver is prone to more dips and upswings than gold, albeit movements that don’t “cost” or “earn” as much as gold’s! Silver’s particular properties are different to gold’s so it performs differently, which also makes it a good diversification metal.

It has many more industrial, medical and industrial applications than gold and it’s also been used as currency much more than gold has; its mechanisms of supply and demand are also different to those of gold.

If this has piqued your interest in silver, then a visit to this website will give you all the help and advice you need to get started.

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Silver has many more industrial uses than gold
Roughly half of the world’s silver is used in industry, whereas only 12% of our supply of gold is. Silver also has its place in solar panels, batteries, electronic components and biocides – that’s why you see silver in things like sticking plasters.

We’re always finding new applications for silver, too
We keep on discovering new uses and applications for silver, in particular, uses within the solar power industry, which is great because this is a rapidly-growing industry. Industrial silver also tends to be used up or thrown away after its use as it’s too expensive to recover. Over time, this means that the value of this metal will keep on climbing.

Other things to consider
As you can see, the silver market relies heavily on its industrial uses, more so than gold does. This dependency is great when the going’s good and if industries are bullish and investing in research and development. If there’s a global recession, however, then one of the first things to suffer is R&D, which could cause silver to lose value for a while until things pick up again.

The world silver market is much smaller than gold’s
At present, the world’s total silver supply is around 970 million ounces and with an average price of $15 per ounce, the market is worth at maximum $14.5 billion. This isn’t actually a huge amount, especially when you consider the value of some of the world’s biggest companies. It’s also small compared to the gold market cap – 75 million ounces of gold are produced each year, each valued at $1,200 or so. This means a total gold market value of $83 billion.

Silver’s volatility is also a big factor
The relatively small size of the silver market makes it a bit more volatile than the gold market so it can be something of a wild ride. It’s tempting to sell up and cut your losses at your first big fall, but you can be pretty sure that a rise will follow shortly after, so hold on and you’ll see a profit.