While gold started 2024 on a strong note, having hit all-time highs late in 2023, its performance since then has been even more impressive. It seems that just about every week there’s something new to celebrate.
So far this year gold has recorded gains of over 10%, and there’s no telling how much higher it could go. It broke through the $2,100 barrier, then $2,200, and is now breaking through $2,300 an ounce.
Gold seems now to have busted all the year-end predictions made by most precious metals analysts, and with the prospect of rate cuts in the future, the growth case for gold could even get stronger. But while gold is getting a lot of attention, what’s happening with silver?
While silver is still far from its all-time highs, recent price moves have it moving in tandem with gold, showing how both major precious metals tend to move together during bull markets. And with silver now starting to jump, could silver too reach an all-time high this year?
Silver vs. Gold
One of the interesting aspects of silver versus gold is that when both metals start to move in tandem, silver very often rises higher percentagewise than gold does. This year the gold price has risen just under 11% while the silver price has risen over 14%.
Silver’s recent percentagewise daily gains have surpassed those of gold too. On Tuesday, for instance, the gold price only increased 30 times as much as silver, even though gold is nearly 90 times more valuable than silver.
That could be good news for the gold/silver ratio, which is currently in the high 80s and has been historically high for years. During the last bull market, the gold/silver ratio tended to stay in the 40s, and even dipped as low as the low 30s at one point.
If the gold/silver ratio were to revert to those levels again, silver could push to over $50 an ounce and set new all-time highs. Could that happen this year, or even in the coming years?
What’s Going for Silver
One of the factors playing into rising silver prices is the fact that silver has been in a deficit the past several years, meaning that silver demand is outstripping silver supply. With the potential for greater silver demand in the future, both from investment demand and the solar industry, that supply imbalance could grow.
The only equilibrating factor is the potential for greater silver recycling, as rising silver prices are likely to get a lot of people to clean out Grandma’s old tarnished silverware, old silver coins, etc. Whether that’s enough to counteract greater silver demand, however, would remain to be seen.
With gold now pulling silver along, it appears that we’ve reverted to patterns of old, in a way that’s strangely reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Back then, both gold and silver often moved in tandem, both up and down, before gold really began its bull run.
Then silver began to catch up, with gold hitting all-time highs and silver nearly hitting all-time highs. But silver’s overall price growth from its 2008 lows surpassed that of gold, more than quintupling in price while gold only nearly tripled.
The way gold and silver prices are moving right now, it almost seems as though we could be seeing a repeat of 2008. And if this pattern continues for the next few years as it did in the 2008-2011 bull market, we could very well see silver push towards new all-time highs.
How to Take Advantage of Silver
While many people rush to gold as a safe haven asset, many tend to ignore silver. But silver can offer many of the same benefits as gold, and you can acquire silver in the same ways that you can acquire gold.
Direct cash purchases of silver are of course popular, particularly when it comes to older classic silver coins like US junk silver or Morgan silver dollars. But many modern silver bullion coins from the US Mint, Perth Mint, UK Royal Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, etc. are becoming more and more popular for those looking to add silver to their portfolios.
These modern silver coins also have the advantage that they are eligible for acquisition by silver IRAs. A silver IRA is an IRA just like any other, only that it owns physical silver coins or silver bars.
The silver coins and bars a silver IRA acquires have to have a minimum fineness of .999 (99.9% silver), a standard that most modern silver bullion coins meet or exceed. And when you take a distribution from a silver IRA, you can take that distribution either in cash or in physical silver.
One popular method of funding a silver IRA is through a rollover, such as a 401(k) to silver IRA rollover. You can roll over or transfer funds from a 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA, or similar account into a silver IRA tax-free, which enables you to build up your silver IRA with existing assets without having to take a distribution and corresponding tax hit.
With the silver price poised to potentially set new all-time highs, now is the time to start thinking about adding silver to your portfolio. If silver performs as well during the next recession as it did after the 2008 financial crisis, silver could be the sleeper hit that everyone has been looking for.
Don’t let your hard-earned assets remain vulnerable to recession if you don’t have to. Talk to the experts at Goldco to learn more about how silver can help you diversify your portfolio, hedge against inflation, and help protect you against losses.
With over $2 billion in precious metals placements and thousands of satisfied customers, Goldco has helped many people benefit from starting silver IRAs. Call Goldco today to learn more about the numerous advantages that a silver IRA can offer.
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Trevor Gerszt is the founder and CEO of Goldco, a precious metals dealer in Los Angeles. For more than 20 years, Trevor has sought out ways to help people build long-term wealth through the security and stability of precious metals and other alternative assets. Goldco is A+ Rated by the Better Business Bureau, a 5-Time INC 500 Winner and has countless 5-Star Reviews for its quality customer service, dependability and strong reputation.