Today, as governments continue to debase fiat currencies, silver’s hard asset and store of value qualities should help protect investor wealth.
Here are the top reasons to own silver:
1. Silver may be a great entry point for first-time precious metals investors.
Silver is often viewed as a suitable first option for investors looking to venture into the world of precious metals investing. Silver, also known as “the people’s money”, is less expensive per ounce than other precious metals and shares many of the same desirable qualities.
2. Silver is in demand for industrial applications.
Silver is the second most used commodity on earth, lagging behind only oil and has more than 10,000 uses due to its unique characteristics. Industrial buyers drive more than 50% of silver demand. By comparison, coins and bars for investment, jewelry and silverware combined account for 46% of demand. Industrial demand comprises solar panels, electronics, batteries, biocides, photography, etc.
3. Silver plays an integral role in technology, especially innovations critical to fostering a more environmentally-friendly future.
Electronic Vehicles: helps EVs maximize battery capacity and reduce weight, which helps vehicles to achieve greater mileage.
Solar Panels: being a strong conductor electricity, it captures electrons from sunlight.
Electronics: it is highly conductive and ductile. 1oz of silver can be stretched into a wire of 1.5 miles that carries large amounts of electricity.
Medicines: is antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal, and can destroy more than 650 different pathogens without injuring human cells.
4. Silver demand is growing with renewables taking a greater share.
Silver demand from photovoltaics, the technology for light conversion to electricity within solar panels, has grown at a rate of 8% per annum since 2012.
5. Silver is a physical asset which cannot be hacked, erased or inflated away.
Cybersecurity may also pose unforeseeable risks given all cryptocurrency assets are held digitally and have yet to be fully regulated.
6. Silver has a low correlation to other asset classes.
Many assets, like stocks, real estate or commodities, all tend to rise and fall with economic performance and investor sentiment. The price of silver is driven by different factors than many major assets, leading to a low correlation, which may help serve as a return diversifier within a broader multi-asset portfolio.
7. Silver is inexpensive relative to gold.
Gold generally trades at 50 times the cost of silver. This gives silver a compelling value relative to gold.
8. Silver may be a strong complement to gold.
For those investors with a strong conviction, adding silver alongside gold may help boost returns. Since the 1970s era, the price of silver on average has appreciated by 491.06% whilst gold has been 252.77% over the same period.
Time to own some silver?
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Yes
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No
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Maybe
