Why Silver is on the up too

Gold is a purer representative of true wealth than silver. Although both metals have been heavily used throughout history as currency and to represent wealth, Gold has few uses apart from as money, whereas Silver is a heavily used industrial commodity and that can affect its price and desirability outside of any investment considerations. For example, some commentators are convinced that the rise of digital photography and the resultant downturn in traditional photography will result in a massive decrease in demand for silver, affecting the price as a result. This may or may not turn out to be true.

As a much used industrial commodity, it is in the best interests of many to keep the price as low as possible for as long as possible. It is thought by many commentators that the price has been manipulated for many years to be artificially low, and is in no way representative of how much Silver exists in physical form. For example, on COMEX, the main New York USA exchange for trading silver, there may be more short sales than there is silver to back them up. If this is true, then imagine what would happen if those sellers were all forced to buy silver on the open market to meet their promises? And more importantly, would they even be able to? In the USA, there is even a Silver Users Association, representing the viewpoint of businesses that consume silver, and lobbying government when necessary to protect those interests. They successfully managed to delay, but not stop, the introduction of the first ever Silver investment fund, the Barclays iShares Silver ETF in 2006 (for an explanation of ETFs, see the Exchange-Traded Funds chapter).

You can read more about this, and other gold and silver government conspiracies, in the new book on How to Invest in Gold and Silver. It will repay its purchase price many times over.