Silver Commodity trading
Dating back decades, silver have been a highly sort after commodity, priced for its malleability and beauty, which have translated into beautiful jewelry. In more modern times the metal has been found highly conductive and anti-bacterial, making it even more precious than ever. Silver is today used in all sorts of industry, energy and electronics, even medicine now wants a piece of the metal, making it more and more valuable.
How much have been mined and where?
As stated above silver have been used and therefore mined, for a very long time. Recent estimates puts the total amount mined through history at around 1.5 million tons with around half of that being mined during the past 62 years. With the usability in mind this makes a very limited market which in turn makes it even more valuable.
Silver is rarely found as a raw metal but usually comes around as a byproduct of mining for gold, zinc, copper and lead. The mining for those metals have declined in recent years making the harvest of silver decline slowly. The top three producers these days are Mexico, Peru and China.
Silver brokers
- Plus500
- eToro
- Markets.com
- Nadex
If you want to start looking into brokers for silver these four will be a good starting ground. These are trusted brokers, which are easy to use and with thorough regulatory oversight.
Price Drivers
In this article we will highlight 4 main price drivers:
Supply and demand
When it comes to silver the supply and demand gets quite interesting. Experts talks about the supply and demand equilibrium as a very important factor in silvers pricing. As stated above the supply is very limited and mining has gone down in recent years, but at the same time the industrial demand stays stable. This means that small events can have a big impact. It is important to keep an eye on the mining industry when trading in silver because a strike or an accident in one mine can put the equilibrium a lot out of order.
The scrap metal price
The price of silver scrap is worth being mentioned as well. Historically, photography has delivered a lot of scrap silver, but as we are turning more to digital photography scrap dealers have to find new sources. These days the silver scrap that comes in is mostly from old silverware and jewelry. And when silver prices go up scrap does too, which can put a cap on prices.
Gold prices
Gold and silver have had a positive relation for a long time, and more seasoned trades will keep a close eye to the gold prices when dealing in silver. Movements in gold prices will often reflect movements in silver as well.
Industrial Demand
As said above the industry demand is often very stable, but with growing industries such as solar energy, water purification and circuit board making, this might change soon. This can put the equilibrium out of balance which can be profited on as a trader.
This was a brief introduction to trading silver as a commodity.