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Precious metals have long been considered as stores of wealth for thousands of years. Prior to the advent of the 
GoldSilver’s data on the recent S&P 500 declines. Both gold and silver tend to do better than the S&P 500, but gold tends to outperform silver by quite a margin.
Gold And Silver During Normal Periods
While both gold and silver are a good investment during times of crisis, their utility as a long-term investment is debatable. gold has underperformed both the S&P 500 as well as the Dow Jones in the last 10,30, and 100 years.
However, gold has performed better than both the indexes when we look at the last 50 years only.
Over the long term, stocks tend to outperform gold. Here, we can see that the S&P 500 (red) and the DJIA (blue) both outperformed gold and silver by quite a bit over the last 100 years. Source: longtermtrends
Do remember that the chart only shows the absolute returns of the stocks. If you had invested all dividends and other income from the stocks back into them, your return would be exponentially higher.
Silver, on the other hand, has underperformed in both other investments by a considerable margin. As such, silver does not seem to be a worthwhile long-term investment at all.
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Can Silver Also Protect From Inflation?
Silver is inversely related to inflation, which makes it a good hedge which and can be used to protect the value of an investment portfolio.
Inflation sends the prices of items up, making things more expensive. Because silver is a dollar-denominated commodity, its price would also rise in correlation with the rate of inflation. This makes the precious metal a safe haven asset during poor economic conditions as inflation or recessions.
Gold and Silver as Investments
While both gold and silver are precious metals, they behave quite differently from one another. Before you decide to invest in either of them, you must understand the key differences between the two.
Silver Performs Worse in Crashes
We mentioned previously how silver seems to perform much more in tandem with the economy as opposed to gold which rises in price during a crash. The simple reason for this is that silver is used abundantly in industry. Over half of the silver mined every year is utilized in industry.
When the economy collapses, factories often reduce their output or shut down entirely. As such, the demand for silver falls massively. This leads to silver often falling in price during a crash, despite many investors flocking to it as a safe asset.
Its properties as a conductor of heat as well as electricity, along with its reflective nature, make it ideal for many industries. Until a better alternative is found, silver will always be more volatile than gold.
Gold Has a Much Larger Supply
In absolute terms of mass, silver has a much larger supply than gold. However, due to gold’s rarity, its price is a lot higher. As such, the annual supply in USD is around 12 times larger for gold as compared to silver. That being said, physical gold has many different uses besides investing.
Due to this, it takes much less to trigger an upward or downward trend in the silver markets. Due to this, silver markets become even more volatile and often experience rapid increases or decreases.
Another important point to remember here is that due to its cheaper price, silver requires a lot more storage space than a similar amount (in USD) of gold. This increases the price of its option contracts and makes it less desirable to individuals as it cannot be efficiently stored in safe-deposit boxes.
Silver is Cheap
Despite many disadvantages, the one advantage that silver has over gold is its lower price. This means that it is easier for small-time investors to purchase certain quantities of silver as compared to gold.
Both silver and gold are often sold in the form of bricks and coins, so it is quite difficult to purchase a small amount of an expensive metal like gold. Most investors who want exposure to gold but do not have a lot of money either invest in gold ETFs or gold mining stocks.
Gold vs Silver Ratio
The gold/silver ratio is a metric that measures the amount of silver required to purchase one ounce of gold. For example, if gold is selling at $1,500 per ounce, and silver is trading at $15 per ounce in the spot market. The gold/silver ratio would be 100 because it would take 100 ounces of silver to purchase 1 ounce of gold.
By measuring the change in the gold/silver ratio over time, investors hope to estimate the relative valuations of the two precious metals, thus informing their decisions of which metal to buy or sell at any given time. A narrow ratio indicates that silver’s value is higher, while a wide-ratio indicates that gold value is higher.
Potential and Risks of Investing in Gold and Silver
Let’s go ahead and directly compare gold and silver to one another.
Gold
Gold has traditionally been a safe haven for investors who do not believe in the strength of the current economy. This was proven once again during the COVID-19 crisis, as gold gained more than 16% during the first half of 2020.
Due to its low volatility, high demand (which is continuously rising as the ramifications of quantitative easing become apparent), and history as the primary store hold of wealth for centuries, gold has always been a part of mainstream finance.
The 
Gold seems to rise (in terms of USD) in near-perfect correlation to the US debt ceiling.
That said, gold has its own risks. Perhaps the biggest one is that other investment classes usually tend to outperform gold by quite a bit during bullish market conditions. If the worst is behind us, then gold will probably not fare well over the next few years.
Silver
The main advantage that you get when you own physical silver is convenience. Not only can you purchase silver quite easily, but it is also easier to offload as compared to gold. Meeting a small financial need is much easier with silver due to it being only a fraction of the price of gold.
Another important point to note is that the demand for silver is rising, both in the industry as well as among consumers (as an investment as well as jewelry). This, coupled with the fact that most governments across the world have stopped stockpiling the metal, means that a long bull run may be coming for the metal.
Silver has been on a constant downfall in the last decade. At its highest, it hit $50/ounce. However, it finished 2019 at a very modest price of $17.83/ounce. Due to this, silver is being mined less and less each passing year. Once you couple the increase in demand with a fall in supply, it is easy to see how profitable an investment in silver could be.
However, you must not forget the risks associated with silver. Due to it being so readily available and cheap, all these factors could change in an instant. It is also important to remember that until the complete effects of COVID-19 become apparent, there is still a chance of a continued decline of industrial silver demand which may hamper its price.
The Best Ways to Invest in Precious Metals
Holding physical gold, however, can be cumbersome and costly. Fortunately, there are several ways to own gold without keeping a physical stash of it.
- Stocks – Investors can also invest in gold indirectly by investing in companies that mine gold. These companies tend to track the process of gold in the spot market. As such, they could give investors indirect exposure to gold.
- Funds – Gold funds provide a viable way of investing in gold. These are actively managed funds by fund managers designed to track the prices of gold. They are a cheap and cost-effective way investors can gain exposure to gold via mutual funds or gold ETFs which are traded like shares on stock exchanges.
- Derivatives – Investors can invest in gold through derivatives such as Forward contracts. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their value from the underlying asset. Derivatives such as CFDs, Futures Markets, or Forward contracts give investors indirect exposure to gold without owning the commodity physically.
Real Time Apps For Gold & Silver Investors
Gold Price Live gives users access to real-time data on gold in the form of charts and graphs. Users can also view historical prices to track how the precious metal has performed over time. Users may view the data on a monthly, half-yearly, and annual basis. Gold prices are also displayed in various currencies which makes it easy for users across the globe to use.
The OneGold Mobile app gives real-live data of gold prices globally. The app covers futures, commodities, and spot prices of gold. It also provides new features so that investors can get real-time information on the gold market.
Conclusion – Which is Right For You?
Right now, less than 1% of the world’s total wealth is invested in gold and silver. Even a minor increase in this percentage could have a significant impact on their prices. What is even more interesting is that the demand does seem to be gradually increasing. So much so that mining cannot keep up with it!
This means that you might see favorable returns on your investment regardless of which metal you invest in. However, the purpose of gold and silver is very different. As such, they are for people of very different mindsets.
Generally speaking, gold is for more conservative-minded investors. While it is possible to see higher returns in silver, you will need to time your exits and entries into the commodity in order to do that. Gold, on the other hand, is great for investors who want to sleep well.
Do remember that gold should only be a small part of your portfolio usually. If you begin to see a crisis looming ahead that may cause uncertainty in the markets, only then should you flock to gold before everyone else does and raises its price.
Silver is a lot more of an opportunistic investment. Due to its volatility, it can give returns that are much better than gold in certain conditions. However, silver does not tend to fare well when held for a long time.
My advice is that conservative investors who are looking to hedge their portfolio with precious metals should stick with gold. Only those who understand the world of commodities in depth should try to trade silver. Those with experience could quite possibly greatly enhance their returns if they invest in silver at the right time. Novice investors, on the other hand, will probably lack sufficient knowledge to trade it effectively.
FAQs
Is investing in silver a good idea?
When it comes to investing your money in various assets, silver is an excellent choice since it provides a decent return on investment. In uncertain times, silver is viewed as a safe haven investment, a hedge against inflation and equities.
During bull markets or commodities supercycle, silver tends to outperform gold. Furthermore, its current pricing is less expensive than gold, making it a cost-effective method to invest in precious metals. This makes investing in silver a good idea
Why investors are buying silver?
Silver is seen as a safe haven investment in uncertain economic periods such as inflation or during recessions. This makes the precious metal a good hedge against inflation and stock declines.
As such, with inflation hitting peak level in the United States, investing in silver allows investors insulate their portfolio investment against the eroding effects of inflation.
As President Biden’s Build Back Better proposal gains momentum, this implies that there would be an increased demand for silver which would send the price of the commodity higher.
What is the risk of investing in silver?
Like every asset, investing in silver comes with certain risks. Let’s have a look at some of them
- Low liquidity: compared to gold, silver has a lower liquidity because it has a smaller market. This makes the price of silver to fluctuate wildly. Investing in such a volatile asset increases risk for loss especially when trading for the short term.
- Cheaper alternatives can be used: Though silver is used for industrial purposes, there are less expensive alternatives which can be used in place of the precious metal for manufacturing purposes
