Let’s say you bought silver, as bullion or in an exchange-traded fund, between Jan. 1 and Jan. 29.
And you have the stake still.
Sorry to say (though you probably know it already): You’re sitting on a loss. How big a loss is yet to be determined. But it could be as much as 18.5% — the difference between silver’s March 23 close and its $84.67 close at the end of January.
If you did the same thing with gold, you may also be sitting on a loss, though not as big as the loss in silver. Actually, you may still be ahead. A little. If you’re lucky.
Beware the wild market fevers
The lesson here is this: If you buy anything that’s shooting higher like fireworks on the Fourth of July, you must pay attention every day, maybe even every minute, so you don’t get caught when the bubble breaks.
Silver finished down 31 cents to $69.049 per troy ounce on March 23. It had traded as low as $61.09 at 3 a.m. ET, as worries about the war between Israel and the United States against Iran raged.
Over the weekend, President Trump had threatened to blow up Iran’s electricity grid if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened by Monday night.
But early Monday, the president said he was postponing the attack for five days at leastbecause the United States and Iran were talking about reopening the strait, the key waterway through 20% of the world’s crude must pass.
Silver abruptly turned around, reaching as high as $70.315 before drifting to that $69.049 close.
Gold jumped from $4,100.80 to $4,480 an ounce and settled at 4,404.10. The loss was still $166.30, but it could have been as much as $469 before Trump started talking.
Here’s where the pain comes in
BUT — and this is a big but — silver and gold hit all-time highs on Jan. 29 at $121.79 and $5,626.80, respectively. And they’re down 43% and 21.5% since.
Ouch.
Actually, it’s understandable. The dollar went up. So did bond yields. Those who bought into silver and gold in, say, the summer of 2025 when silver was at $36 an ounce and gold traded at around $3,300, were sitting on some very nice profits.
