22/1/26
Silver has tripled in a year. Here’s what that means for you
Silver has tripled in a year. Here’s what that means for you
CNBC published an article last week saying silver prices are up more than 200% over the past year - and that a $1,000 investment in a popular silver ETF would now be worth roughly $3,000.
That’s the kind of headline that makes you sit up a little straighter. Because silver isn’t usually the “main character” of markets.
But before we jump to “should I buy?”, let’s understand why it’s moving, how silver investing works in practice, and what role (if any) it deserves in a long-term portfolio.
What’s happened (and what’s driving it)
Silver has been trading around the high $80s to low $90s per ounce in mid-January 2026, after briefly pushing above $90 earlier this week.
The move is being linked to two forces that can overlap:
1) Investors want “hard assets” again
When people feel uncertain about inflation, interest rates, or trade policy, they often look for assets that aren’t tied to a company’s earnings - like gold, silver, and other commodities.
2) Silver isn’t just a “precious metal” - it’s also an industrial material
Unlike gold (which is mostly held as jewellery or a store of value), silver is heavily used in manufacturing - especially electronics and clean-energy tech. The Silver Institute highlights growing industrial demand tied to solar, EVs, data centres and AI infrastructure.
That “two identities” thing is why silver can move fast: it reacts to both investor emotion and real-world industrial demand - and in a year like this, hype, momentum trading and plain old FOMO have almost certainly added fuel to the fire too.
The $1,000 question: what would you have now?
Most everyday investors don’t buy silver bars. They use an ETF (exchange-traded fund), which you can buy and sell like a stock.
One of the most common is iShares Silver Trust (ticker: SLV), which trades in the U.S. on NYSE Arca and which is designed to track the price of physical silver (minus fees). Its sponsor fee is 0.50% per year. For UK and European investors, there are also London-listed silver ETCs and ETFs that offer similar exposure if SLV itself isn’t available on your platform.
Different sources show slightly different 12-month returns depending on the exact start/end day, but they broadly agree on the story: SLV is up around roughly ~200% over the last year.
So, very roughly:
- If your silver ETF is up 200%, that means it tripled.
- $1,000 would become about $3,000 (give or take, depending on timing and fees).
That’s an eye-catching return. It’s also your reminder that commodities can be wildly volatile.
The part headlines don’t say: silver doesn’t “produce” anything
Here’s the beginner-friendly way to think about it:
- A company can grow sales, raise prices, pay dividends, innovate.
- A commodity (like silver) doesn’t generate cash flow. You profit only if someone later pays more for it.
That doesn’t make silver “bad.” It just makes it different - it’s closer to owning an insurance-like diversifier than owning a business.
So… is silver a good investment?
A better question is: what job would silver do in your portfolio?
Silver can sometimes help with:
- Diversification (it doesn’t always move in sync with stocks)
- Inflation / uncertainty hedging (sometimes - not always)
- Tactical exposure to industrial trends like electrification and solar (though that’s an indirect link)
But there are real trade-offs.
Not-so-fun fact: Silver peaked at about $48 in 1980, fell roughly 90% over the following decade, then spent years going sideways around $5. Its next big bull market only took it past that 1980 peak in 2011, when it briefly hit $50 - before dropping around 70% again and only clearing $50 for good last year.
In other words, if you had bought near either of those earlier peaks, you could have been under water, or barely breaking even, for a very long time.
So its good be aware of the possible risks:
- Big price swings (up fast, down fast)
- No income (no dividends, no coupon payments)
- Timing risk (buying after a huge run can feel exciting right before it feels painful)
Even pros who like commodities typically talk about position sizing - keeping it a slice, not the whole pie.
And if you like the idea of a “hedge” against inflation or geopolitical stress but don’t love quite as much volatility, gold belongs in the conversation too: it was up around 60-65% last year, with a smoother ride than silver.
What this means for you
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I don’t want to miss out,” here are three grounding steps:
1) Check your base first
If you’re still building your long-term foundation (broad index funds, retirement investing, emergency buffer), silver is not step one. It’s a “spice,” not dinner.
2) If you want exposure, consider small and rules-based
Decide the maximum you’d ever allocate (for many people, that’s low single digits). Decide how you’ll add (one-time vs monthly). And decide what would make you stop adding.
You can also choose how to get that exposure: physically backed silver ETFs/ETCs that track the spot price, individual silver mining companies (which behave more like cyclical stocks), silver miner ETFs that bundle a basket of those companies, or physical coins and bars - which add questions about storage, insurance and dealing costs.
3) Treat a 200% year as a warning label, not an invitation
Big moves can continue - but they also mean expectations and emotion are already in the price.
Silver’s surge is a great example of how markets can re-rate an asset quickly when uncertainty rises and real-world demand looks strong.
But the investing lesson isn’t “go buy silver.” It’s this: headlines are exciting - portfolios are built on process.
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