The new way to trade silver is on the Forex Market. Here you can use leverage and trade silver against many different currencies. The Forex Market offers fast in and out liquidity advantages and options.
The Traditional Methods of owning silver
Precious metals have been popular investment options for hundreds of years. The word “bullion” refers to the precious metals’ physical state and has value based on that metal’s purity and quantity. Most of today’s silver is mined mainly as the result of mining for copper and zinc as silver is commonly bonded with those metals in small quantities. Silver bullion is 99.9% pure although there may be variations.
Silver bullion comes in bars that are stamped with the name of the company that minted the bars along with the bars’ purity and weight. The bars come in sizes of 5, 25, 50 and 100 ounce bars. Silver rounds and silver bars can be purchased in 1 ounce sizes also. Although it is very seldom that investors buy silver bars heavier that the 100 ounce version, there are bars that weigh up to 1,000 ounces.
Silver coins are also available. These coins are different from silver rounds as they are produced by official mints that are federally authorized whether they are for purposes of bullion or money. Canada, the USA and some other countries produce silver coins. Buying silver coins has the advantage that the coins have historical value which makes the price higher. Silver ornaments and jewelry tend to fall into this category even though they may be rarer and have historic worth is so much higher that the coins.
There are also silver scrap and silver nuggets though these are quite rare. Most companies that manage to produce the silver scrap, gather the scrap, purify and mold the scrap into bars and sell them. Silver scrap tends to be not as pure as the silver coins or bars.
Although silver commands a price less than gold, it is a popular option for investment because they have intrinsic value. Like gold, silver’s value is determined largely by market conditions. Most of the potential of silver lies in buying the metal when the price is low and selling when the price is high just as they would stocks. Though unlike trading stocks, silver’s price rises when markets are in trouble as people tend to invest more in silver as a safer investments.
There are many places where silver is readily available. Silver is even available online. However, one needs to be very careful when buying of silver online. Quality of the silver can be difficult to guarantee in transactions online. Purity is the factor that is most important when it comes to silver bullion. It would be preferable to buy from companies or dealers that have acquired trustworthy reputations or those that have been highly recommended.
Investing in silver also has some disadvantages. Similar to investing in gold, silver does not yield any interest. The price of the silver bullion also comes with a premium so one pays higher that the bullion’s actual worth. There is also the matter of storage space as bullion tends to be bulky and rather heavy and must be kept secure. There may even be a need for an assay if the silver is to be sold.
Anthony DiChi at TradeCurrencyNow,
America’s Forex News and currency information source.