Silver: As good as gold?

Bought some silver today at $35.77 per ounce and it has proved useful so far with my trade now in profit to the tune of €164.

Fair enough - it’s not a hell of a lot of money but I’m glad to be showing a profit on silver as I want to diversify a little and not rely so much on gold and oil. 


I’ve played around with pennies with silver before and generally made it pay so hopefully it will be a commodity that has been as good to me as gold has! The initial stake was only a couple of quid so with some leverage, it was good to get it up. 

I’m slightly bullish on silver at the moment but not overly opinionated. I think it will go forward a little more but I’m happy to sell most of it if it hits around $37.50 and keep a small amount in stock case it rockets. It did hit a whopping $48 per ounce last month so who knows where it will go. After it hit those highs, it quickly collapsed and apparently, one investor sold at least 1000 tonnes during that fall.  Serious stuff that and makes my couple of hundred euro look paltry – but hey, you gotta start somewhere and I’m still in learning mode on this metal. 

If you ask me, people are getting a little worried about European debt again - hence the rise in gold and silver. As I say, I’m not certain it will continue, who knows what big story will be next to change everything again – but if I can ride the wave for even a dollar or two price move and bag a couple of ton for myself, I’ll be happy enough. 

The missus won’t be too happy about this - but since I’ve been trading precious metals, I’ve become very, very reluctant to buy gold and silver (jewellery) in the shops as I know the real value behind the product! 

The mark-ups are shocking considering the impurity of most of the stuff on sale. Yes, I know it has to be refined, shaped, shipped and the shopkeeper needs a cut – but still and all, the prices seem pretty damn high in comparison to an ounce of the pure product. 

As for those gangsters that have set up shops around town buying gold for shocking prices off people that don’t know any better… .Well, all I’ll say is that it is daylight robbery off ordinary people that probably found themselves in a hole financially. 

These ‘We Buy Gold’ shops seem to be everywhere so they must be doing business. I suppose there’s no real problem if a person wants to sell some jewellery they no longer need but I’ve heard stories of people selling engagement rings etc out of desperation during this recession. I find that a little sad. 

I’ve also heard that they are after the stones in the rings too – and don’t always price them in when you sell. So be careful if you want to do business with them.

Then again, if there’s a market for what they do, I guess they are entitled to be there and trade their services, even if people are losing out in real terms. There might be a winner and a loser in these deals, but both parites agree as adults to the deal so there's nothing illegal about it. 

Even though I don’t like these shops, I’m not one to pass judgement really as for every successful trade I make, someone has to lose money so am I any different? And do you think I give a rats arse about the loser(s) at the end my winning trades? Not really. 

Why should I? Nobody gives a shit when I lose, to be perfectly honest (and that includes you readers!). 

That’s the murky world of capitalism for ya...