At 9 a.m. Eastern Time today, silver was valued at $80.31 per ounce. That’s a $0.10 uptick from the same time yesterday and more than a $46 gain over the past year.
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Historical silver performance
Silver is not a get-rich-quick investment. It tends to far underperform traditional stocks over the long term. Since 1921, silver has declined around 96% against the S&P 500. In other words, if you had invested the same amount of money in both stocks and silver at the same time, your silver would now be worth 96% less than your stocks.
Instead, silver is considered a comparatively safe and reliable asset that can help you to preserve the value of your money. You’ll sometimes hear it described as a “store of value.” It tends to retain its value during periods of inflation—so converting your money into silver is something like a cryogenic chamber to store your funds when inflation is weighing on your mind.
Silver tends to be more volatile than gold. While gold is largely used as a store of value, silver is also widely used in industry (think electronics, medical devices, etc.). This means the value of silver is more directly susceptible to industry demands.
What does “spot silver” mean?
Put simply, the “spot silver” price is the current rate at which one could in theory instantly sell or buy silver. But, it’s crucial to note individual buyers will often have to pay above spot when buying silver, as there are other costs affecting the final price—think markups, shipping fees, and insurance.
The spot price of silver is a benchmark that investors use to monitor real-time demand and trends. If the spot price is higher, the demand is greater.
What is “price spread” in silver trading?
Silver’s “price spread” is the disparity between its buying and selling price. There are two terms you should know:
- Ask price (what you’ll pay to purchase silver).
- Bid price (what you’ll earn when selling your silver).
As you’d expect, the bid price is lower than the ask price. The narrower the bid-ask spread, the higher the demand for silver.
How to invest in silver
Investing in silver can take many different forms. You can choose to collect physical silver, or you can (more commonly) invest in silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The latter allows you to buy shares in a fund that holds silver—meaning you won’t have to store and insure it yourself.
Popular silver investment options include:
- Silver bullion. Sold as bars or rounds, you can purchase these by weight and purity.
- Silver coins. While coins and rounds may look similar, coins are government-minted currency. There are many silver coin options that tend to price higher than standard bullion, including American Silver Eagle and Silver Maple Leaf coins due to factors such as rarity and government backing.
- Silver jewelry. Silver crafted into jewelry prices above silver bullion of equal purity.
- Silver mining stocks. Purchasing stock in a company that mines silver allows you to bet on silver without owning any metals yourself.
Silver investments, such as silver bullion and coins, follow the “three nines fine” rule to be traded on exchange platforms. If it’s less than 99.9% pure, it’s typically considered a collectible or industrial-grade. The best silver IRA companies can walk you through the specifics.
Is it a good time to invest in silver?
Silver has done well over the past year rising over 150%. It’s currently priced higher than any time in the previous decade.
Still, the answer as to whether now is a good time to invest in silver is subjective.
For example, if you’re worried about increased inflation, adding precious metals to your portfolio can be a smart choice. Or, if you’re looking toward an impending surge in silver demand (perhaps from increasing popularity in green initiatives that require silver, such as solar equipment) that could drive up value, buying silver might make sense.
Current precious metals prices as of 9 a.m. ET today
Gold, platinum, and palladium are also investor favorites. Platinum and palladium typically act similarly to silver in volatility. They’ve got a smaller global market compared to gold, meaning even seemingly trifling market changes can result in big price fluctuations.
Gold, meanwhile, tends to be less volatile overall than these metals.
The takeaway
With the U.S. economy experiencing unique uncertainty of late, precious metals may be an investment on your radar. Silver has outpaced gold over the past year in terms of growth, and some experts suspect a boom in the coming years that could result in silver pricing at an all-time high over again.
Silver is a very accessible investment, especially compared to the price of gold. Even if you’re reluctant to hold physical coins or bars, you can choose to buy silver ETFs or silver mining stocks to ride the expert-predicted silver wave.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of my portfolio should I allocate to silver?
Experts recommend between 10% and 15% of your portfolio to be in silver—with no more than 20% in total invested in precious metals.
Can silver be held in an IRA?
Yes, you use your IRA to invest in IRA-approved silver products, such as coins and bars. The silver must be 99.9% pure and stored with an IRS-approved custodian. This means constitutional or junk silver, referring to coins minted in the U.S. prior to 1965 and containing a substantial silver content (often around 90%), are not eligible to include in a silver IRA.
That said, silver that doesn’t meet this purity threshold can still be a smart investment in jewelry or coins with numismatic value—you just can’t use funds from your IRA to buy it.
What’s driving silver prices in 2026?
Silver has been increasing in value due to a combination of scarcity and both industrial and investor demand.
