{"id":466527,"date":"2025-10-01T19:22:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/466527\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T19:22:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:22:25","slug":"the-hunt-for-50-silvers-breakout-and-the-history-of-a-wild-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/466527\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hunt for $50: Silver’s Breakout and the History of a Wild Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Precious Metals Soar in 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the rise of crypto, a raging bull equity market, and years of stagnation, precious metals have regained their shine over the past two years. In particular, gold and the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (<\/strong>GLD)<\/strong> illustrate how years of frustrating basing action can eventually lead to a massive breakout. Gold prices peaked in late 2011 and would fail to make new highs again until August 2020. In the 2020 instance, GLD printed a brief all-time high before retracing. Finally, GLD broke out for real in March 2024 and never looked back. Additionally, it provided gold bugs with one of the smoothest and stress-free investments over the past two years, nearly doubling since.<\/p>\n

\"Zacks
Image Source: TradingView<\/p>\n

Gold once again proves the old Wall Street adage that \u201cThe longer the base, the higher in space.\u201d Meanwhile, gold\u2019s sister, silver, was even more frustrating to hold than gold (until recently). The\u00a0iShares Silver ETF (<\/strong>SLV)\u00a0<\/strong>topped in April 2011 and has yet to break out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Zacks
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research<\/p>\n

What is Driving Gold and Silver Prices?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, gold and silver are correlated assets. Investors often treat precious metals as a safe-haven asset, using them to fight against inflation, rising interest rates, falling dollar prices, global instability, and global central banks that have run amok. While correlated, silver is the fastest-moving between the two precious metals. Though gold breached all-time highs and broke out first, silver has played catchup and is now outperforming gold year-to-date, with a rise of ~58% versus gold\u2019s ~44% gains.<\/p>\n

\"Zacks
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research<\/p>\n

Why is Silver Outperforming Gold? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Silver and gold each have numerous commercial uses. For instance, gold is used in aerospace, electronics, and dentistry, to name a few examples. However, silver has far more industrial use than gold, with roughly half of silver\u2019s supply used in industrial applications (compared to ~12% for gold). In fact, silver is critical for two of Wall Street\u2019s hottest industries \u2013 AI data centers and renewable energy applications such as solar panels.<\/p>\n

Should You Short Silver?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silver has experienced a tremendous run, gaining 37% over the past six months. However, with silver working on its seventh consecutive weekly gain, investors may be wondering whether it is time to go short. The short answer is \u201cdefinitely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three invaluable investor quotes come to mind when I see a raging uptrend like we are witnessing in precious metals:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.\u201d ~ William O\u2019Neil<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.\u201d ~ John Maynard Keynes<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trend is your friend until the end, when it bends.\u201d ~ Ed Seykota<\/p>\n

Silver: A Long History of Booms and Busts<\/strong>How the Hunt Brothers Tried to Corner the Silver Market<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to not fighting the powerful uptrend, investors need to understand today\u2019s trend in the context of silver\u2019s rich history of wild short squeezes, booms, and busts.<\/p>\n

Before there were modern-day meme stocks like GameStop (<\/strong>GME),<\/strong> Tilray (<\/strong>TLRY),<\/strong> and AMC (<\/strong>AMC), <\/strong>there was silver. In the late 1970s, three brothers, known as the Hunt brothers, did the unthinkable and attempted to corner thesilver market<\/a> believing that silver was a suitable hedge against the rampant inflation that plagued Americans during the 1970s. Being that the Hunt brothers were the sons of legendary oil tycoon H.L Hunt, they had the necessary funds to make a valiant attempt. Using leverage, the Hunt brothers began aggressively accumulating silver, causing silver prices to skyrocket from $6 an ounce to $50 per ounce!<\/p>\n

However, regulators began to be express concern about unsustainable silver prices, market stability, and the excessive use of leverage. Unfortunately for the Hunt brothers, regulators restricted margin purchasing for commodities while the Federal Reserve simultaneously clamped down on reckless lending practices. The result was a brutal crash. On what was later dubbed \u201cSilver Thursday,\u201d silver prices plummeted from $20 an ounce to $11 in a single day. The Hunt brothers would lose $1.7 billion on silver, leading to their bankruptcy and making them the largest individual debtors in history.<\/p>\n

\"Zacks
Image Source: TradingView<\/p>\n

The Hunt brothers\u2019 silver saga is a sage reminder that investors should avoid fighting trends in both directions at all costs (especially in thesilver market<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Silver Chart Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back to present-day markets. Silver is at a critical juncture chart-wise. Silver futures are a hair away from their 2011 all-time high of $49.83. $50 should prove to be a critical price level. Legendary investor Jesse Livermore discussed the importance of \u201cround numbers\u201d in markets, teaching that once a round number is breached, it can lead to intense momentum bursts. Meanwhile, if silver can recapture all-time highs, the floodgates may open as no more \u201coverhead supply\u201d volume exists. Though silver has rallied strongly already, the Fibonacci extensions suggest that silver could reach $55 if a breakout is successful.<\/p>\n

\"Zacks
Image Source: TradingView<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the $50 level and its 2011 all-time high in sight, the historical context of silver\u2019s dramatic booms and busts serves as a powerful reminder: the key to navigating this surging market isn\u2019t fighting the trend \u2013 it\u2019s respecting momentum.<\/p>\n

\tBeyond Nvidia: AI’s Second Wave Is Here<\/p>\n

\n\tThe AI revolution has already minted millionaires. But the stocks everyone knows about aren’t likely to keep delivering the biggest profits. Little-known AI firms tackling the world’s biggest problems may be more lucrative in the coming months and years.<\/p>\n

See “2nd Wave” AI stocks now >><\/a><\/p>\n

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report<\/a><\/p>\n

GameStop Corp. (GME) : Free Stock Analysis Report<\/a><\/p>\n

SPDR Gold Shares (GLD): ETF Research Reports<\/a><\/p>\n

AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (AMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report<\/a><\/p>\n

iShares Silver Trust (SLV): ETF Research Reports<\/a><\/p>\n

Tilray Brands, Inc. (TLRY) : Free Stock Analysis Report<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).<\/a><\/p>\n

Zacks Investment Research<\/a><\/p>\n

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Precious Metals Soar in 2025 Despite the rise of crypto, a raging bull equity market, and years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3091],"tags":[51,2441,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-466527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-markets","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115300541901969449","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}