Now that gold has rallied to multi-year highs, it's time for silver to follow suit. Three factors may propel the grey metal higher in 2020.
Gold's breakout has created favorable conditions for silver to follow suit. There are at least three reasons why the grey metal could outperform gold this year. | Image: shutterstock.com
Recent geopolitical turmoil between the United States and Iran has sent the gold price soaring. Silver has yet to follow suit and remains below the September 2019 highs. Silver has been consolidating for several years and remains well below all-time highs of roughly $50 per ounce.
Right now, there are three good reasons why silver could explode past the $20 per ounce mark in 2020.
Due to the strong rally in gold’s price, the gold-to-silver ratio has seen a significant spike recently. Now, the ratio stands at a staggering 1:86. This means it would take 86 ounces of silver to buy an ounce of gold.
Historically, whenever the ratio spikes, it’s followed by a retracement back to its average levels. Over the last 20 years, the average level has been around 1:60.
The retracement is a time-tested indicator and was seen in the previous century as well. For instance, in 1942, when the ratio stood at 1:97, it quickly declined to 1:43 in 1946. By 1968, the ratio had fallen to 1:18.
When the ratio retraces once again in the future, it will coincide with a spike in silver prices.
JP Morgan has faced accusations of manipulating the bullion markets in the past. Since 2011, the bank has hoarded a staggering 350 million ounces of silver, which accounts for about 38% of the world’s production. It’s way more than their officially reported figure of 50 million ounces, according to legendary precious metals analyst Ted Butler.
At the same time, the bank held the largest short position on silver in the futures markets. It has suppressed the silver price with access to unlimited free money, as Ted Butler claims.
Recently, many of JP Morgan’s top-level employees were charged with spoofing the bullion markets. Some pleaded guilty as well, but the investigations are still ongoing. You can expect more convictions from the DOJ in 2020 as the fraud unfolds. The eventual expose will enable the supply-demand balance to restore to its natural levels, thereby pushing silver price higher.
Silver’s use is directly proportional to the growth in production of technological devices. The precious metal is used in the production of CDs, calculators, catalytic converters, RFID chips, mobile phone batteries and much more.
As the world becomes more tech-savvy, demand is only going to rise with it. Most of world’s mined silver is dumped as garbage, and it is more expensive to extract it from the dump than it is to mine it from earth’s crust. In comparison, 98% of gold mined throughout the history of mankind is still in existence in some shape or form.
This decline in supply will eventually cause a crunch given that global demand for silver keeps rising. In 2019, the industrial demand stood at record highs.
As central banks and the ultra-rich load up on gold, another precious metal is being ignored. The next major silver bull market could be on the horizon, just like Robert Kiyosaki said in a recent interview with Kitco.
When asked how the Rich Dad, Poor Dad author would invest $100,00 in the next decade, he said:
I would invest it in U.S. Eagles today, not tomorrow. In my opinion, silver is the most under-valued, lowest risk, best investment of all asset classes. Why buy stocks and bonds when both are in bubbles? I have been accumulating silver coins since 1964.