Silver’s runaway rally sweeps up amateur investors

several new records in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms. Silver has also soared, sweeping up legions of amateur investors, ranging from newly committed collectors to Reddit-inspired speculators trading in and out of exchange-traded funds that offer exposure to silver without having to store it.Silver futures have climbed 145% this year to around $71 a troy ounce, blowing through a 45-year record in October and only picking up steam from there.

Those gains have outpaced the rally in gold, which has risen 70% to nearly $4,500 an ounce. Shares of precious metal miners like Hochschild Mining and Coeur Mining have also more than doubled.Silver prices have been rising in part because of constrained supply, with the world’s pureplay silver deposits mostly exhausted.

Demand has been strong from industrial buyers, especially global solar panel manufacturers. Everyday investors have helped fuel the rally, stockpiling metal that would have otherwise gone to industrial uses.Silver bulls note that silver prices would have to rise above $200 an ounce to top the inflation-adjusted high of 1980, suggesting there might be more room to run.

Skeptics point out that the market for silver is smaller than the one for gold, making it especially prone to boom and bust cycles.“Silver tends to be a product that goes parabolic, then collapses,” said Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets, a market-research firm.As with gold, silver has long been hoarded by investors worried about inflation, government debt, and the overall safety of the modern financial system. Declining interest rates on bonds and expensive stocks have given investors extra reason to buy precious metals this year.There are also signs of speculative activity, with