MW Don't let gold's record run distract you from silver's 'explosive potential' right now
By Myra P. Saefong
Silver prices are trading at their highest levels in 14 years
Silver prices have outperformed gold so far this year, even as gold continues to climb to fresh record highs.
As gold prices have climbed to new records, silver has emerged from the shadows - outshining the yellow metal with its own gain and reaching its highest price in 14 years.
"Silver is finally stepping out of gold's shadow," said Nate Miller, vice president of product development at Amplify ETFs.
"It's one of the few metals with both store-of-value appeal and industrial-demand drivers, making it uniquely positioned to benefit from macro uncertainty and the global push toward electrification," he told MarketWatch. "Gold has dominated the former, copper (HG00) the latter - but silver is the only metal with credible exposure to both."
'Silver is finally stepping out of gold's shadow.' Nate Miller, Amplify ETFs
So now silver is "stepping into the spotlight," said Miller.
Like gold, silver has benefited from a convergence of macro forces including "sticky" inflation, U.S. dollar weakness, and rising safe-haven demand, he said.
Silver also remains undervalued relative to gold, he said. The gold-silver ratio, presenting the amount of silver ounces that would buy an ounce of gold, stands at just over 85, compared with the long-term average of around 65.
That suggests "silver has room to run," Miller said. Investors are expressing this view through silver mining equities, he said, noting that the Amplify Junior Silver Miners exchange-traded fund SILJ was up more than 100% year to date, "reflecting strong momentum and renewed interest in silver's upside potential."
Growing risks to the Federal Reserve's political independence, meanwhile, have drawn more attention to silver, as investors "look for assets that can hold value and are less influenced by central bank policies," said Miller.
With a gain of about 47% year to date as of Tuesday, silver (SI00) (SIZ25) has outpaced gold's (GC00) (GCZ25) climb of 41% so far this year, according to a Dow Jones Market Data analysis of FactSet data.
"Silver has outperformed gold this year after years of underperformance," said Nick Cawley, contributing analyst at for Solomon Global. This year, silver has outperformed not only gold, but the Nasdaq-100, S&P 500 SPX, and bitcoin (BTCUSD) "as investors seek diversification away from the equity space."
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Cawley said the current economic backdrop and market sentiment will underpin both gold and silver over the coming quarters," with any pullbacks offering an opportunity for investors.
Spotlight shift
There's no doubt that investors' attention this year has focused on gold, with the yellow metal on Tuesday notching its 35th record settlement this year.
"Gold will always be the star in the precious-metals market," said Philip Diehl, president of U.S. Money Reserve and a former director of the U.S. Mint. But silver "could take center stage in the months ahead, especially when gold takes a breather and consolidates at these new levels."
On Tuesday, gold futures settled at $3,725.10 an ounce on Comex. Silver prices, meanwhile, finished a bit lower, after notching a finish at $42.962 an ounce Monday, the highest since Sept. 2, 2011.
The Trump administration's "campaign to bring the Fed to heel" and cut interest rates could "fuel or dampen the silver rally, depending on whether the market fears premature rate cutting will fuel inflation," said Diehl.
Industrial demand for silver would suffer if a recession or financial crisis developed, or on signs that a significant over-investment in artificial intelligence has occurred, he said.
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With gold at a record high, however, silver stands to gain from investor interest as investors look to the yellow metal, "see it's pricey, then turn to its natural alternative that is much cheaper on a per-ounce basis," said Peter Krauth, author of the "Great Silver Bull."
Still, he pointed out that silver has already nearly doubled its prices from February 2024, so the metal is starting to "feel frothy" at this point.
A correction in prices would not be surprising, said Krauth, who is also editor of the Silver Stock Investor and Silver Advisor newsletters. That would actually be "quite healthy to digest some of these gains before heading higher."
Opportunity
Analysts highlighted inklings of opportunity in silver months ago, as the metal was virtually neck to neck with gold in terms of year-to-date gains as far back as March.
"Silver has explosive potential," said Stefan Gleason, president and chief executive officer at Money Metals. For now, it's "barely keeping up with gold and is barely outperforming gold this year, but the leadership may be shifting from gold to silver."
Silver trades not far from its nominal intraday record high of $50.36 from Jan. 18, 1980. However, unlike gold, which has surpassed its inflation-adjusted highs from the 1980s, silver still has a long way to go to reach its inflation-adjusted high of $209.71.
Momentum has been building in the last few weeks, so silver could "very well" see a run up to the $50 level in the next month or two, Gleason told MarketWatch. Prices may see resistance around that level and seem likely to "correct and regroup for at least a few months before breaking higher."
He said he does not expect to see an emergence of new silver investors until the metal "decisively" breaks above $50.
If that happens, that would be an "event that will capture some real attention, given it would be an epic breakout from that historical multidecade high," Gleason said.
-Myra P. Saefong
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September 17, 2025 11:03 ET (15:03 GMT)
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