For Investors, Silver Trumps Gold

All that glitters may not be gold, but these days you might prefer silver anyway, MarketWatch reports. Silver has rocketed to the top of the precious metals food chain, outperforming both platinum and gold because it’s an industrial material in addition to an inflation hedge. But the outsize gains silver offers also come with outsize risks, because fewer people trade it.

When "prices of precious metals turn higher across the board, silver will tend to move up faster,” said one researcher. “If all the prices come off, you will see silver prices collapse faster.” So far it’s been all upside—the London fixing silver benchmark is up nearly 50% this year to $16 an ounce, a 10-month high, and industrial demand is expected to pick up in the second half. (More silver stories.)