The Stage Of Fact For Silver

The Stage Of Fact For Silver

Silver is probably the most volatile of all precious metals, and as such it attracts the most speculative trading activity. Speculators tend to look for a few primary characteristics when considering a market. Those who buy and sell metals, or any commodities, with the goal of buying cheap and selling high look for a wide historical price range that tends to trend in one direction or the other. The other characteristic is liquidity, the ease of getting into and out of long and short positions. Silver offers both of these features, and that is why the precious metal is often a magnet for speculators and trend following traders. It has been a bumpy road for silver over recent months. The price traded to highs of over $21 in July 2016 and fell to lows of $15.70 by December of last year. In 2017 the precious metal managed to rise to $18.54 per ounce where it turned around and corrected to its most recent low at $16.825 on the active month May COMEX futures contract on March 10. One thing that is inherent in the silver market is that rallies tend to take longer than dips as silver takes the stairs higher and the elevator on the downside The stairs up and the elevator down. Silver loves to crawl higher and tumble down a hill when sellers overwhelm buyers in the futures market. Futures are highly leveraged instruments. At $17.36 per ounce, a contract of COMEX silver has a value of $86,800. Initial margin requirements for silver currently stand at $6,380 per contract which means for less than 7.4% a speculator can control lots of silver for a small down payment or earnest deposit.