I have always been interested in silver but never had much of it. Just a few random coins. Last year I decided it was time to buy some .999 ounces. Plan was to build up 1000 ounces over time. I only bought a fraction of the goal last year. Even with the todays drop I still doubled my money. I would have been happy if it went up 50% in 5 years. It's done far better. If it didn't go up at all my plan was to cast it into rings and sell it that way. Probably could double it's worth that way.
I think you understand the goings on better than I do. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that most of the money in silver is made from paper silver that doesn't exist. I can wait 5 years to see what happens.
I of course love Gold, but for some reason, Silver's always been my jam, lol. And for some reason, when it comes to other metal products, like a lamp, or trim on my truck, metal parts on my guitar, I've always preferred either a Satin or Matte finish rather than a shiny chrome look. I don't recall ever selling any of my detecting finds, with the exception of some clad quarters many years ago. But it wasn't until a few years ago that I started investing in Silver and thank God that I did. I don't trust the stock market, so always had my 401K money going into Bonds, which usually had always been a fairly safe bet. But once I discovered that I could roll my 401K over to physical Silver & Gold, I made that move and bought physical metals which are securely stored in vaults at different depositories in different states, my nuclear option plan, lol.
IMHO, I wouldn't worry today's drop, especially if you're holding Silver for the long-term. For those of us holding long-term, all this chaos is just annoying noise IMO, as it really doesn't affect us directly since we're not selling, at least until much further down the road and after all this dust has settled and blown away. The drop today was pretty huge, but we had another drop recently, not as deep as today, but it was a good size drop. And almost immediately after the drop, Silver started climbing back and it was only 1 or 2 days before Silver was back where it was before the drop. Today, I think Silver dipped to a low or around $73, but looks like it's currently at $86, so it's starting to rise back up.
From what I've been seeing, there seems to be a lot of manipulation on the paper trading side, and if they need the price to be below a certain number or they'll lose billions, guess what they'll do, or at least try to do. BTW, the spot prices we see on the exchanges cover the paper trading market, not necessarily the physical market. The physical market has traditionally used the spot prices from the paper trading market, and that seemed to work well when the market was a lot more normal & stable than it is today. Dealers would look at spot price and add a buck or two or three to every oz of Silver or coin bought as their markup or profit on the sale. I think everyone considered that spot price to be pretty solid. But lately, the market has been so volatile that dealers have been forced to jack up their premiums to $10, $15, maybe even more, to cover any potential dips in price, as prices can go up and down violently like a roller coaster.
I've also been hearing that the physical market is losing faith in the paper traders spot prices, as they know those prices can be manipulated and more than likely, don't actually represent the real price of Silver. For instance, if the paper traders spot price is showing $85oz for Silver, but you can't find Silver to buy for less than $100, $105 or thereabouts, what good is that paper traders spot price? I just use it as a guide to get a rough idea where the market is, but personally, I don't put much faith in or think that I'd be able to buy Silver at that price. Maybe it should be called Spot+, lol. I just heard yesterday that buyers in Shanghai were paying about $135oz for physical Silver. And if buyers in other countries are paying much more on the street for an ounce of Silver, but our "spot" price is showing $85oz, which we know is probably fiction, then what good does the paper traders spot price do for the physical market? The disparity between their price and the real street price has been growing wider and wider. At some point, I think the paper traders' market will lose credibility, which would cause dealers and investors in physical Silver to lose confidence in their spot price.
