Silver Slaughtered: Time To Buy?

Just a short time ago, silver had been surgingrelatively under the radar. Its strong gains were out-shined by gold, despite the white metal performing better than its more popular counterpart. But recent weeks have seen some weakness restored to the silver market, as October is notoriously weak for precious metals. Since peaking in early October, silver has dropped by nearly 7.4%, marking hefty losses for just a handful of trading sessions [for more silver news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].

Silver has long been more volatile than its gold counterpart, but that has attracted a wealth of investors who have seen the metal outdo gold on a number of occasions. This year alone, the commodity is up over 17%, compared to gold’s 11%. In 2009 and 2010 the precious metal surged by 47% and 82% respectively, dwarfing the returns of gold. But for every time that silver’s gains have surpassed those of gold, this metal has also turned in steep lossesdue to its hefty volatility.

With silver on the downtrend right now, a strong buying opportunity may soon present itself, as the beaten-down metal is still well-off its historical highs. Recently, the metal was touted by the likes of Jim Rogers, who called it a better buy than gold, believing that its upside potential is quite handsome. For those looking to buy into silver’s dip, we outline several options to help you gain exposure to this commodity [see also 25 Ways To Invest In Silver].

iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV): By far the most popular option, this physically-backed fund fund has more than $10 billion in assets and trades over 12 million times each day.

Global X Silver Miners (NYSEARCA:SIL): This ETF invests in companies that have their hands in the silver mining industry. Note that as a mining fund, SIL will be a bit more volatile than the actual metal itself and does not always correlate to the metals daily movements.

ProShares UltraShort Silver (NYSEARCA:ZSL): Of course, some of you may feel that this metal still has a ways to fall before it turns bullish again. This ETF invests in silver futures contracts with a -200% leverage to help you live out your bearish silver sentiment.

This article was originally written by Jared Cummans, and posted on CommodityHQ.