SLV - iShares Silver Trust: An Insight

While most investors are well aware of gold’s unprecedented march fewer are familiar with the yellow metal’s often overlooked cousin, silver. However many big investors consider the metal to be a sound investment due to robust industrial demand, its traditional role as a store of value, and its current ratio compared to gold. In any case, silver ETFs are an efficient way to invest in the metal without dealing with expenses of holding a physical amount of silver in your possession.

Silver is a very versatile metal; it’s not only popular in jewelry, but it has a wide range of industrial applications that put it in a prime spot to benefit in the recovery. It’s an excellent conductor of electricity and is popular in water purification, as well. Silver is also fast becoming a critical component of emerging technologies that will undoubtedly be critical to life in the 21st century. Silver plays a crucial role in solar technology, finding its way into 90% of all crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, as well as silver embedded bandages and water purification devices.

On April 28th, 2006, Barclays launched the first silver exchange-traded fund in the US. named iShares Silver Trust (SLV) traded on the AMEX as SLV, the iShares Silver Trust was eagerly anticipated by silver investors ahead of its birth. When SLV was born in late April 2006, it had 21m ounces of silver stored in trust. But this highly anticipated ETF proved hugely popular and SLV demand growth far exceeded that of silver itself. So SLV’s custodians issued more shares and used this cash to buy more silver to equalize this imbalance. Just two weeks after launch, SLV’s holdings had more than tripled to 65m ounces. SLV is backed by phyiscal holdings of silver, with $5.5 billion in assets, and the fund has an expense ratio of 0.5%. Historically, when gold prices increase, so do silver prices. However, silver has industrial applications, which makes it less volatile than gold. SLV’s trading volume should also offer insights into how its popularity is growing and how silver-price movements affect the psychology of stock traders owning SLV. Not surprisingly, the volume trends in SLV are very similar to GLD’s in its own first couple years.

SLV Valuation
EPS: $-3.07
P/E: -5.7752
Relative Strength: 86
Relative Strength Ranking: 0.0478
Short Volume: 0
Options Available: 266
Exchange: NYAR

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SPDR Gold Shares: World's Second Largest ETF

With economic uncertainty and gradual weakening of the currencies specially the US Dollar, investors have been searching for a safe place for their funds. Uncertainty in the global Oil prices has not helped the investors but gold has continued its long-term advance to record high levels drawing investors to this traditional safe-haven asset.

Owning a gold-focused ETF is a good way to get physical exposure to gold without the hassle of taking physical possession – finding storage, paying for storage and so on.

Experts feel that ongoing economic uncertainty is likely to continue make gold a hot investment, with SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) among the most popular means of participating. GLD opened up history’s first direct conduit between gold and the vast pools of capital in the stock markets. GLD is the second-largest ETF in the world, with $50 billion in assets, and the world’s sixth-largest owner of physical gold. Each share of GLD is backed by physical gold bullion, which makes it an alternative to actually investing in physical bullions. Several factors have contributed to the spike in assets: concerns over the Euro zone sovereign debt crisis, fears of a double-dip recession, possible inflation worries and a need for a general safe haven for assets. GLD now hoards a record total of 1,316.18 metric tons of gold, a level that rivals most of the world’s central banks.

SPDR Gold Shares offer investors an innovative, relatively cost efficient and secure way to access the gold market. Originally listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November of 2004, and traded on NYSE Arca since December 13, 2007, SPDR Gold Shares has been one of the fastest growing ETFs in the US. SPDR Gold Shares now trade on the Singapore Stock Exchange as well as the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

Today GLD is the second largest ETF on the planet, behind only SPY which tracks the flagship S&P 500 stock index. With this still-growing ETF already a force to be reckoned with, no investor or speculator in the precious-metals realm can afford to ignore it.

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