It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Retail investors steer record amount cash into silver, creating crowded trade
Individual investors have been snapping up silver at such a pace it has turned into the most crowded commodity trade in the market, according to a report published on Thursday by Vanda Research.
Vanda calculated that in the last 30 days alone, individual investors have snapped up $921.8 million of exchange-traded funds underpinned by silver such as the iShares Silver Trust. The iShares ETF recorded $69.2 million in retail inflows on Wednesday, marking the largest day of retail buying second only to 2021, when retail investors last drove prices skyward.
The ETF is up 31.3% so far this year and has soared 210.9% in the last 12 months. Silver has set a series of new highs. On Thursday, silver prices traded at $91.90 an ounce late in the afternoon, up from $72.62 on the first trading year, but below the record of more than $93 intraday Wednesday and Thursday, according to data from LSEG.
Meanwhile, the MSCI ACWI Select Silver Miners Investable Index, which tracks stock prices of mining companies with shares particularly exposed to changes in the price of the metal, has soared some 225% in the last 12 months.
That 2021 bull market in silver came as part of a broader retail speculative boom in meme stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment. But this time, Vanda says, there are more concrete reasons underpinning the rally.
“This isn’t just a meme-stock spike; we are witnessing a structural accumulation that has now surpassed the heights of the 2021 ‘Silver Spike’,” Vanda noted. That means it is time to treat silver as “a core macro trading asset” and not just a speculative bet, it added, pointing to the fact that retail investors are big players in the ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF, an inverse leveraged fund that returns double any decline in the daily price of silver.
Others remain more wary.
“We waited 45 years for silver to break above $50 an ounce and now we’ve seen it zoom past $80 in less than three months,” said Kathy Kriskey, head of alternatives ETF strategy at Invesco.
(By Suzanne McGee; Editing by David Gregorio)
Silver’s torrid rally has Americans in frenzy to buy, sell coins
The last time silver was this hot, Reddit posters piled in to drive prices even higher, creating a frenzy that overwhelmed dealers. The metal’s current rally has set off a similar dynamic.
Over the past year, the price of the white metal has tripled, with a nearly 30% jump just this month as investors turn to hard assets amid ongoing geopolitical risks, supply tightness and renewed uncertainty surrounding the independence of the Federal Reserve. Spot silver pulled back from a record high on Thursday as investors booked profits from the rapid price advance and as the US refrained from imposing import tariffs on critical minerals.
“The relentless of the momentum with silver is really unusual. That has really catalyzed on the retail side a tremendous new influx of retail purchasers and sellers,” said Stefan Gleason, chief executive officer of Money Metals Exchange, one of the top US bullion dealers. “We’re seeing record levels on both selling and buying.”
Gleason said his firm recorded its largest sales month in December in its 16-year history, when silver gained nearly 27%. Many longtime holders of silver and gold bars and coins have come out to cash in on the price gains while newcomers are enticed for the same reason, he said.
The bullion dealer charges retail buyers of one-ounce American Eagle silver coins $12 over spot prices, the highest since 2023. And sellers pay $5-$8 to the online exchange to take the metal, the largest ever in dollar terms.
In 2021, silver was caught up in the Reddit day traders short-squeeze mania that saw prices surge 14% to top $30 an ounce in just three sessions. The moves also roiled the physical market with dealers unable to process orders of bars and coins for several days due to unprecedented demand.
The demand since Christmas is similar to 2021, Gleason said, “where it was just a massive amount of unexpected volume.” In addition to Money Metals, dealers including Apmex, SD Bullion and JM Bullion are telling customers to expect delays in processing and shipping times.
Money Metals has hired 40 people since Christmas and needs to hire 30 more, said Gleason. It’s “just overwhelming but exciting.”
Spot silver fell 2.9% to $90.48 an ounce as of 10:27 a.m. in New York.
(Image by Generation Grundeinkommen)
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