The silver price is pretty volatile. It has been known to go up and down every four hours or twenty-thousand times a day. There is no precise answer on the frequency. According to Forex dealers working with precious metal markets, you are only safe from market fluctuations only when the markets are closed. That is not a lot of time considering that trading happens 23 hours of each day. What should be important to an investor is not the second-to-second changes but the fundamental changes that happen throughout the day that will affect the silver price.
Silver, like most commodities is subject to a lot of pressures that range from demand and supply, threats of war, etc . Adjustments to the price are constantly being made as factors change. This creates an illusion that might not be entirely true about where the price of silver is headed and this is why seasoned investors take other factors into consideration.
The buying and selling of silver and gold is often driven by investor sentiment. People who put their money in silver and gold consider these metals to be a good hedge against an economy that is plummeting. When the economy is falling, it affects the strength of currencies. When currencies fall investment assets like stocks or shares also fall when currencies fall, this does not happen as dramatically with precious metals.
The price of silver can fluctuate wildly when there are news affecting the wider economy or the global economy. For instance, the price of silver skyrocketed when Great Britain voted to leave the European Union on the 23rd June 2016. A large chunk of the continent feared that the British pound would tank and a big number of people feared that the pound sterling would lose its value and they bought a lot of silver and gold to hedge against a catastrophic drop. Such big fluctuations are rare and the fluctuations are pretty tiny.
Silver or Gold: Which is more risky?
As a general rule, volatile investments offer a high risk profile. Not everyone agrees. Silver is known for being extremely volatile. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Volatility can be in your favour if you buy silver bullion at a pre-set price. For example, when silver went up, there were investors who took advantage of the early low prices only to sell at higher prices.
The up and down movement of silver is partly as a result of the elastic nature of the demand for silver . Silver isn’t just an investment asset but it is bought for very practical reasons. Most of it ends up being used in industries however these industrial companies also go up and down. Gold on the other hand is centred on its monetary use more than any other thing. In the end, the question of how often silver prices changes is irrelevant, what matters is its liquidity. Silver is more of a long term investment asset.
Day traders can make profit by following the daily fluctuations that happen in the precious metals market and checking the live prices. You can buy silver bullion and trade it as soon as it reaches the highest price it can reach for the day. If you are not a day trader and you are simply looking for a good asset to buy then the best thing place to put your money is in silver. If you are looking for a less-volatile market, diversify your investment portfolio by adding gold. You should still keep an eye on the macro trends but it doesn’t have to be a something you do all the time. When everything is falling apart, having silver can help you get through the bad times.
