Experienced Investor Question - Silver bars or Gold bars?

In your opinion, if I was going to invest either invest in 516 ounces of silver bars or 9 ounces of gold bars - which of the 2 is likely to have greater return in 6 months? 5 years? 15 years?

Thanks.

First if you are going to invest in silver or gold, you best route is to purchase US coins not bars.

For every coin or bar you purchase, you pay a fee or percentage over the spot price of the metal. With US coins you can recover some of the fee when you sell them back, with most bars, regardless of the mint, you will not recover any of the minting fee when you sell them back.
Also the content of the coins are guaranteed by the US government, which makes them easier to sell.
When you are looking at a return, you have to fact in these fees over spot.

With 516 oz of silver you are looking at at least $825 minting fees for US coins
The 9oz of gold around $350 minting fees over spot.

As for which will perform best. Over the last few years silver has outperformed gold. But with the dollar declining gold may make a run.

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Neither.

Buy quality mutual funds with proven track records. They will far outpace either of those items!

Probably silver - in all cases.

Gold still has some way to go perhaps - but demand is not massively outstripping supply.

Silver on the other hand is becoming increasingly in demand - not only for jewellery but also for electrical work, silvering applications and so on.

China is MASSIVELY increasing its demand for silver - as to a slightly lesser degree is the West.

Problem is (or good aspect, depending on your viewpoint), the amount of silver being mined and refined is NOT increasing as rapidly - as such, there is relatively little in reserve.

As with all things if demand outstrips supply, price is likely to increase.

Additionally, with Gold, the price does tend to fluctuate - positively when currencies are under threat - and folks start to buy gold - and then negatively when currency is strong but economies are (relatively) weak and folks need to "cash in".

Lastly, if Gold goes up $10 an ounce, who really gives a hoot - you make $90. If Silver goes up just $1, you make $516

I suspect you will find silver will go up (as a percentage) substantially more than gold over the coming years.

Possibly in 6 months, Gold might win - simply because it is VERY volatile - it could just as easily FALL in value too.

Mark

ps: The only thing Gold bullion has in its favour last time I checked (for the UK anyway) is that bullion is exempt from VAT - silver bullion isn't.

IMO silver will perform better..... it has over the last several years...

and with the price of silver around 1/50 of gold a small price swing in silver can net you a larger return.