Casual investors see gold as the ultimate monetary anchor. And they view silver as just a cheaper alternative to the yellow metal.
But silver is so much more than that. It's a financial hybrid.
Just like gold, it can serve as a "chaos hedge" for your portfolio. It often performs well in turbulent times and can offer you protection from inflation, currency debasement, or financial instability.
Silver is also an easier and simpler metal than gold to use as actual money. If all hell broke loose and U.S. politicians debased the dollar, silver would be the better choice for transactions since it's worth far less per ounce. (After all, there's a reason the words for "silver" and "money" are identical in many languages.)
But all of that is only part of the story. Because unlike gold, silver plays a vital role as an industrial metal.
See, silver has unparalleled electrical conductivity. That makes it essential for many of our technological needs, including solar energy, electronics, AI, and electric vehicles.
The asset-management company Incrementum AG has projected conservative, base, and bull cases for AI data centers' silver demand. As you can see in the chart below, these facilities already need an estimated 60 million ounces of silver every year. And Incrementum expects that number to more than double in the next few years. Take a look...
In 2024, industrial applications accounted for about 56% of total global silver demand. That means more than half of every ounce mined goes into producing something real.
Demand will continue to increase in the years to come. But the supply isn't there.
According to the World Silver Survey, the global silver market is on track for its sixth consecutive year of structural supply deficits.
When the market for precious metals runs a deficit, it must draw from aboveground inventories to fill the gap. Since 2021, 762 million ounces of silver have been pulled from global reserves to satisfy excess demand. That's almost an entire year's worth of global silver production.
These stockpiles are finite. And the physical liquidity in London and New York vaults is tightening to unprecedented levels.
We need to pull more silver out of the ground. The shortage ensures that silver producers will fetch a fair price for their metal.
Last week, we told you gold was in a good position to move higher over the next couple years. Well, when gold takes off, silver can really soar.
Silver has outperformed gold in all but one of the past six bull markets. Take a look...
Let's zoom in on the last major economic collapse, the great financial crisis. Gold proved it was a worthy chaos hedge, more than doubling from 2008 to 2012.
But silver did even better...
In this recent gold bull run, silver has proved this relationship is still true...
Gold was up about 50% from September 2025 to its peak in January 2026. Silver, meanwhile, crushed those returns and was up 175% in that time.
Now, silver prices have pulled back from their highs earlier this year. This gives you a chance to buy the metal at a great price. So if you'd like to add some silver to your portfolio, consider doing it soon before the next leg of this precious metals bull market kicks off.
And if you want another way to play this trade, you can check out my No. 1 silver miner.
Miners can give you even bigger gains since they provide leverage to metal prices. Let me explain...
Whether silver is worth $40 an ounce, $65 an ounce, or $200 an ounce, mining companies will spend the same amount of money to pluck it out of the ground. So any rise in silver prices is pure profit for these businesses – and that profit multiplies faster than the price of silver itself.
For example, say it costs $25 for a miner to extract an ounce of silver. With silver at $40 an ounce, its profit is $15 per ounce.
Now let's say the price of silver jumps from $40 to $50. If you own an ounce of silver, your gain is 25%. That's decent. But the silver miner does even better.
It's still paying just $15 to extract an ounce of silver. So with silver jumping from $40 to $50, the miner's profit goes from $15 to $25. That's a 67% jump.
Those outsized gains are why silver-mining stocks can outperform the metal itself during a bull market.
In my latest issue of Retirement Millionaire, I recommended a silver miner that I believe could soar hundreds of percent over the next couple years. If you're a subscriber, you can check out that issue here.
And if you're not yet subscribed to Retirement Millionaire but would like to get all the details of my No. 1 silver stock for the coming bull market, you can sign up here.
What We're Reading...
- From last week... Don't Be Silly and Miss Out on Gold's Next Rally.
- Something different: The AI boom is colliding with a new threat: severe weather.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
July 1, 2026