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Should You Invest in Silver?

Gold gets the headlines. Silver does double duty: It functions as both a precious metal and an industrial commodity, making it one of the more misunderstood assets in the market.

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That dual identity makes silver tricky: It can act like a safe haven one moment and a cyclical growth asset the next.

In periods of inflation or economic uncertainty, precious metals tend to attract attention as potential stores of value. But unlike gold, silver’s price is also closely tied to global industrial demand, giving it a different risk-and-return profile.

Before adding silver to a portfolio, it’s important to understand what drives its value — and how it could potentially fit into your broader investment strategy.

— What drives silver prices?

— Ways to invest in silver.

— Potential benefits of silver.

— Risks to consider.

— How much silver should you own?

What Drives Silver Prices?

Americans have a long history with silver. The Coinage Act of 1792 established a mint and the silver dollar as the unit of money in the U.S.

By the early 1960s, silver prices rose above $1.29 per ounce — the point at which the metal value of U.S. coins exceeded their face value. To prevent hoarding and coin shortages, the U.S. removed silver from most circulating coins by 1970.

Today, silver prices are shaped by a variety of macroeconomic forces and industrial demand. Silver benefits from rising inflation expectations, declining real interest rates and a weakening U.S. dollar. Also, because silver is used in manufactured durable goods, like smartphones, TVs, automotive electronics, solar panels and computers, demand often rises alongside economic growth and technological expansion.

Sonu Varghese, chief macro strategist at Carson Group, highlights this distinction: “Silver does have much larger industrial exposure than gold, which is another reason why it’s more volatile (since it’s more exposed to cyclical economic conditions).” Varghese adds, “In solar energy, silver is used in photovoltaic cells, but its demand is not limited to that sector.”

In terms of market scale, Business Research Co. estimates the silver ore market is expected to grow to $8.4 billion in 2026, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5%, and to $11 billion in 2030, at a CAGR of 7.1%.

In practice, that means silver often performs best when inflation is rising and economic activity remains strong.

Ways to Invest in Silver

There are a variety of ways you can invest in silver, each with different costs, risks and benefits.

— Physical silver. Coins and bullion can provide direct ownership, but they come with the challenges of storage, insurance and liquidity.

— Silver exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. Silver ETFs like iShares Silver Trust (ticker: SLV) track the performance of silver and offer liquidity and convenience without the need for physical storage. Another example is Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL), which covers a broad range of silver mining companies.

— Silver mining stocks. Miners such as Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM) provide indirect exposure to silver. The performance of mining stocks is influenced by several factors, including silver prices, production levels and new streaming or acquisition activity.

— Futures and derivatives. Designed for experienced investors to speculate on silver prices.

[Read: 5 Best Gold ETFs to Buy for 2026]

Potential Benefits of Silver

Silver can offer several potential benefits within your portfolio:

— Diversification. Silver prices don’t always move in tandem with stocks and bonds, which can help mitigate overall portfolio risk.

— Inflation hedge. Like other precious metals, silver may hold value during periods of rising prices, though its track record is less consistent than gold’s.

— Industrial demand growth. Silver could potentially benefit from high consumer demand for manufactured goods.

Risks of Investing in Silver

Despite silver’s potential benefits, it also has notable risks:

— High volatility. Like other precious metals, silver prices can fluctuate significantly.

— Economic sensitivity. Because of its industrial uses, silver may decline during economic downturns.

— Storage and costs. Physical silver requires secure storage and insurance, which can diminish net returns.

Trevor Yates, senior investment analyst at Global X, adds, “One of the biggest risks investors should consider is that silver has historically been more volatile and cyclical than gold, reflecting its smaller market size and greater exposure to industrial demand. Because of this, position sizing is important when allocating to silver or silver miners.”

How Much Silver Should You Own?

For many investors, silver is best viewed as a complementary holding, not a core investment. Research from Oxford Economics suggests the optimal range for a silver allocation in a multi-asset portfolio is about 4.4% to 6%, depending on an investor’s goals and risk tolerance.

“We believe silver checks all the boxes,” says Yates. “Silver can play a unique role in portfolios because it combines the diversification benefits of commodities with exposure to powerful structural demand trends like solar.”

A Metal of Two Minds

Silver may not have the same reputation as gold, but its unique blend of industrial demand and investment appeal gives it a distinct place in the market. For investors, that can mean both opportunity and volatility.

Used thoughtfully, silver can add diversification and potential upside during certain market conditions. Silver’s strength — and its challenge — comes from its dual identity: It doesn’t behave like gold, and it doesn’t behave like stocks. It can play a role in your portfolio — just not a shiny, prominent one.

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Should You Invest in Silver? originally appeared on usnews.com

Update 03/25/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.

The Place Where the Rainbow Never Ends A brick, a beach, and a lesson that never stopped moving

Click here for updates on this story    July 13, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) -- (TriceEdneyWire.com) - There is an old man in the movement who still brims with the courage and love forged on a Chicago beach.His eyes do not work well anymore. It seems to bother him less than you would think. Norman Hill has always seen more with his head and his heart than most of us ever see with our eyes.I met Norman in the summer of 1993, at the convention of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. He was its president. He and the labor leaders Bill Lucy, Richard Womack and Clayola Brown gathered two dozen young Black organizers who shared their vision. Lucy had helped lead the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis the week King was killed.Stacey Abrams was one of us. Derrick Johnson was one. Jena Roscoe was one. I was one.They passed down what A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin had taught them. Civil rights and workers’ rights are one fight. Racism splits working people apart. Economic injustice profits from that division. Our answer has to take on both.Norman learned that from those two men. He also learned it on a Chicago beach.In 1960, Rainbow Beach was public by law and White by custom. Velma Murphy was 21 years old and president of the South Side NAACP Youth Council. She decided to test it. If students in the South could sit down at a lunch counter, young people in Chicago could wade into Lake Michigan.Norman helped her build a group, Black and White together. Some wanted an all-Black action. Norman and Velma said no. Black leadership and Black and White people standing side by side were not rival ideas. Together they were the plan.In late August 1960, they walked onto Rainbow Beach. They spread blankets. They read books. They played checkers. They walked into the water.A White mob gathered. Rocks and bricks flew. A brick hit Velma in the head and knocked her out cold. Norman picked her up and carried her off that beach. It took 17 stitches to close the wound.They went back anyway. Again and again, through the next summer, they claimed their beach. The papers carried Velma’s story, and the crowds that came to stand with them grew. The city was forced to protect them. Rainbow Beach became a beach for everybody.That victory was a blueprint. Black-led. Black and White together. Built on working people standing as one. Brave enough to take a beating. Disciplined enough to come back.The lesson did not stay on the beach.Soon after that summer, Stacey, Derrick, Jena and I went to Mississippi. Governor Kirk Fordice wanted to be rid of the state’s three Black public universities. He had already threatened to call out the National Guard rather than spend another dollar on them. Now he wanted to shut down Mississippi Valley State and put a prison on the campus.He wanted Alcorn State gone. He wanted Jackson State made over into something else.Alcorn is where Medgar Evers met Myrlie Beasley. They married on Christmas Eve. They worked side by side in the Mississippi NAACP office until the night Medgar was shot dead in his own driveway.Saving Alcorn meant saving the ground where that love began.We organized. We pulled in White Mississippians who understood that a state that shuts down its Black colleges will not stop there. Norman’s theory, tested again, 700 miles from the lake.The plan died. All three schools are open today.Derrick stayed in Mississippi and went deeper into the place where labor, civil rights and politics meet. Today he is president and CEO of the NAACP. One of his early mentors down there was Charlie Horhn. Charlie brought Black and White workers at a Jackson factory into one union. He started the state’s first Randolph Institute chapter. In 1993 he ran the campaign that sent Bennie Thompson to Congress.Charlie is 91 now. His son John is the mayor of Jackson.Clayola Brown is the president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute now. She sits in Norman’s chair. She was there in that room too, already carrying the same lesson forward.The women and men Norman trained across the decades will gather in Chicago at the end of this week. Legions from labor. Leaders in civil rights and politics as well. Our titles have changed. The bond has not.The late Rev. Jesse Jackson built the Rainbow Coalition into a national force. In Chicago’s moral history, there is no Rainbow Coalition without Rainbow Beach.And then there is the love story.Velma Murphy became Velma Hill. They married the year after the brick. More than six decades of love, labor and civil rights.But the marriage was never the point. It was the workshop.Two dozen of us sat in that room in 1993 because Norman and Velma had spent thirty years building something strong enough to hold us. That is what a movement marriage does. Medgar and Myrlie did it in Mississippi. Myrlie carried the work for decades after they killed him, and went on to lead the NAACP herself. The love did not end in that driveway. It went out into the world and made leaders.It is what Derrick and Letitia do now, pouring into the organizers coming up behind them the way Norman poured into us.I once asked Norman how he and Velma lasted so long.“Find a woman who is as much of a warrior as you are,” he told me, “and marry her.”What he built with her raised us. Stacey. Derrick. Jena. Me. Legions more across the decades. We came to them as students and they sent us out as leaders, and every one of us is proud to count ourselves among Norman and Velma’s children in the movement.The rainbow did not stop at the water’s edge. It ran through Randolph and Rustin. It ran through Medgar and Myrlie. It ran through Norman and Velma. It reached two dozen students in 1993. It runs through Derrick and Letitia. And it runs all through the NAACP family.Norman’s eyesight has dimmed. His vision has not. At Rainbow Beach, and in every life it still touches, the rainbow never ends.  Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and former national president and CEO of the NAACP. Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.Kierra LeeKIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM4096658446
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