Lately, prices for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium have all taken off, but no metal has risen as high or as fast as silver. After delivering its strongest annual performance since at least 1979 in 2025, the silver price has continued its rapid ascent this year, climbing 54% so far. During Monday's US trading session, spot silver surged to $117.4 per ounce before suddenly plummeting, causing a stir in the markets.
Trading volume, options activity, and discussion热度 have all exploded simultaneously! FactSet data shows that since January 1, 2025, silver futures have surged 230% on a continuous contract basis. Trading volume for popular silver-related Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and their options contracts soared to record highs on Monday. On Monday, the two most actively traded stocks across the entire US stock market were both ETFs linked to the price of silver. The ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF (ZSL) was the most heavily traded, with nearly 800 million shares changing hands as investors bet the rally would soon cool. Coming in second was the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), with a volume exceeding 377 million shares. All the above figures are based on preliminary statistics from Dow Jones Market Data. Trading volume for options tied to the iShares Silver Trust ETF also shattered records, with both call and put options trading at an unprecedented pace. Data indicates that over 3.6 million call options were traded on Monday alone. Furthermore, according to Tom Bruni, Head of Market & Retail Investor Insights at the investment-focused social media platform Stocktwits, social media activity related to silver has also seen explosive growth. Since late last month, weekly page views for silver on Stocktwits have skyrocketed, reaching 30 to 40 times the levels seen last summer. He stated:
"We haven't seen retail investors show this level of interest in silver and precious metals in many years; I'd guess you'd have to go back to before the last bull market ended in 2011."
Against this backdrop, JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic conducted an in-depth analysis of the silver market. He believes the current silver price is overvalued, primarily due to market supply-demand imbalances and the influence of the macroeconomic environment. From a supply-demand perspective, silver supply is relatively stable, but demand is being suppressed by factors such as an economic slowdown. Additionally, macroeconomic uncertainty is exerting a negative impact on the silver price. Kolanovic anticipates that the price of silver could be halved by later this year. Has Silver Become a Meme Stock? To some observers, the simultaneous explosion in price action and trading volume is evidence enough that this precious metal is being traded much like a meme stock. On the platform X, at least one widely-followed market commentator noted that his feed was being flooded with posts about silver. Baird market strategist Mike Antonelli posted on X on Monday, comparing silver to GameStop (GME.US), the original meme stock poster child. He wrote in his post:
"What's the difference between silver and GameStop? Isn't it a meme stock now?"
He continued, "Does silver have industrial uses? Of course. But none of those uses have changed in the last month enough to justify a 65% price increase. We live in an investment world where if something goes up fast enough, everyone piles in at the same time with almost no barrier to entry." Others also believe that comparing silver to meme stocks is not too far-fetched. Silver already felt the heat of social media-driven fervor back in early 2021, during the height of the first meme stock frenzy. Moreover, silver has long boasted a large and dedicated following among individual investors. Interactive Brokers Chief Strategist Steve Sosnick said:
"It doesn't have the 'us versus them' antagonistic narrative that the early meme stock frenzy had, but we are seeing a momentum-driven mania that seems to have completely transcended any prior notion of fundamentals and has captured the public's imagination."
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