Anyone have a silver variable portfolio? What vehicle(s) do you use? Any specific rules to the asset allocation?
For me and my fledging/growing silver VP: I have a lifetime goal of 500 oz. So far it is entirely made up of 1 oz bullion coins except for a few key date coins that caught my eye, an Ike collection, and a walking liberty I carry around because I have convinced myself it is lucky
“Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business and a third let him keep by him in reserve.� ~Talmud
Yes,
I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. When the government announced that "clad" coinage was coming in 1965 (i.e., the removal of silver from dimes, quarters and half dollars), my dad started to hold on to many silver coins, especially the liberty quarters and halves as well as mercury dimes that were still in circulation at that time. Fifty years later, I still have those coins plus a number of morgan and peace silver dollars that my grandfather and mother had. I also have purchased about 10 1 oz. silver coins every year for the past 10 years. The collection is slowly growing. I purchase about 5 - 10 oz's of silver coins for my son every year that he receives at Christmas. Like you, I'm shooting for 500 oz (or more!) in my VP.
For the heck of it, I also hold on to all of the pre-1982 pennies that I get in change as they are basically all copper. Right now, even at current copper prices, the copper content is worth over two cents in each penny (a good way to double your money!!). I keep the pennies at home in a container that is now quite heavy. The silver and small amount of gold (less than 10 ozs) is in a safe deposit box. I just have this "tucked away" and don't think much about it -- but I'm certainly glad that it is there!
Did everyone else lose their silver collection in a boat accident?
“Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business and a third let him keep by him in reserve.� ~Talmud
After 2008 but before I discovered the PP I read a variety of "don't lose your shirt" type investment books, including Mike Maloney's Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver. I bought a fair amount of silver - some 100 oz bars, US silver eagles, CEF, and some silver mining stocks (HL, PAAS, SLW) - which did quite well. When I first moved to the PP I initially targeted 50% each gold and silver for my PP gold allocation rebalancing at 55/45 bands, but have been reducing the silver percentage over time. I still have some silver stocks in my variable portfolio and a portion (about 1/3, which I intend to further reduce) of my PP "gold" allocation is silver.
There's a silver miner ETF now, SIL, and a silver-only version of CEF (SBT, trades over the counter in the US as SVRZF). SLV is a silver version of GLD if you're interested in an ETF.
I own a small amount of physical silver that I bought through ScotiaMocatta metals (a subsidiary of Scotiabank, 3rd largest bank in Canada). In the future I'll probably buy directly from the Royal Canadian Mint as they don't charge as much of a spread.
I own a very small amount of a silver price-tracking ETF, Horizons Comex Silver (HUZ on the Toronto Stock Exchange). It is the single worst-performing investment I've ever made, I'm down 18% and count myself lucky as it's down about 50% over the past 2 years (I only bought it this year).
murphy_p_t wrote:
strong breakout above $20? time to back up the truck on all forms of silver?
In my experience silver seems to be about twice as volatile as gold. As Dirty Harry said: 'you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?'
Rumor has it that JP Morgan is now net long gold and that they're still net short silver, but have perhaps hedged their short silver position against other commodities. They've controlled the price of silver for so long now (and profited handsomely by doing so) that I find it very hard to believe they'd stop this unless they were forced to do so. I see no evidence whatsoever that anyone is forcing them to do anything, so my conclusion is the price of silver will do whatever JP Morgan wants it to do. If they're net short, it's going to go down.
I received some silver dollars as a kid, gave them to my brother and have never seen silver since.
The only exception is some collectibles from the U.S. and Canadian mints, but those are also being given away.
I think gold is going to be my only metal.
Monstres and tokeninges gert he be-kend, / And wondirs in the air send.
