With gold prices soaring to a record high of $1,910 on Tuesday, some experts are starting to look at silver as an alternative trade, believing it has greater upside than the yellow metal.
"Silver may come back on," Paul Heffner, CEO of investment managenet firm Gen2 Partners told CNBC on Tuesday. "I think the outside chance of more upside....is actually pretty high, as we see more momentum coming in to alternatives to gold."
Heffner believes silver could rise to as much as $50 an ounce, a 15 percent gain from current levels. That's compared to gains of around 5 percent, if gold were to rise to $2000 an ounce, a target cited by several analysts.
Although silver prices collapsed in late April and early May following margin hikes, Gavin Wendt, Senior Resources Analyst at Mine Life thinks the metal is likely to outperform gold over the next 6 months. "Silver tends to lag the performance of gold," he said. "I think we are at that point now where we are most likely to see some further buying in the silver price, which could well take it up to $50."
Tom Price, Global Commodity Analyst at UBS also has a $50 price target on silver.
"We've got there before, we'll probably get there again," he said. "The markets are very emotional right now, it's not about fundamentals, it's about fear. So we've probably got some upside, just for the same reason gold does."
While gold has outperformed silver in recent months, silver has done much better over the past year, gaining 140 percent, compared to a 50 percent gain for bullion.
According to Daryl Guppy, CEO of Guppytraders.com the charts also indicate that silver has further upside. He believes the metal could reach its previous high of $48.48, which would translate to a 10 percent upside from current levels.
As with all investments, the price of precious metals changes rapidly, and as such should be considered volatile. Upon entering the metals market, the risk of loss is solely that of the client. Only individuals who are capable of sustaining a capital loss should consider purchasing precious metals. Acquisitions in precious metals which are financed are considered high risk