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Silver ETF
The most famous Silver ETF is the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) which is listed in the American Stock Exchange. Silver ETFs are supposed to pool the money from investors and buy an equivalent amount of silver to back the fund. Silver ETF is one of the easiest method to buy silver since the ETF is traded like stocks in the exchange. Currently, we have no silver ETFs listed in SGX and the closest is the Lyxor Commodities ETF, but the composition is very small compared to the entire fund. Thus, if you want to buy SLV, you would need a shares account that allows you to access to the US stock market. There have been questions on whether the Silver ETF has genuine backing of physical silver in their holdings, and it is important as an investor to find out this important criteria. If an ETF does not have a real silver backing, and when inflation hits, the ETF cannot follow up with the rise in the price of silver. In this case, your “silver investment” provides no hedging.
Advantages:
- Buy and sell as long as the exchange is open
- Do not need to find a storage
- Low cost
Disadvantage:
- May not be backed by physical silver
UOB Silver Savings Account
UOB has long been offering a Silver Account. As their website says, “You can buy and sell unallocated silver – through a passbook – at prevailing market prices in multiples of 10 ounces of silver each time, limited to a maximum of 500 ounces per account on Saturdays.” And for the cost, “An annual administrative fee (in ounces of silver) as low as 0.2 ounce per month or 0.375% p.a. on the highest balance per month, whichever is higher. The fee is subjected to GST, which will be deducted from your account in ounces of silver also.” The only question is that UOB did not state where the Silver would be stored, and would there be additional charges for the storage. In addition, are these Silver Bars or coins? Read more...