Silver Rises Over 120% YTD 
If you’ve been wondering whether silver is still “cheap” after its latest rally, Mike Maloney’s framework makes the case loud and clear: relative to gold, silver remains one of the most undervalued major assets on the planet. The lens that reveals this is the gold–silver ratio (GSR)—how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. Understand this ratio, and you’ll see why Mike expects powerful moves ahead, plus how disciplined investors can turn that volatility into more gold over time.
The Core Imbalance: What We Dig Up vs. What Markets Price In
Start with supply. Today’s mines produce on the order of seven ounces of silver for every one ounce of gold. Yet the market often prices silver as if it’s far more abundant than that. When the trading ratio hovers around the 80s, the market is effectively saying it takes more than eighty ounces of silver to equal one ounce of gold. That mismatch is the crux of the opportunity.
Supply is only half the story. Gold mostly sits still—in vaults, bars, coins, jewelry—accumulating above ground. Silver gets used. Roughly two-thirds of new silver output disappears into industrial applications (electronics, solar, medical, auto, and more), where much of it becomes uneconomic to recover. Over time, that steady “industrial drain” tightens available stockpiles. When investment demand returns in size, there’s less slack in the system.
A Ratio With a Memory (and a Fuse)
Zooming out, the gold–silver ratio has a long history of mean-reverting. On multi-decade views the average sits below ~60 and has spiked toward ~120 during panics. Those spikes tend not to last; when the pendulum swings back, it can overshoot. In the 1980 blow-off, the ratio compressed to the mid-teens at the peak of precious-metals mania.
Mike’s base case: a collapse toward 20:1—and potentially lower in a true squeeze. That’s not a heroic claim; it’s consistent with prior cycles and today’s tighter physical dynamics.
Turning Ratio Swings Into More Gold: A Simple Playbook
Calling tops and bottoms is hard. Using the ratio as a discipline is easier.
- Accumulate silver when the ratio is stretched high (think 70–80+).
- Swap some silver into gold as the ratio compresses (milestones like 40, 20, even 10).
Why this matters: starting from ~80, a move to 40 lets you trade silver for 2× the gold you started with—without adding new cash. A move to 20 delivers 4× the gold. If lightning strikes and the ratio tags 10, that’s 8×. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s systematically converting volatility into a larger long-term gold position.
Mike practices what he preaches. When the ratio was low years ago, he favored gold. When it surged into the 70s and 80s, he focused on silver—ending up with hundreds of ounces of silver for each ounce of gold—because the math favored that tilt.
Why a Violent Ratio Compression Is Plausible This Cycle
Several structural forces look different—and more bullish for silver—than in past cycles:
- Persistent physical tightness: Years of industrial consumption and modest mine growth have drawn down flexible inventories.
- Bigger macro tailwinds: Sovereign debt loads, chronic deficits, and currency debasement fears push investors toward hard assets.
- Institutional awakening: Large sell-side shops and asset allocators that long ignored silver are now publishing precious-metals frameworks and floating allocations that include double-digit weights to the sector. That matters for flows.
- Reflexive media cycle: New highs beget coverage, which begets retail interest, which tightens the market further—especially in a metal with a relatively small investable float.
The Flow Math: Small Percentages, Big Numbers
It only takes a sliver of global capital to transform this market. Consider two lenses:
- U.S. near-cash liquidity: Money market funds, demand deposits, currency in circulation, and unused credit lines add up to tens of trillions. A mere 1% rotation would swamp available silver at current prices.
- Global asset base: When you tally global currency, bonds, and equities, you reach on the order of hundreds of trillions. A 1% rebalance into precious metals is measured in trillions, not billions. Silver simply cannot absorb that kind of demand without a step-change in price and, crucially, a shrinking GSR as investors crowd into the thinner market.
This is why Mike frames $10,000 gold and $500 silver (at 20:1) as not just possible but coherent outcomes under a broad, global reweighting into monetary assets.
“But Won’t the Exchanges Clamp Down?”
They’ll try—because they always do. Expect familiar tactics on the futures complex: margin hikes, tighter position limits, rule tweaks that force deleveraging during sharp moves. These steps can knock price and sentiment around in the short term. Historically, however, policy friction loses against physical scarcity plus real money demand during the terminal phase of a bull market. That’s when the ratio can sprint lower in a hurry.
Sentiment, Then Stampede
A revealing anecdote from Mike: in the early 2000s, he was buying silver around $4–$5 and coin shops were empty. Fast-forward to the mid-$40s today and the retail bid is still just a trickle—far from manic. The stampede tends to arrive after new highs and breathless coverage. If history rhymes, that’s when monetary demand collides with a thinned-out float and the GSR reprices in weeks, not years.
Strategy in Practice: A Calm Checklist
You don’t need to predict the exact day the ratio breaks. You need a process.
- Define ratio bands in advance. Example:
- ≥75–80: Emphasize silver accumulation.
- ~40: Swap a slice of silver into gold.
- ~20: Swap another slice.
- ~10: Consider a final, opportunistic tranche.
- Use bullion, not leverage. Futures and heavy margin amplify exchange risk; the play here is ownership and patient swaps.
- Mind premiums and friction. When you plan a conversion, quote both sides (what you’ll receive in gold vs. what you’ll surrender in silver), including spreads and taxes in your jurisdiction.
- Stay flexible. If the ratio overshoots your targets (down or up), adapt. The point is to harvest the move, not to nail the bottom tick.
- Diversify forms and storage. Mix coins and bars judiciously, and set up storage or delivery options before markets get hectic.
The Big Picture
- Silver is priced like it’s plentiful and mostly unwanted.
- The world actually treats silver like a consumable—more gets used than recycled, year after year.
- The ratio has a history of snapping back—and overshooting—once investment demand arrives.
- Even tiny reallocations of global capital would overwhelm current supply dynamics, forcing higher prices and a lower GSR.
- A disciplined swap strategy can translate that move into dramatically more gold without adding fresh capital.
Bottom Line
If you buy the premise that currencies are being diluted and that hard assets will be repriced accordingly, then silver is the asymmetric bet inside the precious-metals sleeve. The payoff isn’t just a higher silver price; it’s the opportunity to compound into larger gold holdings by letting the gold–silver ratio do the heavy lifting for you.
When the ratio finally surrenders to fundamentals, it doesn’t stroll—it falls. Have your plan ready before it does.
Investing in Physical Metals Made Easy
People Also Ask
Why is silver considered undervalued compared to gold?
Silver is mined at a ratio of about 7:1 versus gold, yet trades around 80:1. Add in the fact that two-thirds of new silver supply is consumed in industry while gold is mostly stored, and the case for silver’s undervaluation becomes clear.
What is the gold–silver ratio and why does it matter?
The gold–silver ratio (GSR) measures how many ounces of silver it takes to equal one ounce of gold. Historically averaging under 60, today’s ratio near 80 suggests silver is cheap relative to gold. Investors use this ratio to time swaps between metals.
How can investors profit from swings in the gold–silver ratio?
By accumulating silver when the ratio is high and converting to gold when it compresses, investors can multiply their gold holdings. For example, a drop from 80:1 to 20:1 allows you to turn the same silver into four times as much gold.
Could the gold–silver ratio really fall to 20:1 or lower?
Yes. History shows the ratio dropped to 14:1 during the 1980 bull market. With tight silver supply, rising demand, and global capital flowing into precious metals, Mike Maloney believes a 20:1 ratio—or even lower—is achievable.
How high could silver prices go if gold reaches $10,000?
At a 20:1 ratio, $10,000 gold implies $500 silver. If the ratio compresses further, silver could trade even higher, offering extreme upside for those holding physical silver before the move.
