Silver investing sentiment among private individuals in the West fell near record lows at New Year 2015 as the metal’s strong price rally invited existing owners to sell, writes Adrian Ash at BullionVault.
That’s the conclusion of our new Silver Investor Index, launched today.
The metal’s 10% rise during January saw more private investors sell silver using BullionVault than any month since summer 2011, very nearly equaling the number who chose to buy silver VAT-free at live spot prices on the world-leading precious metals exchange online.
That put BullionVault’s new Silver Investor Index – a companion to our widely-cited Gold Investor Index launched in 2012 – near the series low hit when silver sellers outnumbered buyers in June 2014.
Five years since BullionVault first made silver trading and storage available online, it has become a leading provider of silver bullion to private investors online, now caring for 502 tonnes on their behalf – all securely vaulted in the user’s choice of London, Singapore, Toronto and Zurich.
More than 55,000 people have now used BullionVault to buy, store and trade physical gold and silver. Because in contrast to silver coins or small bars from a shop, costs are very much lower. You’ll also sidestep VAT sales tax, running to 20% in the UK and Europe, when you buy. Selling is as just as easy too, live online for instant settlement of top-grade bullion.
January 2015 saw the number of people choosing to start or increase their silver investing on BullionVault rise 39% compared to December. It reached the highest level since September last year.
But the number of sellers rose 83% from December, almost doubling from the 2014 average to hit the highest level since August 2011.
That meant silver sellers very nearly equaled the number of buyers, pulling the Silver Investor Index down from a reading of 51.9 in December to just 50.1 last month.
