During uncertain economic times, shrewd investors are generally lured to silver due to its ‘safe haven’ status within the market. And those that piled in 18 months ago have made very healthy profits with prices soaring from around $9 to the lofty heights of $28 today. While some argue that the price of silver is another bubble waiting to burst, others say that the price is justified and it’s likely to increase further.
Silver is priced in dollars per ounce and part of its recent gains have been due to the weakness of the US dollar within the world markets. However, many now agree that the silver had been manipulated by the banks and its price previously was artificially held down with recent rises due to an unwinding of these positions.
If you want to gain an exposure to silver then there are two easy ways to do it: buy shares in a silver mining company or buy silver itself.

Invest in silver mining shares
Some mining firms have performed brilliantly this year – growing by more than 800% in recent times. They make cash as and when the silver price rises as they can produce, or have in reserve, the same amount of silver that’s value has increased.
Arian Silver Corporation is one such strong performer, its shares were trading at around 3p at the start of the year, the shares now trade at around 30p. Silver mining and exploration companies are riskier investments than buying physical silver as failings within the company or poor performance can affect the prices. And just as quickly as prices of shares can go up, they can fall by equal amounts as investor sentiment shifts towards a negative outlook. Remember, markets generally operate on a fear and greed rationale with upward and downward swings being overly exaggerated.

Buy Silver
For most people, buying a bar of silver bullion is impractical and creates extra problems such as where you would store it. But you can directly follow the market price of silver by buying a share known as an exchange traded fund(ETF).
Essentially a silver ETF is like a tracker fund which mirrors the price movements in the physical silver price. When you buy an ETF, where the underlying commodity is physical silver, it means that even if the company that’s bought the silver on your behalf goes bust, you still have a rightful claim to the silver purchased.
Again, buying an ETF is not without risks, you are still exposed to both changes in the current price of silver and currency fluctuations since silver is priced in US dollars. A strengthening US dollar would deflate the silver price and your investment would decrease.
ETF’s are generally cheap and easy to trade with access to them through most online brokers making them a good option if you wish to invest directly into silver.