Stocks post small loss, closing lower for the week

Silver’s ridiculous romp higher in 2025 and at the start of this year is showing some signs of fraying around the edges.

And with just how fierce the move higher has been, strategists are warning of the potential for intense downside as some of the key parts of the fundamental and technical theses for silver are starting to look less solid.

Michael Purves, CEO of Tallbacken Capital Advisors, who’s been bullish on the shiny metal, thinks it’s once again time to hedge long exposure.

On Thursday, he recommended selling $95 strike calls on the iShares Silver Trust that expire in February to purchase $75 strike puts.

Purves previously recommended that clients hedge their silver exposure on December 26 (its 2025 peak) before declaring that the coast was once again clear for longs on December 30.

“It might be surprising to know that speculative long silver futures positions are at 20 month lows, or that Open Interest is at five year lows,” he wrote. “Once again, hedging long positions is in order — particularly given the distorted put-call skew which allows [investors] to sell calls to finance long put positions.”

Viresh Kanabar, an investment strategist at Macro Hive, followed this up on Friday by flagging one of several key changes in the market structure for silver. The physical market tightness, cited by bulls as an important driver behind silver’s skyward ascent, is showing signs of reversing.

“1m forwards on physical silver have flipped back to contango,” he wrote. “This lines up with physical ETF outflows and evidence that high prices are weighing on industrial demand.”

“In short, we are not bullish on silver at these levels, instead, see increasing signs of risks skewing to the downside,” Kanabar added.

David Cervantes, founder of Pinebrook Capital Management, told clients on Thursday that he’s taken a short position in silver by owning put options on SLV with three months to expiry, noting that its outperformance of the stock market over the past 100 and 252 days has reached unprecedented levels.

“THIS IS HIGHLY SPECULATIVE AND A SMALL GAMBLE-SIZED WAGER WILL BE MADE OVER WHICH SLEEP WILL NOT BE LOST,” he emphasized.

Silver is holding on to its gold medal — at least from retail traders. Per data from SwaggyStocks, the iShares Silver Trust has been the top trending ticker in the r/WallStreetBets subreddit over each of the past 12 hours, 1 day, and 1 week — with mentions over the past week roughly triple that of the SPDR Gold Shares ETF .

Since really becoming popular with retail traders last October, gold and silver have only gained in status, with both seeming to make gains in both risk-off and risk-on environments.

Just this week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comment on the Department of Justice subpoenas gave both of the precious metals a chance to prove their mettle as a store of value, but silver’s volatility and relentlessly positive price action — prices have nearly tripled in the last year — are seeing it win over more volatility-seeking fans on Reddit. That increased retail attention is translating into serious trading activity, with volumes for the SLV ETF hitting an average turnover of $9.6 billion over the last five trading sessions, 61% more than what changed hands in GLD.

With super-high electrical conductivity, silver is widely used in electronics — making it more vulnerable to supply shocks. Indeed, the silver market is currently experiencing thin inventories in London (where benchmark silver prices are set) just as new export restrictions from China, a leading silver producer, started on January 1.