US retail traders buy silver ETFs faster than tech favorites, Vanda Research says

Jan 27 (Reuters) – Retail traders’ appetite for silver shows no sign of slowing in the U.S. stock market, with flows now rivaling popular technology trades, Vanda Research said.

Individual investors net bought about $171 million of iShares Silver Trust on Monday, nearly double the $93 million one-day peak set during the 2021 silver squeeze, when investors banded together on Reddit to drive up GameStop and silver, the analytics firm said.

“The chase in silver is now more intense than the classic AI trade,” Vanda Research’s head of product, Ashwin Bhakre, said, noting the turnover in iShares Silver Trust was running at more than 11 times its usual pace, surpassing Nvidia’s roughly sevenfold increase.

Combined retail and institutional interest has driven volume in iShares Silver Trust to several times that of the widely traded SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust this month, LSEG data showed.

Some investors also wagered against the rally. ProShares Ultrashort Silver ETF, which tracks twice the inverse of a silver index, saw trading activity about four times higher than usual, Vanda said, showing strong retail interest in bets that silver prices will fall.

The retail frenzy has also spilled into mining stocks. Hecla Mining and Coeur Mining have made their way to the top 50 most actively traded names, according to Vanda.

Silver prices had tripled in the past year, exceeding $100 an ounce, driven by a mix of retail speculation, momentum-driven buying and persistent shortages in physical supply.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)