IN YOUR NAME ONLY
We stress taking silver into your physical possession or storing it at Brink’s in your name with the serial numbers of your bars on your storage agreement. In that way it’s your silver. When you own an exchange traded silver fund (ETF) the bars are comingled with other bars. Furthermore, an ETF is sometimes short silver even though its prospectus professes otherwise.
However, the main reason to prefer your own silver is that ETFs make it too easy to sell. When the price goes up, the temptation to take a small profit causes selling. It’s almost like you don’t really own it. Time and again we see people sell out of the ETF but continue to hold the silver they own or have stored in their names. Investors are far less likely to sell the actual physical silver. Consequently, the chances for a larger profit exists with real silver in your name.
Some writers have claimed that little or no silver exists in the ETFs. We don’t agree with that assessment but anything is possible if silver soars to the levels that Ted Butler predicts. A number of major brokerage firms have sold silver that doesn’t exist. A few years ago, Morgan Stanley was sued by a client who couldn’t get the serial numbers from them for his bars. They admitted in court they were charging storage fees on silver that didn’t exist. They had no silver and claimed as their defense that everybody does it. As if this isn’t bad enough, a number of pool accounts exist that don’t have silver and some foreign banks, dealers and mints are in the same boat. In effect, a lot more outfits are short silver than just the big traders on the COMEX. Imagine what could happen in a short squeeze where all the shorts are in a panic to cover and are buying physical silver. That’s when you will be glad that your silver is yours alone.
