Silver price surges amid investor frenzy — but Reddit says it isn't them - CBC.ca

Silver broke above $30 US an ounce for the first time since 2013 on Monday, the latest asset to see a pop in a volatile few weeks on markets.

Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist with SIA Wealth Management in Toronto, said silver has apparently become the next asset to get caught up in the GameStop frenzy.

"The most significant move this morning has been in silver, which was a trending topic in the media and on Reddit over the weekend with a lot of chatter (both for and against) that it could be the next market to become active in the wake of GameStop's big move last week," he said. 

A Reddit group known as WallStreetBets, managed to help drive up the price of Gamestop shares 1,600 per cent in the past two weeks, costing short sellers billions on the process.

Spot silver leapt more than 11 per cent in London to $30.03 an ounce and was on track for its biggest one-day rise since 2008, taking gains to about 19 per cent since last Wednesday.

The jump set off a rally in silver-mining stocks from Sydney to London.

The action in silver, following thousands of Reddit posts and hundreds of YouTube videos suggests that a rise in the physical price could hurt large investors with bearish bets and marks a foray into a much bigger and more liquid market than individual stocks.

However, within the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, some members were adamant targeting silver is not their next strategy. They said outsiders are trying to pump the stock, including some large funds seeking to drive up the value of their silver stocks to offset losses elsewhere — and the strategy appears to be working. 

Analysts who monitor silver markets say there is more to the story than small investors rushing in.

"The asset is traded by a variety of institutional players and it is very likely that those parties have joined the move to push the metal higher," wrote Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management.

On Twitter, #silversqueeze was trending as investors turned their attention to silver, but some members of the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit insisted this was not their latest strategy. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Craig Erlam with foreign exchange firm Erlam said regardless of why silver is moving, it's clear there is a new power dynamic underway in markets. "It will obviously be fascinating to see which area of the market Reddit traders target next and what the knock-on effects will be elsewhere," he said in a note.

Rise of new trading platforms

The rush to silver and GameStop-like stocks has been testing limitations in newer trading platforms and processing venues, frustrating retail traders who are unable to feed their hunger to buy and sell more frequently.

The feverish silver-buying has hit a glitch, with large U.S. broker Apmex warning of processing delays while it secures more bullion. The Money Metals online exchange suspended trade until mid-morning Monday.

Trading volumes in small miners' stocks in Australia were unprecedented and jumps in some exploration firms, which do not actually produce silver, topped 90 per cent.

Similar hiccups were seen in equities last week. GameStop, AMC and a few other volatile stocks saw temporary buying restrictions in trading apps like Robinhood, as frenzied buying led to trading apps putting on curbs.

"The Reddit crowd has turned its sights on a bigger whale in terms of trying to catalyze something of a short squeeze in the silver market," said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at brokerage IG Markets in Melbourne.

"This is their big, bold Moby Dick moment."

Stock in video game retailer GameStop saw huge increases last week as a cadre of retail investors mobilized to buy it up. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Another 'short squeeze'

The popularity of dabbling in stock markets has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic as volatility, stimulus checks and lockdowns have driven account openings and investment.

The craze hit fever pitch last week when the GameStop pile-on resulted in a "short squeeze," turning price gains stratospheric as hedge funds with bets against the stock desperately bought it at high prices to close their positions.

Now it is silver's turn and once again the scale of buying is catching the professionals by surprise.

Online discussions turned to silver late last week as Reddit posts suggested higher prices could hurt banks with large short positions, and that buying easy-to-access exchange-traded silver funds could quickly ramp up the metal's value.

Retail traders poured a record $39.1 million Cdn into Australian ETF Securities' Physical Silver fund by the afternoon. A silver ETF in Japan surged 11 per cent.

So far, the Redditors are rolling on. Several of the renegade traders are millionaires on paper and their hedge fund adversaries are nursing their wounds. Melvin Capital, which bet against GameStop, lost 53 per cent on its portfolio in January.

The trading app Robinhood has exploded in popularity this year by offering free trading, fuelling a boom in retail investor activity. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Robinhood, the Redditors' main broker, has also backed down and lifted some of the buying restrictions it imposed last week, although limits remain on eight companies, including GameStop, AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry.

However, with regulators circling both Robinhood and the Redditors' forums, the battle is far from over.

"I'll tell you one thing, [I] absolute guarantee this ends in tears," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets (Australia). "I just don't know when." 

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2021-02-01 16:32:00Z
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