After large upswings in the price per ounce of silver early last year, the price of silver has cooled down, until recently.  Silver is now touching all-time highs again with the price per ounce nearing the $19 mark.  ETFs like NYSE:SLV are reaching new highs with volume on that fund seeing larger than normal spikes.

Mining stocks, which have been a bit boring as of late, have also seen upswings in their prices, although with no real reason for such a turn. Investors are looking to put their money in more traditionally safe vehicles like silver trusts and silver bars and that is just where things look like they’re headed.

China isn’t giving the bullish reports (although the china bulls are calling for amazing growth over the past 2 years) there is a slow down on the horizon it would seem.  The stock market is falling backwards, the dollar is advancing and precious metals like silver and gold are falling by the wayside.

Just check out this article about SLV and GLD ETFs. They have been slammed along with the price of silver and gold. Once what was on a tear is now on the decline. So what gives?

Could it be that all the hedge funds, mutual funds, and general investing public is taken profits after a rediculous upswing that cause outrageous ratios that didn’t make sense? PE’s that made 10 years down the road, but really, willing to by GE at a PE of 30? Doubtful.

OK, so we exaggerate.

But honestly, with the worldwide economy cooling, is it wise to take your money out of precious metals? We thing not. We think it’s a perfect time to buy precious metals. Prices are retreating all over the place, because the economy isn’t as great as everyone thought it was. Who cares? Why not get in on some deals and buy silver at these reduced rates while China and India prepare for the growth they promise?

While gold is ever stretching towards new highs, silver is still lagging behind. Silver ranged in price from $10 to $19 in 2009, still well, well below it’s highest price ever. $49.50. That’s right, in 1980 the price of silver was 2.5 to 5 times higher than it’s all time high of nearly $50!

Gold on the other hand continues to break through it’s all time highs as world banks stock pile the precious metal to back their currencies and individual investors buy gold to combat inflation, looming around every corner.

So where oh where will the price of silver go? We think up, and up and up. But what do we know, we just write this blog….

Silver was down nearly a dollar after showing signs of regaining those highs seen over the last few months. However, with the Stock Market looking like it may not be the abiss that many thought it was, we may just see a slowdown in precious metals purchasing leading to lower prices.

Is the commodiites run over? What’s your opinion? I can’t see that happening with the expansion everywhere in the world, the need for silver in industrial processes, and comments like these comments on blog silver how can there be a retreat in prices. There may be a dip but probably not a retreat.

Silver prices are topping $18 an ounce currently and gold is shooting past $940. The EU reported that it’s nations saw inflation of 3.6% in month of March making the 15-nation currrency rise to $1.5978 against the dollar. An all-time high!

The dollar also dropped against both the British pound and the Japanese yen. The European Central Bank, in charge of the Euro, unlike the US Fed, will work to curb inflation by not lowering interests rates below 4%.

This IPO, lower interest rates from the Fed, and some people thinking the price of most precious metals is way too high, like gold and silver, makes for a tough market on silver. In one week the price of silver went down nearly 4 dollars a troy ounce. You knew it had to happen sooner or later, the price was just escalating to rapidly.

So what does that mean for your investment strategy? Should you get out too? Well if you bought at $21, I might have to suggest sticking it out, (although don’t take my investment advice, I beg you). But with the recent sell off, and inflation not being helped by lower interest rates (at least I think that’s how it goes) you may see the price of silver climb again.

But don’t bet the house on it, only as much as you can loose.

The following, pulled from an article on Money.com Jon Nadler, a senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers in Montreal

He says it is “not inconceivable” to see gold prices reach $1,000 an ounce before the Federal Reserve meets on March 18, depending on what sort of economic data is released between now and then.

Gold at $1,000 a troy ounce. What then is Silver’s $1k mark? Is it $20, is it $25, or could it even be going to $30!!!

I’ll put my money on silver settling around $22 a troy ounce by the end of the month. That’s almost doubling it’s price in the last 5 months. As the market gets more and more volatile investors will need safer places to put their money, and with the dollar looking weak and continuing on that trend, precious metals just seem like the right place to go.

We here at Blog Silver have been tracking silver for a while, and have been very bullish on silver both with the dollar declining, and with China expanding with the rest of the world, silver is looking like an easy way to get into the precious metals market. It might be tough to get into the gold market, with the price of gold being over $900 per ounce, silver is much easier being under $20.

With silver being included in a lot of computer parts, and the rest of the world catching up to America in terms of technological advancements, the world will need a lot of metal to keep up with all those advancements. One of those metals, easy to get into, is silver.

With the economy showing strong signs of not knowing what the heck it wants to do, you’ll begin to people pulling their money out of the stock market and putting it into safer investments. One of those investments, as it has historically been, is precious metals like gold and silver.

With China and other developing nations gobbling up commodities lowering the available supply out there, with ETF’s like SLV making it easier for individual small investors to buy precious metals, one would think the price of silver would rise.

We think it’ll go to $20 soon enough, and if you’re looking for a good play outside of the world of stocks and bonds, you may want to look into buying silver.

As earnings come out for several large companies in the US the dollar, and more so the US economy will help dictate if the world still wants to keep it’s money safe in things like precious metals (although not always that safe).

Time will tell if the price of silver can surpass the $20 mark, which doesn’t seem too far fetched as the demand continues to grow around the world in newly developed nations such as China, and with the economy still so volatile.