Silver has been on a strong run recently, with plenty of volatility for both bulls and bears.
It’s up 100% over the past six months, despite a big pullback in January from its all-time high.
And looking back further, silver has soared some 270% since the start of 2024, as investors became increasingly nervous about the economy and the potential for inflation in the global economy. U.S. debt levels continue to mount, raising the prospect of more inflation in the future and hurting the value of the dollar.
Precious metals such as silver and gold have acted as defensive stores of value over long periods of time, and investors have turned to them in periods of anxiety.
So what’s the best way to play silver as it makes its way again toward $100?
Investors looking to play silver’s rebound should consider one of the best silver exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). They offer investors an easy and convenient way to invest in the metal or in silver miners… and can even help add the benefit of diversification. ETFs are a great pick for all levels of investors looking to quickly establish a position without as much heavy analysis needed to invest in individual silver stocks.
Here are some of the top silver ETFs and the many benefits they offer investors. (Investors looking to invest in gold will find all the details on the best gold ETFs here.)
How to Invest in Silver
Some investors like to collect silver coins or silver bullion, but others prefer to invest in silver through ETFs, which offer quite a few advantages.
Those looking for the best silver ETFs have access to funds that offer a variety of exposure:
- Physical silver: These ETFs own silver bullion safeguarded in a vault. The fund’s performance closely mirrors the performance of silver prices minus the fund’s expense ratio. It’s a good alternative to owning silver bullion or coins yourself.
- Established miners: These funds own the stocks of companies mining silver as well as various other metals, such as gold. These funds tend to fluctuate more than funds based on physical silver, so they move both up and down faster than the price of silver.
- Junior miners: These funds own more speculative miners, which may have yet to even dig a hole in the ground, let alone have a working mine.
Because of these differences, it’s important to understand exactly what your ETF is investing in and the type of exposure you’re looking for. These funds respond differently as silver prices fluctuate. Silver may be moving for a variety of reasons, including the decisions of the Federal Reserve on interest rates.
The performance differences are clear in the table below. Physical silver funds each have similar price changes, while the miner ETFs have moved up more. When the price of silver changes, miner ETFs can move up and down even more.
Top Silver ETFs: Overview
MarketWise chose the silver ETFs below based on a few characteristics:
- U.S. funds classified as silver or materials funds
- Low cost, with expense ratios less than 0.75%
- Assets under management of at least $500 million
1. iShares Silver Trust (SLV)
This fund is the largest publicly traded physical silver fund, and it charges a reasonable expense ratio. This fund closely tracks the price performance of silver minus the fund’s expense ratio.
- Five-year annual return: 26.9%
2. abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR)
While smaller, this physical bullion fund has a lower expense ratio than the iShares fund above, meaning more of your money stays in your pocket. Like that fund, this abrdn fund closely mirrors the performance of silver’s spot price, less its low expense ratio.
- Five-year annual return: 27.2%
3. Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL)
Global X Silver Miners ETF holds silver-miner stocks, and has shown stronger returns than the physical bullion funds over the last year. Key holdings include Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM), Pan American Silver (PAAS), Coeur Mining (CDE), and Hecla Mining (HL).
- Five-year annual return: 22.1%
4. iShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF (SLVP)
This iShares fund invests in miners of silver and other metals, and has shown stronger returns than bullion-only funds over the past year. Key positions include Hecla Mining, First Majestic Silver (AG), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), and Endeavour Silver (EXK).
- Five-year annual return: 23.6%
5. Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF (SLVR)
Sprott is often associated with metals and commodities, and this fund of miners and physical silver has shown strong returns over the past year. Key holdings include First Majestic Silver, Americas Gold and Silver Corp (USAS), Silvercorp Metals (SVM), and Endeavour Silver. This fund was founded in early 2025, so it does not have a long-term track record.
- Five-year annual return: N/A
6. Amplify Junior Silver Miners ETF (SILJ)
This ETF invests in junior miners, though it also has a significant portion of its assets in some of the stocks found in the other funds above. Key positions include First Majestic Silver, Coeur Mining, Hecla Mining, and Wheaton Precious Metals.
- Five-year annual return: 21.1%
Pros and Cons of Buying Silver ETFs
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of investing in a silver ETF.
Advantages of Silver ETFs
- Defensive store of value: Silver has long been a defensive store of value, with investors turning to it during harder economic times.
- Inflation hedge: Investors may also use silver as an inflation hedge, to safeguard against high inflation. If investors are concerned about rising inflation, they may choose silver as a way to protect their portfolios.
- Diversification: Precious metals such as silver can help diversify a portfolio that’s heavy with more traditional assets like stocks and bonds, helping lower its overall risk.
- Easier to invest in silver: A silver ETF makes it quite easy to invest in the precious metal, compared with buying physical silver. In addition, Investors can buy a portfolio of silver miners and play the trend without having to analyze individual mining stocks.
- Trades at fair market value: A physical silver ETF is a better buy than owning bullion directly. The fund trades at fair market value, meaning you’ll avoid the huge spread markups from metals dealers when you buy and sell bullion directly from them. You could easily lose 15% of your investment through dealer spreads.
- Miner stocks have leveraged upside to silver prices: Miners tend to move up faster than silver itself. That is, if silver rises, a miner’s profits tend to rise even faster. That benefit translates into ETFs that hold these miner stocks.
- No safeguarding needed: Physical silver ETFs let you avoid all the worry of keeping your silver secure. That’s part of what you’re paying for with the fund’s expense ratio.
Disadvantages of Silver ETFs
- Silver pricing can be highly speculative: Silver can move about wildly sometimes and can be highly speculative. So the fair price for silver can be difficult to value in contrast to cash-flowing assets such as stocks, which can be priced more accurately.
- Prices can be volatile: Silver prices can fluctuate a lot in the short term, even if it tends to increase in value over a longer period. Silver has been on a strong run over the past couple years, but its price history shows strong reversals for long periods.
- Leverage can hurt your returns: Leverage is great for miners and miner ETFs as silver is rising, but it can hurt just as much on the way down. Leverage cuts both ways.
- Physical silver ETFs are subject to higher tax rates: Profit from ETFs holding physical silver, which the Internal Revenue Service classifies as a collectible, are subject to tax rates up to 28% – higher than long-term capital gains rates for stock ETFs, for example. That’s no worse than what you’d owe from owning bullion directly, however.
- Silver doesn’t generate cash flow: Silver is only a metal – not a business – so it does not produce cash flow or pay dividends to investors. So, the only way to make money with physical bullion – or the ETF version of it – is if the price of silver rises over time. In contrast, ETFs invested in miners can grow their profits over time and pay dividends.
- Long-term returns are lower than stocks: Despite silver’s bull run over the past couple years, its long-term returns are lower than those of the S&P 500 Index, which has averaged about 10% annually over time. In the five years to March 11, 2026, silver has averaged about 6.1% annual gains – after its massive run in 2025 and 2026.
- Miner ETFs are not pure silver plays: In their normal course of business, miners dig up more than just silver, often including gold and other precious metals. Miners ETFs won’t provide pure exposure to silver.
How to Buy Silver ETFs
The silver ETFs above and others are available at any brokerage that lets you trade on public exchanges. But the key for investors is understanding the returns and exposure you can expect from the fund, and whether it matches your financial objectives and needs.
- Understand your financial goals: What is your expectation by investing in silver? Are you trying to earn the return of silver spot prices, or do you want better returns? Do you want portfolio diversification and relative safety or to focus on higher potential long-term returns with added risk?
- Analyze the fund’s holdings: The silver ETFs above perform differently from one another because they own different types of silver investments. Funds with physical silver track the metal’s spot price closely, while miner ETFs fluctuate a lot more. So, miner funds may deliver higher returns, though they’re more risky, since they’ll likely sink faster than the price of silver, too. Match your financial goals to the fund’s positions.
- Don’t forget the expense ratio: Be sure to check the expense ratio of any fund you’re investing in. If two funds are tracking the spot price of a metal – so they’re giving you literally the same exposure – there’s no reason to pay a higher fee.
Going with miner ETFs and their potentially higher returns may not be necessary. Just adding silver exposure helps diversify and hedge out some risk from an otherwise stock-heavy portfolio.
Silver ETF FAQs
Are silver ETFs better than owning silver coins or bullion?
Silver ETFs are a great alternative to owning coins or bullion. If your goal is having exposure to the spot price of silver, you can achieve that with funds holding physical silver. These funds hold bullion, so their price performance closely tracks the price of silver, less the fund’s expense ratio. But these funds offer a vital advantage over holding coins or bullion directly yourself.
If you own physical silver, a dealer will always buy or sell at a spread to the fair market value of silver. This spread is the dealer’s profit. So, you’ll pay more than silver’s spot price when you buy, and you’ll sell for less than the fair value when you close a position. You’ll never get fair market value, and you may give up as much as 15% of the total value just from the spread.
In contrast, with physical silver ETFs you’ll always transact at fair market value since there’s far more liquidity on the exchange. These funds deliver the same price performance as silver minus the fund’s expense ratio. You can sell any time the market is open without a problem.
In addition, with ETFs you don’t need to worry about the security of your silver holdings.
Do silver ETFs perform better than physical silver?
A silver ETF’s performance depends on what it’s invested in. So, a fund’s performance may differ markedly from the performance of silver prices, both positively and negatively.
For instance, a physical silver ETF holds real bullion in a secured vault. This kind of fund will perform almost exactly like the spot price of silver over time, minus the fund’s expense ratio.
On the other hand, a fund investing in miners will usually be more volatile than the price of silver. Mining stocks will usually rise faster than the price of silver and decline faster than silver falls.
Therefore, it’s vital to understand a fund’s investments so you can understand how it’s likely to perform in response to changes in silver prices.
What is the minimum investment in a silver ETF?
Usually, a brokerage requires you to purchase at least one whole share of a fund to transact, meaning that the minimum investment varies depending on the ETF price at the time. One ETF might cost $30, while another might be $100 or even $200.
However, many brokerages today allow you to buy fractional shares of stocks and funds, many times with as little as $5 or $10. So, you can buy a portion of a share, regardless of the fund’s price. No fund is too expensive to buy. Fractional shares are a great way for beginners to get in the investing game with silver ETFs, even with little money.
Regards,
James Royal
Editor’s Note: Forbes calls $1 billion fund manager Louis Navellier “the king of quants.” Today, he’s stepping forward to reveal why he’s investing $358 million of his own firm’s money in the next stage of Artificial Intelligence… a technological sea-change that could erase millions of jobs, solve humanity’s biggest mysteries, and spark a wave of moneymaking opportunities — both in and outside the stock market.
