Silver: Buy now or sorrow later as Gold will be outperformed

NEW YORK (Scrap Monster): The poor man's gold, silver to outperform gold in coming month, said Juerg Kiener, the MD and CIO of Swiss Asia Capital.

With gold and silver prices both on a bull run over the last month, many investors that want to get into the action are trying to decide which precious metal is right for them.

In a recent interview with ET, he indicated his opinion that though gold prices are on the rise in the short to mid-term, silver is currently under-valued and could be poised for a substantial run-up soon.

Kiener suggests that it is time to buy silver because, as 'the poor man's gold', silver also benefits from its usefulness in industrial applications, the fact that its market is much smaller and that once gold is priced too high for investors to buy, they will turn to silver.

Gold prices have been predicted to hit incredibly high levels per ounce, depending upon whom one listens to, with prices striking anywhere from $2,000 an ounce to $10,000 an ounce by 2015.

If what Kiener states about the global economy proves to be true, investors are almost certain to take gold and silver more seriously as investments that can assist them in protecting their wealth and even growing it.

"For people who are not able to afford gold anymore, silver becomes very attractive," Kiener said. "So we are looking at silver to outperform gold over the next two-three years."

That is a bold prediction and not one that all investors or economists will agree with, but it seems to be a plausible line of thought given all the recent global instability. Central banks can print more money, but even they are shoring themselves up by purchasing massive quantities of gold and other precious metal assets.

All of these indicators do not exactly point to a booming economic recovery across the globe, especially as the juggernaut China begins to see its impressive growth slow quarter after quarter. Investor confidence remains uneven too in big stock markets such as in the United States.

Obviously, no one can predict what the future will bring, but if Kiener and others of his mindset are right, then silver is likely to see a truly impressive rally. The good news about silver is that its price is so low that even first time investors with very little to spend can afford to own an ounce or two right away if they buy at today's prices. This is a nice spark of hope in what might otherwise look like a dismal economic picture around much of the world today.