Gold prices have surged to a record high. Silver, however, has flashed brightly behind the scenes, as evidenced by the performance of related shares and exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Silver has experienced a bull market of its own, standing in the shadow of the $1,038 per ounce in gold. Jeff P. Opdyke for The Wall Street Journal reports that the metal is up 44% this year, recently topping $17 a troy ounce.

Why do investors have a taste for gold and leave silver glistening quietly behind? The answer is not simple, but silver has two sides that appeal to investors.

• It’s a precious metal accumulated by investors and central banks as a quasi-currency.
• It’s an industrial metal with an increasing number of applications in health care, electronics and even food and clothing.

Which side of silver really shines? Silver’s precious-metal characteristics are driving prices at the moment. As inflation anxiety mounts and the health of the U.S. dollar is doubted, investors and speculators look to the metals as a hedge to a weak currency.

As investor demand wanes, though, prices may fall sharply because silver’s market is a much smaller one. Industrial demand won’t grow fast enough to supplant investment demand. Have a stop loss in place to protect yourself when the trend reverses itself.

Related ETFs:

• ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSEArca: SIVR): up 19.5% since inception

• iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV): up 46.3% year-to-date

• PowerShares DB Silver (NYSEArca: DBS): up 45.4% year-to-date

For more stories about silver, visit our silver category.

Tags: Commodity ETFs, DBS, Precious Metals, Silver, SIVR, SLV