These are not good times for exchange traded funds backed by precious metals and silver ETFs are taking the brunt of that punishment.
In just the past month, the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV) and the ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSEArca: SIVR) are down 10.1%. The metal’s recent move below $20.50 is seen as ominous from a technical perspective. [Silver: Worse Before It Gets Better]
Some technical analysts see more price retrenchment for silver in the near-term. Glen Ring, editor of View on Futures and a longtime technical chart watcher, and Andrew Thrasher, a chartered market technician and investment analyst at Financial Enhancement Group, believe silver’s July low around $18 could be retested, reports Charlotte McLeod for Silver Investing News.
“The break of the key support at $20.50 favors a move towards the next key support at $18.23,” said Luc Luyet, a senior analyst at MIG in Switzerland, according to Bloomberg.
Silver is the second-worst performer, after corn, in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities. SLV is down nearly 36% this year.
Interestingly, options activity indicates some traders are leaning long on the white metal.
Thursday’s “options activity in SLV seemed to correspond with the “sentiment” in SLV, at least judging by its year to date asset flows, that some institutional players are leaning long. We noticed out of the
money upside calls trade in SLV yesterday during the volatile session, specifically the July 21.50 strikes,” wrote Paul Weisbruch of Street One Financial in a note. [Chart of the Day: Not So Precious Metals]
The double-leveraged ProShares UltraShort Silver (NYSEArca: ZSL) is up 7.4% in the past week.
iShares Silver Trust
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post. Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of SLV.