What's a Better Asset right now: Silver or Bitcoins?

[creativex]

Don't kid yourself. Silver is stable ATM, but it's a firecracker. I last played the GSR, swapping AG for AU at nearly $48/Ozt. It then fell to $29/Ozt and has worked it's way back up to $33. If you want stable and reliable then buy gold, both silver and bitcoins are volatile.

[barbarousrelic]

It's value in fiat changes a lot.



Gold is rather tranquil by comparison.

Yeah but that's the value of money changing not silver.

Certainly not. The spending power of the dollar did not go down by 80% from 2008 to 2010, and then up by 30% from 2010 to present (in any sense other than the dollar price of silver.) These changes are almost entirely due to changes in the value of silver.

A set number of dollars could not buy five times more labor, or butter, or gasoline, or real estate in 2008 than it would in early 2010.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Exactly.  The decline in purcashing power of the dollar is pushing the longer multi-year trend however anyone saying silver is "stable" just uneducated.   The daily and weekly moves aren't suddenly caused by a major change in purcashing power of the dollar.

I mean if it was then one would expect McDonald's combo meal to be $4 this week, $5 last week, and $2.25 at the start of the year.  Sometimes during the day the price of a meal will jump $0.50 while you are standing in line.

[creativex]

Yeah, a combination of a small silver market and lots of manipulation is a recipe for wild swings. This need not be a bad thing if you have the anti-acids handy and can keep emotion in check. On the contrary silver investing can be tremendously profitable.

[swarkal]

Both are fairly liquid assets.  But the volatility of bitcoin could be potentially more damaging then the trend silver has shown since '09. 

A careful mixture of both seems to be the more conservative approach.

[tiberiandusk]

I'd rather have silver because the value of Silver remains the same however the value of Bitcoins are changing.

Lots of stuff I've read lately says silver is due for a crash.

[creativex]

Yeah. Either silver will go up or it'll go down...or maybe it'll stay the same. Meh.

I recommend buying when it goes on sale and swapping for gold when it gets too long in the tooth.

[JonMcAlpine]

Exactly.  The decline in purcashing power of the dollar is pushing the longer multi-year trend however anyone saying silver is "stable" just uneducated.   The daily and weekly moves aren't suddenly caused by a major change in purcashing power of the dollar.

I mean if it was then one would expect McDonald's combo meal to be $4 this week, $5 last week, and $2.25 at the start of the year.  Sometimes during the day the price of a meal will jump $0.50 while you are standing in line.

Well how come silver is fluctuating so much?

[kwoody]

I'm just going to repeat what other people have been saying.
The most reliable portfolio of investments is the one that is the most diversified.

[TangibleCryptography]

I'm just going to repeat what other people have been saying.
The most reliable portfolio of investments is the one that is the most diversified.

No truer words have been said.  If you are looking to diversify your BTC holdings, FastCash4Bitcoins https://fastcash4bitcoins.com offers brilliant uncirculated Canadian Maple Leaf 1 oz coins.  Available as single coin (in premium airtite capsule) or as a 25 coin mint tube.  Need a lot of silver.  We can do custom orders of 200 oz or more just drop of a PM.  Personally I like 10 oz silver stacker bars.  Nothing like opening up a good quality safe and seeing your wealth "stacked up".

[Chief Satangkai]

I diversify between metals from coinabul, perfect money and bitcoin. Silver and gold makes me sleep at night...

[JonMcAlpine]

To be fair I think you people think the "value" of Silver is fluctuating a lot because they "value" of currency is, that's what the charts are based on anyway. I quote from a documentary I saw "One silver coin gets you two goats a thousand years ago, one silver coin gets you two goats today." The value of silver doesn't change, the value of money does (for obvious reason).

[creativex]

That theory accounts for the longer term upward trend in silver. It does not account for the tremendous day to day volatility that silver displays. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, the silver market is tiny and it's manipulated by some large players, resulting in wild swings.

[Code_red]

just my 2 cents but bitcoin seems to have a large market for growth as a payment medium alone

[creativex]

Indeed and with kewl projects like coinbase just getting revved up, the greedy SOBs @ paypal had better watch their backs.

[barbarousrelic]

To be fair I think you people think the "value" of Silver is fluctuating a lot because they "value" of currency is, that's what the charts are based on anyway. I quote from a documentary I saw "One silver coin gets you two goats a thousand years ago, one silver coin gets you two goats today." The value of silver doesn't change, the value of money does (for obvious reason).

The dollar value of silver swung up by a factor of 4 between December 2008 and December 2010.

The dollar value of goat meat did not quadruple during that time. The price of silver changed.

[nobbynobbynoob]

The dollar value of silver swung up by a factor of 4 between December 2008 and December 2010.

The dollar value of goat meat did not quadruple during that time. The price of silver changed.

Fair enough.

I think you have to consider the long-term merits of stable and sound money, e.g. gold and silver. I was sitting close to (if not in) the front row at Charles Vollum's sound-money lecture at September's London Bitcoin conference, and he raised a very interesting point:

In 1900, a year's tuition at Yale cost about a kilogram of gold.
Today, a year's tuition at Yale costs... about a kilogram of gold.

Yes, the price of a Yale degree has fluctuated somewhat around that, e.g. a 1980 trough due to a high gold price and a 2000 peak due to a lower gold price, but has clearly tended around the 1kg mark. The dollar price has simply gone up and up (inflation/dollar debasement).

Vollum made the point that hard-money investors should try hard to detach themselves from assigning value too centrally in fiat terms. Psychologically, this is trickier than it might seem, given how everything around us, generally including wages, is priced in fiat.

[normanbatez]

Silver. would rather have a physical currency. Plus when the zombie apocalypse happens try trading bitcoins.