It’s at a Record High — but We’re Beating Gold’s A$$

Just last week, I was talking about the precious metals bull, and silver prices in particular. 

Both gold and silver are up amid geopolitical conflict, trade wars, ballooning debt (and defaults), mixed employment numbers, and the persistent force of inflation.

If you’ve been watching, you’ve seen gold careen through one record high after another. 

Just yesterday the price of gold topped a new record above $3,800 an ounce.

However, silver has quietly been the better play, as it’s up 57% YTD, compared to a 44% jump for gold. 

Accordingly, precious metals ETFS have seen massive inflows of cash as investors scramble to get in. 

Gold ETFs recorded an inflow of $38 billion in the first half of 2025, with their collective holdings rising by 397.1 metric tons, according to the World Gold Council.

Meanwhile, silver funds saw net inflows of 95 million ounces, taking total global holdings to 1.13 billion ounces, which is just 7% below their peak level of 1.21 billion ounces in February 2021.

ETFs are, of course, considered one of the most investor-friendly options, because you don’t need to trade or store physical metal or deal with futures contracts. 

Feeding off the metals’ price momentum the SPDR Gold Trust fund (NYSE: GLD) is up 45% YTD, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) is up 61%.

Each of those returns is slightly ahead of their underlying assets. 

But now, let’s talk about miners — because that’s where the real money is. 

I know because we have a plethora of gold and silver plays over in The Wealth Advisory — an investment publication I briefly co-managed with Jason Williams before jumping ship to The Crow’s Nest.

Now, you may have inferred that these gold and silver mining stocks have outpaced the gains of both the metals they mine and the ETFs designed to mirror those gains.

But I think you might be surprised by just how much they’ve outperformed their counterparts.

To that point, looking at our two main gold mining stocks…

One is up 123% YTD, while the other is up 197%. 

That’s astonishing considering the price of gold is up just 44% this year, and its headline ETF has turned out a 45% gain.

Those gains would be impressive if the miners benefiting from them weren’t 3x–4x higher.

At the same time, one of our dedicated silver plays is up 93% YTD and a second is up 106%.

That absolutely dwarfs the 61% gain of the SLV ETF and the 57% increase in silver prices. In fact, we’re close to doubling them. 

And keep in mind that this whole thing is just getting started. 

Broadly speaking, retail investors have only just begun to wade into precious metals. 

In truth, they’ve been far too enamoured with the massive leaps made by AI startups and surging crypto currencies to even notice that gold and silver are in the early stages of a generational run. 

Again, take one look at those ETF inflows and you’ll see that’s changing. 

And if you’re happy with those ETF returns, that’s fine. 

But as I mentioned, gold and silver miners are performing magnitudes better. 

And if you look at the difference in return between gold and silver miners, you’ll see that silver probably has more upside, as it tends to lag behind its bigger brother. 

So if you want to profit from this trend, and if you want to outperform both precious metals prices and the respective returns of their ETFs, then sign up for Jason William’s latest report on silver mining stocks.

He doesn’t just have one or two high-flying silver plays — he’s giving you four silver stocks, along with a bonus gold play to boot. 

So be sure to snag that report if you haven’t already.