Gold vs. silver – the gold/silver ratio since 1999

The ratio is calculated daily from the gold and silver price.

Peaks and troughs mean different things

When the figure spikes — as during the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic in March 2020 — it's usually because panic buying lifts gold faster than silver, which is traded primarily as an industrial and investment metal. When the figure falls quickly, it's often a sign that economic optimism is pulling demand for silver up.

Can you trade on the ratio?

A classic — but slow — strategy is to switch between the metals: sell the more expensive one and buy the cheaper one when the ratio reaches extreme levels. The strategy requires patience over many years, and there's no guarantee the figure will revert to historical averages. The structure of the silver market has changed markedly since the 20th century.

Silver differs in two ways

First, the silver price is far more volatile — the same percentage move in both metals hits silver twice as hard, because the price level is lower. Second, silver is subject to VAT when bought in Denmark (25%), while investment gold is VAT-exempt. That makes silver a more expensive entry than the spot price suggests.

A price chart for gold, silver, or other precious metals shows the historical development of a given market price over time, typically based on spot prices from international markets. The chart illustrates the course of the price but says nothing about what the future will bring.

It is important to understand that historical price movements cannot be used to predict future price movements. Charts should therefore be regarded as a historical reference tool and not as a basis for investment decisions or judgments about whether it is 'a good day to sell'.

The live quote is the latest available observation from MetalFlowAPI. The timestamp beside the price shows its age. Quotes can remain unchanged when the market is closed, and a cached quote can be displayed during a data interruption.

Before using a displayed price for an actual transaction, one should always confirm the actual, current price directly with the dealer or platform where the trade is to be carried out, as there can be a significant difference between a displayed price and the price actually offered.

When historical price data is exported to CSV format for further analysis, this often happens after downsampling, where a large number of original data points (ticks) is reduced to a smaller number of representative points, for example one price per hour or day.

A downsampled CSV file is therefore not a complete representation of all original price fluctuations, and brief spikes or dips between the saved points may be omitted. This should be taken into account if the data is used for detailed analysis.

Users should also be aware that different data providers may show slightly different prices for the same point in time, depending on which marketplace or reference source they base their quote on, which further underlines that a chart should be used for overview rather than as the sole basis for a decision.

Finally, one should remember that charts showing percentage changes over a given period can be sensitive to the chosen start and end points, and that a different time interval can easily produce quite a different visual impression of the development without the underlying data having changed.