When will Silver make a new high?

In last week’s Metals, Mining, and Money, Jeff Clark estimated that given the magnitude of the correction that started last September, it may take until May 2012 for Gold to reach a new high. This week let’s take a look at how long it may take forSilver to rebound.

It’s a commonly known fact that silver is more volatile than gold. Already in this decade, silver has risen by a factor of 12 from its ten-year low ($48.70 vs. $4.07), while gold has seen about a sevenfold climb ($255.95 vs. $1,895).

This volatility – as you’ll see in a minute – holds for corrections as well. On average, silver’s retreats have been deeper and longer than gold’s. The three big gold corrections we looked at last week averaged 22.8%. Take a look at the three biggest for silver, along with how long it’s taken to recover and establish new highs.

The three biggest silver corrections in the current bull market average to 42.1%.

Our recent correction is the second biggest on record since 2001, but what really makes it stand out is the duration. The 2004 and 2006 declines took only five and four weeks respectively to reach their low points. And it was 31 weeks after the crash of 2008 that silver bottomed. Our current decline, measured from the peak reached on April 28, 2011 to its December 29, 2011 low, spans 35 weeks… quite the determined downtrend.

It also takes silver longer to recover than gold: gold’s three biggest corrections required an average of 57 weeks and 6 days to regain their old highs, while it’s taken silver’s three biggest falls an average of 98 weeks and 4 days to catch up.

So how long will it take to recover from the 2011 slump? We don’t know the future, of course, but the current correction is close to the average of the three in the chart, so let’s apply the average recovery time to our current situation. The average 42.1% correction took 98 weeks and 4 days to recover; using the same ratio, a 46.3% correction would take 108 weeks and 3 days. Counting from the previous peak of April 28, 2011, we wouldn’t break the $48.70 high until May 26, 2013 (based on London PM Fix prices).

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Tags: price of silver, Silver, silver analysis, silver futures, silver futures prices, silver news, silver price, silver price 2012, silver price forecast, silver prices, silver spot, spot silver

Posted by Silver Guru on Jan 19 2012. Filed under Silver Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry