'We view silver as gold on steroids'

From the UK Telegraph:

Silver is a better bet than gold in the current precious metals bull run and has been described as "gold on steroids" by one asset manager.

Brian Ostroff, the managing director of Windermere Capital, a Canadian investment firm, said he was bullish about the prospects for all precious metals because the world's central banks were printing money. But he was particularly upbeat about silver.

"We love silver. It has definitely come into the forefront. The physical market characteristics are very positive," he told the Gold Report. "Ultimately, we view silver as gold on steroids. When you're in these uptrends and everyone's looking at precious metals, silver tends to perform much better [than gold].

"We think that, as the whole precious metals bull market proliferates and more average investors start to look at it, silver at $35–$40 might be more appealing than gold at $1,400–$1,500."

Silver was trading at $43.24 an ounce on Monday, its highest level since 1980. At the same time, gold hit an all-time high of $1,489.

But Mr Ostroff warned silver investors that they faced a bumpy ride. "Our feeling is that silver offers a better opportunity relative to gold – but make no mistake about it, silver is a lot more volatile. If we get a downturn in precious metals, silver will fall harder than gold," he said.

Asked why he was bullish on precious metals, he said: "I've always believed that gold is a currency. Ultimately, investors have a choice – put their money in dollars, yen, euros or pounds, as they choose, or in gold. The one difference is that gold, unlike paper currencies, has to be found and mined.....read on