Silver Spot price today

The silver ounce price (XAG/USD) shows how many US dollars one troy ounce of pure silver is worth on the global market. Silver is both a precious metal and an industrial raw material; this dual character makes it more volatile than gold, and both more attractive and riskier for traders. On this page you can see the live silver ounce price and its candlestick chart, and below you will learn about the features of this market, the factors that affect its price, the gold-to-silver ratio, trading hours and risk tips.

What is the silver ounce?

Like gold, silver is measured in troy ounces (31.1035 grams). The code XAG in the international currency code standard comes from silver's Latin name, Argentum, and XAG/USD is read like a currency pair: silver is the base asset and the dollar is the quote currency. Silver's daily benchmark price is set in London, and the COMEX futures market in New York and Asian exchanges also play an important role in its price discovery.

Silver holds a special place in the world's monetary history; for centuries, circulating coins were minted from silver, and in many languages the word for "money" is the same as the word for silver. Today, however, silver is more an industrial metal than money, and this is what sets its price behavior apart from gold.

Silver: precious metal or industrial metal?

Unlike gold, which goes mostly into jewelry, bullion and central bank reserves, in recent years more than half of silver demand has come from industry. Silver is the best electrical conductor among metals and is used in electronic components, solar panels, cars and medical equipment. The result is that the silver price reacts both to fear and inflation (like gold) and to industrial booms and slowdowns (like copper and base metals).

This dual nature sometimes leads to seemingly contradictory behavior: in a financial crisis, gold may rise as a safe haven, while silver lags or even falls due to worries about lower industrial demand. Conversely, in periods of economic growth and investment in solar energy, silver can outperform gold.

Factors affecting the silver ounce price

• Gold price and the overall mood of the metals market: On most days silver moves in the same direction as the gold ounce , but usually with a larger range.
• Interest rates and the dollar: Like gold, silver pays no interest and is priced in dollars; rising US real interest rates and a stronger dollar usually hurt it. Follow central bank policy on the global interest rates page.
• Industrial data: US and Chinese Purchasing Managers' Indexes (PMI), industrial production growth and solar industry news affect the industrial side of demand. Check the release times of these data in the economic calendar .
• Mine supply: A large share of the world's silver is a by-product of lead, zinc and copper mines; so its production does not simply increase when the silver price rises, and supply reacts slowly to price.
• A smaller market: The total value of the silver market is much smaller than gold's; large inflows or outflows of capital can create sharp moves. A famous historical example is the Hunt brothers' attempt to corner the silver market in the late 1970s, which led to a sharp spike and then a heavy price crash in 1980.

The gold-to-silver ratio

One of the popular indicators among metals traders is the gold-to-silver ratio (Gold/Silver Ratio); that is, the price of one ounce of gold divided by the price of one ounce of silver. This number shows how many ounces of silver can be bought with one ounce of gold. A rising ratio means silver has underperformed gold, and a falling ratio means silver has pulled ahead. Some investors use this ratio to decide how to split capital between the two metals, but the ratio has had a very wide range over time and there is no "right number" for it.

Silver vs. gold for traders

At many brokers one lot of silver is 5,000 ounces; so each one-cent price change is $50 for one lot, and each 10 cents is the same $50 for 0.1 lot. Since this definition is not the same across brokers, check the symbol specifications on your platform and set your position size based on your stop loss with the trading calculator .

Silver ounce trading hours

Like gold, the silver ounce trades almost around the clock from Monday to Friday, with a short daily break. The highest volume is usually during the London session and its overlap with New York; that is, afternoon and evening Tehran time. During the low-volume Asian hours, the silver spread may be wider and moves more erratic. See the exact market hours in Iran time on the global market hours page.

The silver ounce and the silver market in Iran

In the Iranian market, silver is mostly traded as jewelry, tableware and small bars, by the gram and in Toman. Its pricing logic is like gold: the silver ounce price multiplied by the open-market dollarrate, divided by 31.1035, gives the theoretical value of one gram of pure silver. However, when buying silver jewelry, the making charge accounts for a much larger share of the final price than with gold, and the gap between buying and selling prices is usually wide; so the price of a silver piece may be far from the value of its raw metal.

Risk tips for trading silver

• Take high volatility seriously: Silver's daily percentage move is usually larger than gold's; with a position size that seems comfortable on gold, you may take on much more risk on silver.
• Limit your leverage: High leverage in a market this volatile sharply increases the chance of a margin call. Always set a stop loss.
• Assess your broker: Silver spreads, swap costs and execution quality vary widely between brokers, and for Iranian users sanctions-related restrictions are also an issue. Before opening an account, check the forex broker comparison .

To see other metals, open the list of precious metals symbols . The information on this page is for information only and is not a buy or sell recommendation. The silver ounce price is obtained from global market sources and may differ slightly from your broker's price; leveraged trading carries high risk.