I asked if silver had found a bottom in an April 7, 2026, Barchart article, where I concluded with the following:
Silver is a highly volatile precious metal. While it is virtually impossible to pick tops or bottoms in volatile markets, silver’s critical technical resistance level is at the 1980 high of $50.36 per ounce. Expect wide trading ranges in silver, and you will not be disappointed.
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Nearby COMEX silver futures traded at $72.50 per ounce on April 6 and were higher at over $78 in early May.
Silver traded around the $80 pivot point in April
The 1980 all-time high of $50.36 per ounce was an elusive target for silver for 4.5 decades. From October 2025 through January 2026, silver blew through the 1980 high as a hot knife goes through butter.
The quarterly continuous COMEX silver chart dating back to the late 1960s shows the 1980 high, the rally that fell just short of the 1980 high in 2011, and the parabolic move in late 2025 and early 2026.
Even the most aggressive bull markets rarely move in straight lines, and silver ran out of upside steam in late January, falling 49.7% from $121.785 to a low of $61.21 per ounce in March. In April, silver’s price recovered and consolidated around $80, which became a pivot point for the volatile precious metal.
The daily continuous COMEX silver futures chart shows that the price traded as low as $69.78 and as high as $83.245 in April, with resistance above $80 and support in the low $70s.
The bull case for the volatile metal
The bullish case for silver includes the following factors:
Silver’s technical break above the 1980 high of $50.36, which had been the long-term resistance level for 45 years, has become a technical support level. Silver has remained comfortably above that support level even though the price corrected by 49.7%.
According to the Silver Institute, 2026 marks the sixth consecutive year of a global silver market deficit.
While the deficit forecast is lower for 2026 than for 2025, global investment demand remains the wild card in the silver market. The break above the 1980 high and bullish trend could attract significant investment and speculative buying on dips, expanding the deficit.
The prospects are for increased industrial demand over the coming years from electronics, green energy solutions, including but not limited to photovoltaics, and other applications.
Silver has the potential to disappoint the bulls
Silver is a highly volatile metal with a history of disappointing market participants holding long-term investment and trading positions. After reaching $49.82 per ounce in 2011, silver traded in a bearish trend, falling 76.6% to the 2020 pandemic-inspired low of $11.64 per ounce. Silver tends to fall during risk-off periods. During the 2008 global financial crisis, the price plunged 60.8% in only seven months from $21.44 in March 2008 to $8.40 per ounce in October 2008. Silver dropped 90.5% from the 1980 high of $50.36 to the June 1982 low of $4.78 per ounce. In late 2001, COMEX silver traded as low as $4.02 per ounce. History shows that silver can always disappoint the bulls.
Trading silver is likely the optimal path
Silver is far more volatile than gold.
The 30-year monthly COMEX silver chart shows that long-term historical volatility is currently at 37.06%.
The 30-year monthly COMEX gold chart shows that long-term historical volatility is currently at 18.51%, half the level of silver volatility.
Volatility creates trading opportunities for flexible traders with their fingers on the pulse of markets. In 2026, COMEX silver futures rose 72.5% from the end of 2025 to the late January high and fell 49.7% to the March low, before recovering 27.4% on May 6. Silver’s penchant for volatility makes it a trading, and not an investing, market in the current environment.
SLV is the silver ETF with the greatest liquidity
At $70.00 per share, the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is a highly liquid ETF that holds physical silver. SLV has over $37.3 billion in assets under management. SLV trades an average of more than 21.2 million shares per day and charges a 0.50% management fee. Silver is a bulky commodity that requires storage and insurance expenses. SLV’s management fee covers those costs, and the ETF is available to market participants with a standard equity account.
In 2026, COMEX silver futures rose 72.5% from the end of 2025 to the late January high and fell 49.7% to the March low, before recovering 27.4% on May 6. Over the same period, SLV rose 70.5% from $64.42 at the end of 2026 to the late January high of $109.83 per share. SLV corrected with silver, falling 45% to the March low of $60.37, and moved 16.1% higher on May 6 to 70.10 per share. While SLV tracks COMEX silver futures prices, it trades only during U.S. stock market hours, whereas silver trades around the clock. Therefore, SLV can miss highs or lows when the stock market is closed.
Silver remains in a long-term bullish trend, with prices nearly $20 above its critical support level at the 1980 high. However, the price is more than $50 below the late-January high. Expect silver to continue displaying wide price swings, making trading, rather than investing, optimal.
On the date of publication, Andrew Hecht did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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