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Futures, Indices, and Commodities · Metals

SI (silver) and the industrial demand factor

Read the silver contract correctly and understand why silver swings harder than gold on the same chart.

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Futures, Indices, and Commodities

Metals

Lesson 27 of 4955%
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Lesson 27 of 49Futures, Indices, and CommoditiesMetals

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Read the silver contract correctly and understand why silver swings harder than gold on the same chart.

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Silver: the metal with two jobs

Silver trades on COMEX under the symbol SI. One contract represents 5,000 troy ounces — way more ounces than a gold contract — but at a much lower per-ounce price. At $30 an ounce, one SI contract controls $150,000 worth of silver. The tick size is 0.005 (half a cent), and because the contract is 5,000 ounces, each tick is worth $25.

Here's what makes silver different from gold: roughly half of all silver demand is industrial. Solar panels are the biggest growth driver — every photovoltaic cell uses a tiny amount of silver for conductivity. Electronics, EV components, medical applications, brazing alloys, even mirrors. So silver isn't only a hedge against currency debasement — it's also a bet on factories running, on solar buildouts, on tech cycles.

Wick shows a calculator reading $2,500 for a 50 cent silver move, which is 100 ticks of $25, showing how big a full 5,000 ounce silver contract really is.0.50 move = 100 ticks ×$25$2,500
Wick saysOn SI, 30.00 → 30.50 is 100 ticks of $25 each, or $2,500 per contract.
Two cards compare metals: gold has a 1% day while silver often has a 2% day on the same news, showing how industrial demand makes silver swing harder.GoldA 1% day is anormal moveSilverOften a 2% dayon the samenews
Wick saysSilver often moves about twice as hard as gold, so treat it as gold's wilder cousin.

For a $500 account, full-size SI is overkill — $25 a tick adds up fast in a volatile instrument. The cleaner choice is SIL (micro silver), which is 1,000 ounces per contract and $5 per tick — one-fifth the size. Even better, you can paper-trade SIL in the simulator until the volatility doesn't catch you off guard. Silver will absolutely punish a trader who treats it like gold's little sibling.

A balance scale sinks on the SI side at $25 a tick while SIL at $5 a tick rises, showing the micro silver contract lets a small account learn silver at one fifth the size.SI$25 a tickSIL$5 a tick?
Wick saysSIL is one fifth of SI, so start there or paper trade it first.

Recap: SI is 5,000 oz, $25 per tick. Half industrial demand makes silver more volatile than gold. Start with SIL (1,000 oz, $5/tick) and never assume gold's playbook fits silver one-for-one.

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1. Gold has a quiet 0.4% day. Silver has a 1.1% day. Why?

2. You buy one SI contract at 30.00 and sell at 30.50. How much did you make?

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