Perak sebagai pelaburan

Perak, seperti logam berharga lain, dapat digunakan sebagai pelaburan. Untuk lebih daripada seribu tahun, perak telah dianggap suatu bentuk wang dan simpanan nilai. Bagaimanapun, sejak berakhirnya piawai perak, perak telah kehilangan peranannya sebagai wang sah di Amerika Syarikat. (Ia terus digunakan dalam syiling sepuluh sen dan lima belas sen hingga 1964, dan lima puluh sen hingga 1970 apabila nilai intrinsik perak mengambil alih nilai muka duit syiling.) Pada 2009, permintaan utama perak adalah daripada kegunaan industri (40%), barang kemas, syiling bulion dan produk pertukaran bursa.
Harga perak secara terkenal tidak stabil kerana ia dapat menurun naik di antara industri dan simpanan kemahuan nilai. Pada waktu ini dapat menyebabkan penilaian linkungan dalam pasar, mencipta ketidakstabilan.
Perak sering menjejaki harga emas oleh kerana dengan simpanan kemahuan nilai, walaupun nisbah dapat berbeza. Nisbah emas/perak sering dianalisiskan oleh para pedagang, pelabur dan pembeli. Pada 1792, nisbah emas/perak telah ditetapkan oleh undang-undang di Amerika Syarikat pada kadar 1:15, yang bermakna bahawa satu auns troy emas akan membeli 15 auns troy perak; suatu nisbah 1:15.5 telah digubalkan di Perancis pada 1803. Sesungguhnya, pukul rata nisbah emas/perak ketika abad ke-20 adalah 1:47. Semakin kurangnya nisbah/bilangan, perak adalah lebih mahal berbanding emas. Sebaliknya lebih tinggi nisbah/bilangan, lebih murah perak berbanding dengan emas.
Dari September 2005 seterusnya, harga perak telah naik secara agak curam, yang pada mulanya berada di sekitar $7 tiap auns troy tetapi mencapai $14 tiap ozt untuk kali pertama pada lewat 2006. Harga pukul rata bulanan perak adalah $12.61 tiap auns troy sewaktu April 2006, dan harga spot adalah ;lebih kurang $15.78 tiap auns troy pada November 6, 2007. Pada Mac 2008, ia hovered around $20 per auns troy. Meskipun, harga perak jatuh menjunam sebanyak 58% pada Oktober 2008, bersama dengan logam lain dan komoditi, oleh kerana kesan kerap-kerup kredit.
A traditional way of investing in silver is by buying actual bullion bars. In some countries, like Switzerland and Liechtenstein, bullion bars can be bought or sold over the counter at major banks.
Physical silver, such as bars or coins, may be stored in a home safe, a safe deposit box at a bank, or placed in allocated (also known as non-fungible) or unallocated (fungible or pooled) storage with a bank or dealer. Silver is traded in the spot market with the code "XAG". When settled in USD, the code is "XAGUSD".
Various sizes of silver bars:
Buying silver coins is another popular method of physically holding silver. One example is the 99.99% pure Canadian Silver Maple Leaf. Coins may be minted as either fine silver or junk silver, the latter being older coins with a smaller percentage of silver. U.S. coins 1964 and older (half dollars, dimes, and quarters) are 25 grams per dollar of face value and 90% silver (22½ g silver per dollar). (All 1965-1970 and one half of the 1975-1976 Bicentennial San Francisco proof and mint set Kennedy half dollars are "clad" in a silver alloy and contain just under one half of the silver in the pre-1965 issues.)
Junk-silver coins are also available as sterling silver coins, which were officially minted until 1919 in the United Kingdom and Canada and 1945 in Australia. These coins are 92.5% silver and are in the form of (in decreasing weight) Crowns, Half-crowns, Florins, Shillings, Sixpences, and threepence. The tiny threepence weighs 1.41 grams, and the Crowns are 28.27 grams (1.54 grams heavier than a US $1). Canada produced silver coins with 80% silver content from 1920 to 1967.
Other hard money enthusiasts use .999 fine silver rounds as a store of value. A cross between bars and coins, silver rounds are produced by a huge array of mints, generally contain a troy ounce of silver in the shape of a coin, but have no status as legal tender. Rounds can be ordered with a custom design stamped on the faces or in assorted batches.
Silver exchange-traded funds represent a quick and easy way for an investor to gain exposure to the silver price, without the inconvenience of storing physical bars. Silver ETFs include:
A silver certificate of ownership can be held by investors instead of storing the actual silver bullion. Silver certificates allow investors to buy and sell the security without the difficulties associated with the transfer of actual physical silver. The Perth Mint Certificate Program (PMCP) is the only government-guaranteed silver-certificate program in the world.
The U.S. dollar has been issued as silver certificates in the past, each one represented one silver dollar payable to the bearer on demand. The notes were issued in denominations of $10, $5, and $1 and can no longer be redeemed for silver.
Most Swiss banks offer silver accounts where silver can be instantly bought or sold just like any foreign currency. Unlike physical silver, the customer does not own the actual metal but rather has a claim against the bank for a certain quantity of metal. Digital gold currency providers, such as GoldMoney, and internet bullion exchanges, such as BullionVault, offer silver as an alternative to gold.
Derivatives, such as silver futures and options, currently trade on various exchanges around the world. In the U.S., silver futures are primarily traded on COMEX (Commodity Exchange), which is a subsidiary of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In November 2006, the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) in India introduced 5 kg silver futures.
Firms such as Cantor Index, CMC Markets, IG Index and City Index, all from the UK, provide contract for difference (CFD) or spread bets on the price of silver.
These do not represent silver at all, but rather are shares in silver mining companies. Companies rarely mine silver alone, as normally silver is found within, or alongside, ore containing other metals, such as tin, lead, zinc or copper. Therefore shares are also a base metal investment, rather than solely a silver investment. As with all mining shares, there are many other factors to take into account when evaluating the share price, other than simply the commodity price. Instead of personally selecting individual companies, some investors prefer spreading their risk by investing in precious metal mining mutual funds.
Dalam banyak rejim cukai, perak tidak memegang kedudukan khas yang sering dimampukan pada emas. Contohnya, dalam Kesatuan Eropah perdangan duit syiling emas yang diperakui dan produk bullion adalah pengecualian VAT, tetapi tiada kebenaran yang sama diberikan pada perak. Ini membuatkan cukai dalam duit syiling perak atau bullion kurang menarik untuk pelabur swasta, oleh kerana premium tambahan pada pembelian diwakili oleh VAT yang tidak dapat dipulih VAT (dikenakan bayaran di 17.5% di United Kingdom dan 19% untuk batang dan 7% untuk produk bullion dengan nilai muka, contohnya US Silver Eagle dan Maple Leaf, di Jerman).
Cukai lain seperti cukai keuntungan modal dapat digunakan untuk individu tergantung pada negara kediaman (kedudukan cukai) dan sama ada aset dijual di nilai yang ditambah.