SideNote: The Silver shortage is finally receiving attention from a major news wire. My focus was on the pros, didn't bother listing the cons. GRIM

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Why Poor Man's Gold May Be About to Get More Investor Love

(excerpts)

Silver hasn’t been so cheap relative to gold for more than seven years and with mine supplies forecast to contract this year that may be a sign it’s ready to come out of the yellow metal’s shadow.

Mine production of silver will probably drop in 2016 for the first time in over a decade and demand is set to outstrip supply for a fourth straight year, says Standard Chartered Plc. Much of the world’s silver is extracted from the ground with other minerals, and output cuts announced by the biggest miners will hurt supplies of the metal as well as others such as copper and zinc.

Silver’s 12 percent advance this year has trailed gold’s 20 percent surge as financial turmoil and worries about a global slowdown sent investors flocking to the yellow metal as a haven. An ounce of gold bought about 83 ounces of silver last month, more than any time since the financial crisis of 2008. That’s a signal to some that it’s relatively undervalued and will narrow the gap.

While investors have embarked on a gold buying spree, increasing their holdings in exchange-traded funds by 18 percent this year, they reduced their assets in silver products by 1.2 percent through February, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That changed this month when ETFs backed by silver had their biggest inflows over three days since 2013, rising 500 metric tons to the highest since September.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-10/why-poor-man-s-gold-may-be-about-to-get-more-love-from-investors