by Dimitri Speck, Acting Man:

Commodities as an Alternative

Our readers are presumably following commodity prices. Commodities often provide an alternative to investing in stocks – and they have clearly discernible seasonal characteristics. Thus heating oil tends to be cheaper in the summer than during the heating season in winter, and wheat is typically more expensive before the harvest then thereafter.

Silver: 1,000 ounce good delivery bars [PT]

Precious metals are also subject to seasonal trends.  Today I want to put silver under a magnifying glass on your behalf. Its price has lagged the gold price significantly – the gold-silver price ratio currently stands above 80, which is close to historic highs.

Are seasonal patterns currently suggesting a positive outlook for silver?

Silver: Shooting Star at the Beginning of the Year

The chart below illustrates the seasonal pattern of the silver price. Contrary to a standard chart, it does not depict prices over a specific time period, but rather the average price pattern of the past 15 years in the form of percentage returns generated in the course of a calendar year. The horizontal axis denotes the time of the year, the vertical axis shows the averaged price information indexed to 100. The seasonal chart makes it possible to discern seasonal patterns at a single glance.

Silver price in terms of the USD, seasonal pattern based on the past 15 years. Silver typically rallies until early April

As can be seen, there is one phase in silver that really stands out in the course of the year: its price typically rises rapidly at the beginning of the year. By contrast, in the remaining time of the year its price patterns are rather muted from a seasonal perspective. The upcoming seasonal rally phase which lasts until April 09 is highlighted on the chart.

In 11 of 15 Cases the Silver Price Rose Until Early April 

The seasonally positive time period between January 15 and April 09 brought about a silver rally in 11 of 15 cases. In the 11 winning years the average return in this phase amounted to 16.01 percent, while the average loss in the four losing years was 5.49 percent. An especially large gain of 42.34 percent was posted in 2011. The biggest loss was recorded in 2013; it amounted to a sizable 10.81 percent, which was nevertheless a significantly smaller move.

The bar chart below shows the return generated by the silver price during the seasonally positive time period in every year since 2004. Green bars denote years in which gains were achieved, red bars denote years in which a negative return was generated.

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