the current inflationary cycle speeds up, my dears. why? there is the next all-time-high in gold + SILVER + copper price and in my stock market portfolio today. okay, that are just nominal all-time highs in USD, not inflation adjusted or relative all-time-highs against some other tangible asset like gold / bread / average wages or the like. but the 'nominal only' view is the way how most people look at prices of everything, isnt it? whats the danger in this approach? you now the price of everything and the value of nothing, isnt it? 😇
i've started this blog post this morning abt SILVER. later came also the price of GOLD above its october 2025 record mark and COPPER is now already higher than its all-time-high from last friday, so lets enhance it with my rant abt gold, copper and INFLATION, too. you probabaly shoudnt allow me to touch on inflation as i could get angry like a devil 👺 in heaven, my dears! well, i didn't look-up zinc, nickel, lead, molybdenum, platinum, palladium, rare earths, lithium and other metals yet ... anyway, i 💖Ag, Au, Cu. why? there are two possible reasons. A) my last name is 'gruber' which indicates my ancestors worked in the underground mines (= 'grube' in german) in the german settled slovak ore mountains. B) my stock market portfolio is still heavily commodities-oriented (maybe 80%), although i've increased or bought new positions in many of the so popular american technology + big data + SW + bitchcoin + AI stocks recently (google, oracle, adobe, nvidia, broadcom, arista, cisco, HP, dell, amazon, open, nebius, qualcomm, micro strategy + iren (both bitcoin BTC), quantum computing, AT&T, poet, IONQ, intel, meta, tesla ... + increased the german software company SAP, too.
back to silver: the former all time high in SILVER before 2025 was the hunt brothers' short-squeeze intraday spike of $50 in january 1980. in 2011 came the price close to this 'magical treshold' to approx $48. this year started the silver price at $28.97 and moved in the range from $28.29 to $69.45 till now, thus there were many all-time-highs down the road recently, you know?
the 2025 ranges for my 3 favorite investment metals till dec, 22th:
- Ag, silver, $28.29 - 69.45 USD per troy ounce (@comex)
- Au, gold, $2,595.90 - 4,447.82 USD per troy ounce (@comex)
- Cu, copper, $9,524.67 - 11.940 USD per metric ton (@LME, intraday 'cash'). you will find also charts and tables with Cu prices per day closing / monthly average or futures with different runtimes. the most relevant 3 months copper future at LME quoted at $11.925 today. there are copper prices at comex too, but in USD per pound. the price range in 2025 was from $4.24 to $5.96 (intraday high in july 2025). therefore be carefull what values are you going to compare on the internet / AI or better look just at the order of magnitude than at the last decimal digit of your particular quote 😇
what abt inflation? lets measure prices by both, gold + the official american CPI (consumer price index) provided by the u.s. government. the real inflation at shop counters is much higher, isnt it?
#1 almost all-time chart aka 100 years silver
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addendum january 16th, 2026: lets put the silver price increase in december 2025 + january 2026 in a historic perspective, okay? the year 2025 started with silver price below $30. in november 2025 it was still below $50. what happened next? till mid january the price went up to unbelievable $93.71 ... why?
hypothesis#1: it was and still is most likely a
short squeeze, if you asked me. what does it mean? well, few folks have speculated on falling silver price and hold huge uncovered short positions, probably silver futures on the commodities exchange comex
in NY. as the silver price continues to go up and their losses get bigger and bigger, they have to close their shorts aka BUY SILVER at these high prices. this catapults the price of silver even higher and on top also faster. even if the comex could easily change the delivery of physical silver for its 'paper silver' futures to cash settlements (as there is probably not enough physical silver in comex' vaults), already the high price itself causes these speculators massive difficulties.
hypothesis#2: it is just a fat cats speculation game. these fat guys and their automated trading systems buy like crazy as long as the price goes up and sell like crazy when the price goes down. how else is it possible that the price of silver crashed more than 30% in a single day? just see for details my updeäate aka addendum for january 30th, will you?
there are videos / stories on the internet abt silver prices at the shanghai metals exchange to reach a $7 premium per ounce compared to comex, because the shanghai exchange trades mostly metal for delivery vs. NY trades mostly paper silver (futures). i did not check this 'arbitrage opportunity' by myself (i'm sure the automated trading systems of the huge hedge fonds did already), so just take or leave this information as some additional possible variable in the big silver game, will u? 🤣
is silver at $90 still undervalued or already much too expensive? most likely ways too expensive. nevertheless im quite sure we will see the $100 silver soon. why is silver already too expensive? because many, many primary silver producers reported in their last earning reports in Q3/2025 all-in-sustaining-costs (AISC) of $20 - $25 per 1 troy ounce Ag. of course, it does not mean, that the price can not go any higher .... but usually it does not stay long time at these high levels, does it? anyway, even if i've told ya the $50 in the hunt broters era was not a real physical market price, but only a very short paper market escapade, lets compare it to the similarly overvalued $850 per 1 oz gold in that period (january 1980). btw, it took 28 years till january 2008 for gold to reach that highly overvalued mark of $850 again ... just see the chart below
gold 01/1980 = $850. gold 01/2026 = $4,600 => increase by Au-factor 5.41
silver 01/1980 = $50. silver 01/2026 = $93 => increase by Ag-factor 1.86. should i try to adjust the silver price needed to match the increase in gold since 1980? do you feel better if you multiply it by yourself? however, lets try it here, too => $50 x factor 5.41 = $270.5 => heaven & hell, better lets stop any further price speculations now, will we? 😇🕖💵
100 years silver price chart in USD by baha.com, 16.01.2026
100 years gold price chart in USD by baha.com, 16.01.2026
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#2 CPI adjusted prices ~ CPI = consumer price index ... remember, the hunt brothers' peak of $50 in january 1980 (equals $208 in 11/2025) was just a rigged paper market value for very short time. you could buy silver at $35 easily back then in 1980, which equals $146 in 11/2025.
manipulated?) by the u.s. government alone, cant you?
#3 the gold-silver-ratio (provided by longtremtrends.com) used to be between 25 and 100. right now it equals 64.6 (gold $4437.11 vs. silver $68.68). heaven & hell! silver is still quite cheap compared to gold in historic measures, isnt it? lets wait with switching from silver to gold till this ratio moves significant below 50, will we?
#4 when in munich, we have the gold-oktoberfest_beer-ratio 🍺 ... oh my dears, 186 of the badly filled 1 liter mugs oktoberfest-beer for just 1 ounce of gold? it is close to the record of 227 mugs from 1980. it will probably become even more in a year or two. why? both, the global problems in the world and the global debt levels are much worse than in 1980. my best financial advice to you? DO NOT DRINK that much beer @oktoberfest even if you could afford it 😆
#5 when not in munich, take the gold-iphone-ratio 📱 instead. in 2013 yo've needed more than 1 oz gold to buy the newest iphone, in 2025 were 0.42 oz gold enough ...
#6 HUI aka gold producers index => gold stocks are really expensive, arent they?
#7 gold-HUI-ratio aka are the gold producers already too expensive relative to gold in 01/2026?
#8 top silver producers in 2023, Q1 2025 and Q2 2025.
2023 by size and geographical location ~
data source by alan kennedy / voronoi app
producerrs in
Q2/2025 (includes the swedish boliden)
i've bought few shares in the companies i've had no postions yet in the last 2 weeks: fresnillo, southern copper, buenaventura, zijin + boliden. i've also bought 2 small tranches in glencore + the polish copper miner KGHM at my major broker account @lynx (=branch of IB) in order to see their progress as well (i have these 2 companies in my old stock portfolio at a bank with extremely high trading fees. thus i do not look up the developments there as that portfolio is more or less on a maintenance modus without any trading movements).
the #7 MAG silver does not exist any more as it was taken over by pan american silver (PAAS) in september 2025. it was not possible for me to buy shares in san cristobal mines (a private company), volcan (there are some clearing issues at the madrid exchange, so you can just sell existing shares there and you have to buy volcan directly in peru). my trial to buy #4 hindustan zinc in india was a disaster and a nice learning experience at the same time. i've applied for access to all asian markets at my broker just to learn, that only indian citizens are allowed to buy shares listed at indian exchanges. crazy, isnt it? well, at least india cannot steal money of foreign citizens / investors like the usa, switzerland + EU regularly do (e.g. russian + venezulean assets recently). well, the price of hindustan zinc moved up like crazy in the last few weeks, so i'm not sure it would be smart to buy it right now, anyway ...
#9 all my top portfolio holdings are Cu, Ag, Au based mining companies, you see?
top down: amerigo resources (Cu), hudbay minerals (Cu), first majestic silver (Ag), agnico eagle mines (Au), hecla mining (Ag), coeur d'alene mines (Ag+Au), endeavour silver (Ag), wheaton precious metals (Au+Ag), avino silver mines (Ag), pan american silver (Ag+Au), discovery silver (Ag), globex mining (explorer with many very small projects for many different metals in canada).
#10 what were my top movers on a record day like today?
#11 probably a suprise for few of my dear readers. NO, it is not gold, silver, copper which rise in price or value. it is the other way round: the value of all major currencies is going down => stop measure the value of anything in dollars, euros, yens, swiss francs or the like. start to evaluate in real tangible assets or timeless values ... most suitable measurement for financial assets is gold, isnt it? for emotional assets & values of course s.th. completely different. lets hope i'll discover that one soon, too 😆💕🍀
in case of money, what does all these lines + columns with numbers and letters below created by google's gemini AI today mean? every major currency loses its buying power against gold and silver aproximately 11% per year!!! even the "stable currency" swiss franc loses 9% per year, which mean it is like a train which does not drive into the final disaster that fast as the remaining valuta(s). so please do not tell me again dollar, yen, swiss franc is strong and euro is weak or vice versa, will you? all of them (USD, CAD, YEN, GBP, CHF, ...) just fell apart at different speed😉
gold price increase by currency created by google's gemini AI
silver price increase by currency created by google's gemini AI
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addendum december 23th, 2025: all 3 metals Ag, Au + Cu are even a little bit higher then yesterday. of course, as long as the trend up is intact, there have been and there will be many, many new all-time-highs out there in the future, wont they?
december 24th, 2025: in the asian markets climbed Au+Ag up the ladder further. Cu starts at LME+comex later in the morning ...
... silver went above $83 intraday in the asian markets later in december, then crashed -8% on december, 29th. at least it stayed above $70 till end of the year ... gold didnt move that much the last few trading days and closed the year above $4,300 per ounce.
lets add few imho interesting charts / snapshots from the overcrowded lecture at the pro aurum shop in munich presented by its managing executive jürgen birner on january, 17th, 2026:
the proaurum shop in münchen-riem has a form of a gold bar.
btw, the volume of the ever mined gold in the world is just
1,36 times bigger than this golden rectangular prism.
216,265 tons = the amount of gold ever mined ~ source of data:
world gold council 2023. info screen @ pro aurum 01/2026
72% of the yearly gold supply comes from mining, 27% from recycling.
source of data: world gold council 2023. info screen @ pro aurum 01/2026
usage of gold => 45% jewellery, 17% central banks (hell! they are responsible
for the stability of their country's currency, arent they?), 21% private investors.
source of data: world gold council 2023. info screen @ pro aurum 01/2026
the 12 major gold producing countries ~ source of data:
world gold council 2023. info screen @ pro aurum 01/2026
physical gold + silver are still easily available for private inverstors.
of course, the current spread is quite high i.e. 10% on 1 oz Au (there
is no VAT on gold in germany) and 35% on 1 oz Ag incl. 19% VAT.
source: pro aurum online shop, 17.01.2026
precious metals coin are nice, arent they? here the roman gold coin
'solidus' from 347 a.d. ~ source: pro aurum münchen-riem 01/2026
~~~
folks, i've promissed i'll update the final Au, Ag, Cu price ranges 2025. here we go 😇
source: google gemini AI [at some websites were the prices higher. so does www.onvista.de report silver at $71.58 before midnight and $72.16 in the 15 minutes time span after midnight on january 2nd (there were no regular commodity markets open on january 1st). of course, onvista reports time zone rolling prices like from the shanghai exchange when u.s. markets are closed and probably also OTC (= over the counter) markets, when the regular exchanges NYSE / COMEX / xetra (germany) / LME etc. are closed)]
here we go, this table was created by google's gemini AI on january 3rd, 2026:
december 31th, 2025 the last price + yearly increase as text as well:
Au $4,325.60 per 1oz @comex => +64%
Ag $70.13 per 1oz @comex => +142%
Cu $12,558.50 per ton @LME => +40%
january 29th, 2026: all 3 metals Ag, Au, Cu reached INTRADAY their new all-time-highs. lets compute their increase in % in just 1 month as well:
Au $5,608.35 => +29,7%
Ag $121.62 => +73,4%
Cu $14,527.50 => +15,7%
... later fell Au, Ag some 2% or 3%
january 30th, 2026 (= friday = last trading day in january): all 3 metals Ag, Au, Cu crashed badly. palladium + platinum + mining stocks ditto. intraday were the losses even higher. especially the crazy silver was at times more than 30% down. last price + final loss in %:
Au $4,877.06 => -9,60%
Ag $84.00 => -27.93%
Cu $13,157.50 => -3.38%
------------------------------------
Pa $1,751.88 => -11,97%
Pt $2,223.38 => -15,28%
HUI 781.28 points => -12.58%
any lessons learned? the markets are in the short term driven mostly by speculation, arent they? lets finish this blog with advice by legendary investor warren buffet, who at age of 95 steps down as a chairman of his holding bekshire hathaway:
source unknown, for sure some AI generated 'warren buffett'
stock market wisdom. not bad, if you asked me 😇
or abt the (turtle traders?) trading tribe trend following system?
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