Why is gold more popular? Is silver a better alternative considering gold prices have reached 1.8k?

Habits are hard to change. There was a time that silver was an in-thing and many MLM schemes took advantage of the run-up.

The true asset of gold comes from emotional attachment. It is a branded commodity.

Why is gold more popular?

Gold has been money for thousands of years. Besides being money, gold is a safe haven asset for many investors during times of instability.

Gold isn't typically seen as an investment as it does not have powerful returns or generate any interest or dividends. However, it continues to be popular as an insurance that reduces one's counter-party risks on his portfilio, and hedge against currency devaluation.

It is also worth noting that among all other the precious metals, more people are familiar to gold compared to silver or the PGMs(Platinum Group Metals e.g Pt, Pd, Rh).

PGMs and silver can also be more volatile than gold depending on industrial demand. Thus, gold is generally more accepted than the rest of the metals.

Additionally, USD is the last remaining currency that has yet to reach all time high for gold. Many would prefer safe haven assets like gold temporarily while uncertainties continue to develop ahead of US election at the end of 2020, and the possibility of a vaccine.

Is silver a better alternative considering gold prices reach 1.8k

Silver is a strategic metal. Other than being precious, silver is a useful commodity for technology. Many of our phones and domestic devices has silver on them.

If one is bullish on the future of tech and green energy, silver is a great substitue to gold.

Unlike Gold that can easily be recycled, most of the silver that has been consumed for the products we enjoy today are thrown away. Although there's lesser gold than silver in our planet, I would argue that silver is a rarer commodity as compared to gold since most of the gold mined throughout centuries are still with us in a form of bullion/jewelery or coins, while most of the silver has already been used by the industry.

Silver is also incredibly undervalued. Some would say it is "cheap as dirt". Mining new silver is incredibly risky. It is usually just a byproduct of mining base metals such as copper, nickel and zinc.

Back in March and April of 2020, many refineries and mints, including mines, suspended their operations which caused an supply chain disruption for these shiny metals. Although gold and silver in the paper spot markets decreased in prices, physical metals were extremely expensive.

As silver becomes harder to obtain while there's an explosion of demand for devices of our increasingly digitalised world, silver is a buy for me.

Historically, one could also look back at the Gold to Silver Ratio. Never before in our recent history that we were at such an extreme ratio of 90-ish pieces of silver to 1 piece of gold.

Although silver can look like a shining opportunity, one should also consider the risks for silver. As mentioned above, silver is incredibly volatile and it is heavily reliant to industrial uses. Capital appreciation, like gold, isn't a lot. The objective would still be similar to gold acting as a diversified asset outside the financial system, especially during times of uncertainties. The physical form can be very expensive and spreads are wide than gold.

If one is looking for price exposure alone, physical metals may not be for him.

Is silver a better alternative.. yes for me. As gold continue to reach it's all time high and become expensive to begin with, substitution effect towards silver will play a part.​​​