A one kilogram kilogram of gold bar is above the silver bars of the ingot dealers in London, Gold Investments, in this photo arranged in London, Great Britain, on April 4, 2013.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Silver futures rose further on Sunday night as the reddit-fueled boom in very short stocks appears to be expanding into the metals market.
Silver futures increased by 8% shortly after the opening of the futures market, marking the largest movement of futures contracts in at least 2013. The contracts were last traded at 6.8%.
The larger sudden move increases earnings for silver and silver-related stocks at the end of last week. Silver mining shares Coeur Mining and Pan American Silver increased on Thursday and Friday by 16.9% and 14.7%, respectively. The IShares Silver Trust rose 6.7% during the two sessions.
The increase in silver demand seems to be related to retailers in the Reddit WallStreetBets forum, which has helped boost trading activity in sharply shortened stocks, such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment, in recent weeks.
On Sunday evening, the forum had several active threads dedicated to silver. The phrase “#silversqueeze” was also a trend on Twitter.
The movement in silver has been supported by investors who are climbing on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which partially see new digital assets as a replacement for traditional metals.
Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of cryptocurrency company Gemini, said on twitter that, “the ramifications of a #silversqueeze cannot be underestimated. If it is shown that there are more paper claims on silver than real silver, not only would the payment be enormous, but gold would be next. #Bitcoin fix this. “
The dramatic increases in GameStop and other sharply shortened shares were partly due to a short press, which is a phenomenon in which investors who bet against a stock are forced to buy shares to cover their positions as the name rises above. .
Melvin Capital, one of the hedge funds that initially held short positions in GameStop, lost 53% in January.