I am unsure but I have some observations.
The price premiums are not so much about an expectation of a major price increase as they are about a shortage of retail coin supply - but that shortage is caused by restricted coin production, not a shortage in refined silver to make the coins - it's a covid related issue. It' is only the finished retail investment product that is short. That is considered a temporary distribution glitch, and not an actual restriction in long term supply.
Secondly, industrial silver, one could argue fairly, is currently in surplus supply. There is a glut of metals and mining, because the global economy is in a slowdown phase. Canada's real GDP for 2020 declined at least 5% in real terms, for example. The final numbers are not in yet. Again covid. Demand for metals is way down. There's lots of extra metal lying around.
To increase the price of the physical metal beyond the temporary restricted supply, you also have to buy up all of this extra metal to the point that industry is no longer willing to part with their remaining supply. Then the real supply of the big bars starts to run short, and real metal prices begins to climb. You also have to buy it faster than it is being produced, understanding also there is a significant production of new silver that is currently idle, because price and demand are so low for metals in general. New production comes online when prices increase (the supply increases.)
So, right now one can easily reallocate industrial silver over to retail silver, in the large bars, increasing the retail supply and driving down the price in the process. If more silver is need for purchase, more silver can be made available for purchase. JP Morgan, in particular, revealed a knack for delivering silver at the last minute to meet it's commitments, when all the while it looked like they were running short. They were not running short. They were never running short. They can flood the market to keep the price low if they wish.
In the classic short squeeze you can't do that. There are a fixed number of shares overall, so supply of shares is restricted. The guys who sold short can't get more shares, and they can't settle for cash, so they have to buy shares at any price. Then the price per share explodes as they try to get out before they are doomed.
JP Morgan is not in that position here. They don't even have to deliver silver. They can settle for cash.
JP Morgan would love to do that, let a million new buyers come in to drive up the price, then JP Morgan could sell short, and also flood the market with physical silver, making profit as the market fell, then buying their real silver back again as the price bottoms out.
USGS reported the global reserve supply of refined silver at 560,000 tonnes with annual production last year at about 27,000 tonnes. 32150 troy ounces per tonne. AT $27 dollars an ounce, the global reserve supply is just shy of $1/2 trillion US dollars.
That's just the declared supply of some of the national governments. Poland has 100,000 tonnes and Peru has 120,000 tonnes. Australia has 90,000 tonnes. There's more than that. Silver takes a big jump and all of these guys are going to come into the retail market.
WSB doesn't have this kind of money.
JP Morgan does.
JP Morgan has all the money they will ever need. They can access a quadrillion dollars if they need it. They can borrow silver reserves from other nations if they need it.
More than enough to keep the price suppressed unless other major players - aka massive international financial powers - decide to start a fight over the price of silver.
So that handles the physical question. AKA, It's not going to $1000 unless the banks allow it to happen. They show no sign of that yet.
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