This live spot silver price chart show’s today’s silver trading in real-time. Spot prices are derived from 24-hour trading around the world and are the basis upon which silver dealers set the price for physical metal. Buyers watch spot prices for short-term dips as an opportunity to accumulate more physical silver bullion. Silver bullion buyers keep an eye on spot silver prices for opportunities to act during short-term moves in the market.
Silver Spot Price Performance Tracking
While spot silver trades 24 hours, a fixed closing price is needed to report daily silver performance on any given day. The one hour break in silver trading at 5:00 PM EST is a convenient point for establishing a daily closing price. In our opinion, this is the most ideal choice for tracking silver’s price per ounce because of its proximity to the U.S. Equity market close. It is also near the end of the U.S. work day.
Spot prices are expressed as the price of silver per ounce. Quotes generally refer to troy ounces. Silver bullion buyers will find spot price charts useful when tracking current prices or when timing incremental silver purchases because spot prices are the underlying basis for pricing silver bullion products. Silver coins, rounds and bars at online silver dealers are typically quoted as a premium (dollar amount) over spot price. It doesn’t matter how many ounces of silver are in the round, coin or bar being purchased. The premium over spot in a silver product quote is the incremental amount you pay over and above the silver spot price per ounce.
The casual trader will find silver price charts useful for understanding global trends over a variety of time-frames. The primary chart can be set to display candlesticks from one minute to one month. Volume bars and a variety of technical indicators are available.
The 24-Hour Kitco Silver Chart is an option available just below the live silver chart. These popular silver charts show 3-days of silver spot prices superimposed over a 24-hour period. This chart includes trading times for various exchanges around the world on the bottom axis. The Kitco charts are quite useful for quickly assessing near-term movements in the silver market.
Silver Pricing Variations
The market is fragmented and decentralized, with feeds comprised of quotes from multiple contributors (the big bullion banks). Silver trades 24-hours with a one hour break for Forex and a 45 minute break for Globex trading each day. This can result in a different closing silver prices each day. The close of Comex Pit Trading at 1:30 PM EST each day has been traditionally been used by the financial press. A new physical exchange in Shanghai, with it’s own daily fix, could replace the now defunct London Daily fix. Many popular silver sites use the New York close (Globex pause at 5:15 PM EST) each day.
In addition to variations in the times used for reporting closing prices, sites may choose to display either Bid or Ask prices. As you can imagine, silver bullion dealers will always opt to display the Ask Price. PMBull uses the midpoint between the Bid and Ask.
The Difference Between Ounce and Troy Ounce
It should be noted that gold and silver prices quoted as “per ounce” are generally referring to troy ounces. There is a meaningful difference between the two. Many sites, this one included, do not state that difference frequently enough. Here is the basic differenc between ounce and troy ounce in a nutshell:
| Ounce (oz) | Troy Ounce (ozt) |
|---|---|
| 28.3495231 Grams | 31.1034768 Grams |
| 437.500000 Grains | 480.000000 Grains |
So what is being referenced on the typical silver web site? “Price Per Ounce” with respect to silver bullion should simply be a short-hand way of referencing “Price Per Troy Ounce.” Dig deeper and you will find that some dealers make it more explicitly clear by abbreviating “Troy Ounce” as “Ozt” in the specifications for various silver coins, bars and rounds. For more detail, see the popular CoinTrackers Website, which also provides junk silver pricing, melt value calculators, numismatics and other interesting bits. The valuable coin listings are nice and the calculators are quite helpful.
Alternate Currencies
Precious metals, including silver, trade like currencies. Price is only relevant to the buyer in his or her own currency. This site displays silver prices in U.S. Dollars. Those who must transact in something other than the U.S. dollar will need to convert the dollar price of silver into their own currency using a currency calculator. Google makes currency conversion easy to do. If you need something a little more robust, try the currency converter at XE.com.
About PMBull Silver Price Data
Silver prices and charts on PMBull are provided by third parties and presented on PMBull for informational purposes only. While we believe they reflect real time silver trading and are a reasonable representation of current prices, PMBull does not guarantee the accuracy, nor the timeliness, of data. PMBull is not responsible for prices displayed and nothing on this site should be construed as a live quote for trading or investment purposes. Further, no opinion expressed by any author here should be considered a recommendations to buy or sell precious metals or investments. Please read our full Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Disclaimer.