With the overwhelming popularity of SLV as a physical silver bullion exchange traded fund and other precious metal ETFs and ETNs, another fund has set up which provides a similar function, albeit with one key difference.

Back in September, ETF Securities launched SIVR, a physical silver ETF like SLV except the silver is stored in vaults in Switzerland, unlike SLV where the gold is in the USA.

During the 1930’s President Roosevelt issued an executive order banning American’s from owning gold and making it illegal to own gold in the USA. Although a repeat of such an order is unlikely to happen again, it still remains a possibility and therefore a threat to anyone with gold or silver holdings in the USA.

Therefore it would be prudent to hold some silver outside of US borders, such as in Switzerland, just in case such an scenario should arise again and the US government made owning silver bullion illegal.

However despite a “safe” reputation, Switzerland still has a government and any government cannot be fully trusted. Therefore rather than place all your eggs in one basket, a better idea would be to hold a portion of SLV and a portion of SIVR, so to split your risk. Both ETFs trade on American exchanges, and although SLV is more liquid and has a much larger market cap, SIVR still has good enough volume for the retail investor.

We are simply putting SIVR up as an alternative, or even more a complement to SLV. Physical bullion ETF’s still poise risks and would not work as well in an armageddon scenario as bullion under your bed so to speak!

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