Silver itself has made terrific progress to hit $18.00 gaining 24% since early December. The same is not true of the stocks as evidenced by the HUI which has gained 13% over the same period and languishes below its January high of 480.

Take a quick look at the chart above comparing the two.

The HUI has slacked off a little so we need to observe its behaviour closely in order to detect clues as to which way it may go in the short term. However, the fundamentals for silver suggest to us that the $20/oz target is not far away, a level that we have been predicting silver will reach for quite some time.

Here is a summary of the silver stocks we are following at the moment:

Hecla Mining Company (HL) – Initially we bought this stock for $5.27 - a quality silver stock which was going along nicely and then we thought Hecla was overbought, as it hadn’t corrected with other silver stocks, therefore we took profits on Hecla at $11.89, the stock price then dropped so we bought it back at $9.72, getting a 18% discount on our shares. HL closed on Friday at $9.86.

Pan American Silver Corporation (PAAS) – Initially we bought this stock for $18.00 and on the 23rd August we gave another BUY signal on PAAS when we said “We made a further purchase today at $24.10” giving us an average purchase price of $21.50. On January 31st, 2008 we sold about 50% of our shares for an average price of $36.65, locking in a profit of around 70.32%. PAAS closed on Friday at $36.48.

Silver Wheaton Corp (SLW) $16.04 – Bought for $9.41 and so this stock has increased 70.45% since we bought it. Silver Wheaton is a unique silver company and should continue to profit from rising silver prices.

Silver Standard Resources Incorporated (SSRI) Initially we bought this stock for $19.98 and on the 20th August we gave another BUY signal when we wrote “we think Silver Standard is at a good level to buy at the moment and we bought today at $28.99” giving us an average purchase price of $24.48. On January 31st, 2008 we reduced our exposure by selling around 50% of SSRI for an average price of $34.82 locking in a profit of 42.22%. SSRI closed on Friday at $33.12.

Eagle Plains Resources Limited (EPL) – We bought this stock for around $0.53, it closed on Friday at $0.41. We will hold for now and keep a close eye on it.

Endeavour Silver Corp (EXK) $4.03 – We initially bought Endeavour for $3.97 and on 7th December 2007 we bought more shares saying; “EXK is down from over $5.50 and as it has been beaten down so much we are signalling a BUY again on this stock and recently we bought for an average price of $4.10 per share and doubled our position.” recently we tried again to buy more of EXK but our order was not filled, never mind we will just have to be patient for now.

Minco Silver Corp (MSV) $C3.95 - Bought for $2.80 and this stock is now showing a gain of over 41.07%. Minco Silver did take a battering just after we bought it but we have kept our nerve and now the price is recovering so our patience is being rewarded.

Traders Corner: We continue to look for short term trades on silver as we have done in the past. Please stay tuned for our trading signals by subscribing to The Silver Prices Newsletter completely FREE of charge. Simply click here and enter your email address.

Have a sparkling week.