Silver Squeeze Goes Viral, Ounce of Ag Jumps Above $30, Wallstreetbets Fans Question Trend’s Legitimacy

This past week, another social media trend started on the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, which aims to initiate a large silver short squeeze in order to push the price of the precious metal to $1,000 per ounce. However, the silver squeeze trend comes with controversy, as numerous wallstreetbets supporters believe hedge funds like Melvin Capital and Citadel are behind the silver push.

The Controversial ‘Silver Squeeze’

During the last week, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the wallstreetbets (WSB) saga taking place on social media forums and the infamous subreddit r/wallstreetbets. Since the mega short squeeze on the Gamestop (GME) shares, the squeeze maneuver has also spilled into a number of other stocks. This week, shares from the Russell 3000 Index (RUA) were targeted including tickers like NOK, GOGO, AMCX, and FIZZ. But the trend didn’t stop there, as one post, in particular, had called for a “silver squeeze.” The WSB Reddit post called for the silver squeeze to push the price of silver from $25 per ounce to $1,000.

Now since the post was published, the Reddit admins in charge of moderating r/wallstreetbets removed the post. But that was long after the message was made viral by the participants discussing the pros and cons of attempting to squeeze silver. Now the reason people think the silver short squeeze post may be shady, is because a number of WSB Redditors believe the silver squeeze was invoked by the hedge funds losing money in order to cover their GME losses. There are a great number of Reddit posts warning that people should not participate in the silver short squeeze.

One post said:

Citadel is the 5th largest owner of [silver], it’s imperative we do not ‘squeeze’ it. These are hedge fund bots spamming awards.

Some WSB participants think the silver squeeze is a set up by hedge funds like Citadel and Melvin. Citadel is the fifth-largest silver shares holder according to documents. However, many of these hedge funds own paper silver and shares of mining companies which is different than the physical bullion market. Some people think whether or not the hedge funds are doing something shady, it doesn’t really matter as silver has always been considered sound money.

The people who dislike the silver trend on WSB, have also warned that Melvin Capital Management is also a big silver holder. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell where the silver pump threads and posts are stemming from, as there are many free-market supporters who are fans of the precious metal sometimes referred to as the ‘poor man’s gold.’ Despite this, there are numbers of WSB fans and Redditors claiming the silver pump stemmed from hedge fund people and they believe there are imposters everywhere now. Some of these people are growing irrational, getting mad at anyone who posts about silver. Many WSB supporters might be feeling the pain from Gamestop Corp. shares dropping -100% on Monday.

Silver soars past $30 a troy ounce as Reddit-fuelled buying frenzy continues for 3rd day. #Silversqueeze pic.twitter.com/mLmasUBrq1

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) February 1, 2021

In Spite of Controversy, Something Is Sparking Silver Demand

Despite the speculation, some sort of demand was invoked when it comes to silver prices and obtaining physical bullion. For instance, if you are attempting to purchase an ounce or ounces of silver bullion online, the process is far more complicated now than it was last week. A large portion of bars and coins are either sold out or the prices are marked up considerably.

This is simple arbitrage. #Silver futures are 28.67. Silver Eagles on Apmex are $41.66, thats a 45% premium to futures. Obvious opportunity to buy futures & stand for delivery for a 35% discount on physical right? But when they don't have it, Futures = $41.66/oz. #silversqueeze

— Jonathan #SILVERSQUEEZE Mergott (@Jmergz1985) February 1, 2021

All the American Eagles are sold out across a number of bullion dealers. On Sunday morning, a few big-name dealers have halted a great number of silver sales. News.Bitcoin.com’s most recent WSB report disclosed how SD Bullion sold nearly 10x the number of silver ounces than usual. People visiting bullion dealer websites like Provident, Apmex, and JD Bullion could see the unprecedented demand targeting physical silver.

“In the last week, we have seen a dramatic shift in Silver demand from our customers,” said Ken Lewis CEO of the bullion dealer Apmex. “For example, the ratio of ounces sold per day was running about two times earlier in the week and closer to four times the average demand by the end of the week,” Lewis added.

The Apmex CEO further stressed:

Once markets closed on Friday, we saw demand hit as much as six times a typical business day and more than 12 times a normal weekend day. Combined with the extremely high demand levels, we are also seeing a surge in new customers. On Saturday alone, we added as many new customers as we usually add in a week.

Additionally, the hashtag “#silversqueeze” has been trending throughout the United States and a few other countries on Twitter during the last 48 hours. By the late afternoon on Sunday, spot silver and futures traded at $27 per Troy ounce, and by Monday morning spot silver traded 7.7% higher at $29.76. The commodity hopped above the $30 region, and silver prices per ounce exchanged hands at $30.35 an ounce. One ounce of .999 silver is hovering in the $29 price handle at the time of publication

What do you think about the controversial silver squeeze? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.