The past year has been wild and crazy for both gold and silver.
After peaking at about $120 oz. scarcely one week ago, silver gave up almost 40% of that in one day, with an intraday low at $73. A strong reversal to the upside brought the price back to $84 at the close (January 30, 2026). Silver closed today (February 6, 2026) at $77, down 8% since last Friday's collapse.
Gold, after peaking at $5500, dropped below $5000 with a loss of about 11% (January 30th) and closed today (February 6th) at $4966, a few dollars below last Friday's close.
Rather than try to predict what might or might not happen next, let's take a look at where we've been. More specifically, we will compare gold and silver performance since 2016, 2011, 1999, and 1980. As good as silver's price performance has been, gold STILL wins.
GOLD VS SILVER SINCE 2016
In December 2015, the gold price was $1060, and silver was priced at $13.80. In the ten-year period from January 2016 to January 2026, gold has quadrupled (4.68 times) in price to $4966, for a gain of 368%. Not to be outdone, silver has increased more than fivefold (5.62 times) to its current price of $77.69. That is a gain of 462%.
Should have bought silver instead of gold, right? Maybe. The problem is that gold outperformed silver handsomely over the first nine years of that ten-year period. It is only in the past nine months silver outperformed gold, quadrupling in price from $30 last April (2025) to its recent high of $120. A not-very-small portion of that outperformance has been erased over the past week.
That is a significant point that should not be overlooked. Silver performs horribly compared to gold on the downside, which is readily apparent when comparing price action of the two metals after their price peaks in 2011.
GOLD VS SILVER SINCE 2011
Price peaks for gold ($1895) and silver ($48.70) in 2011 were followed by respective declines of 44% (gold) and 72% (silver). When comparing the price performance since the peaks in 2011, gold sports a gain of 162% ($1895 to $4966); and silver's increase amounts to only 60%.
GOLD VS SILVER SINCE 2001, 1980
Since their lows in 2001, gold has increased in price by 1,870% ($270 to $4966), and the silver price has increased by 1850% ($3.98 to $77.69). The two are nearly equal with a slight edge for gold.
There is no appreciable advantage in either case when looking at the net numbers, but the long years of underperformance by silver and its extreme volatility are big strikes against the white metal.
And, similar to the situation in 2015 above, silver in 2001, had just ended a decline of 92% from its 1980 peak of close to $50. Gold's decline was also severe, but not quite as bad, dropping 68% from a high of $847.
Using the 1980 highs, gold's net increase is almost six-fold (5.9 times), or 490% at its current price of $4966. Silver, however, is up only 55% at its current price of $77.69.
For silver to match the gold price increase since 1980, it would need to be at or about $300 oz. Some say that it is coming next. Maybe.
CONCLUSION
All the talk about silver's exceptionally strong fundamentals and the expectations of a "repricing" event, along with its recent outperformance, haven't erased its disappointing historical results.
Silver's outperformance vs gold comes after comparatively extreme losses on the downside. The outperformance is more a matter of 'catch-up' to gold which - historically - has always fallen short; i.e. gold is too far ahead in relative performance, and the gap has widened over time.
The euphoria and headiness of the past three months seems more like 2011 and 1980, rather than the beginning of a new upward leg.
I would rather own gold than silver. If you are the beneficiary of silver's latest flirtation with celebrity status, consider switching to gold.
Based on the numbers above, gold STILL wins.