What your gold and silver split did
The calculator runs your chosen split against gold on its own over the same window, and reports both the ending value and the worst fall along the way. The second number is usually the one that decides whether a position gets held.
- The silver sleeve added return The split finished ahead of gold alone
- Silver outran gold over your window, which it does in strong metal markets because the same demand meets a much smaller market. Check the drawdown figure underneath before treating that as free, since the mix almost always fell further on the way.
- The silver sleeve cost return The split finished behind gold alone
- Silver lagged, which is the more common outcome over long windows and the reason the gold-silver ratio spends most of its time above its own long-run average. A sleeve that both lagged and fell harder is doing the opposite of what a diversifier is held for.
How gold and silver actually differ
Silver is not cheaper gold. Roughly half of silver demand is industrial, which ties it to manufacturing cycles in a way gold is not tied, and that is why it tends to fall harder in a recession while gold often does not. The two metals are correlated and they are not interchangeable, and the difference shows up precisely in the periods a hedge is supposed to be working.
The long record is unflattering to silver on both measures at once. From January 1968 to August 2026 silver rose from $1.96 to $70.26, a multiple of about 36, while gold rose from $39.10 to $4,562.75, a multiple of about 117. Silver produced roughly a third of the return with materially deeper falls along the way, which is an unusual combination and not a favourable one.
Its worst drawdown is the one worth knowing. The Hunt brothers accumulated a position large enough to squeeze the market and silver reached about $50 in January 1980. The exchanges changed the margin rules, the corner collapsed, and the price fell roughly 90% inside a few months. That nominal level was not seen again for four decades.
Should a retirement account hold gold, silver, or both?
Both qualify for an IRA under Section 408(m)(3), gold at 99.5% fineness and silver at 99.9%, so the choice is about what each metal does rather than about what the rules allow. Gold is held overwhelmingly as a monetary asset, with central banks among the largest buyers, while roughly half of silver demand comes from industry, which ties it to manufacturing in a way gold is not tied.
That industrial link is why silver moves about twice as far as gold in either direction. Silver went from $1.96 in January 1968 to about $70 today, a larger multiple than gold's, and it got there through far deeper falls along the way. A sleeve that rises more in a strong metals market and falls harder in a weak one is a different holding from gold rather than a cheaper version of it.
For most retirement accounts the sensible reading is that gold is the core and silver is the optional tilt. The gold-silver ratio has run from under 20 to over 100 since 1968 with no fixed mean and no schedule for returning to one, so treating a wide ratio as a signal to load up on silver is a timing call rather than an allocation decision. This calculator runs your split against gold alone so you can see what the tilt actually did, including the deeper drawdown it usually brought with it.
How to test a gold and silver split
Set the split, set the window, and read the drawdown before you read the return.
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Set the split
The slider runs from all gold to all silver. Every step re-runs the whole monthly series, so you can watch the drawdown deepen as the silver share rises rather than being told about it.
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Choose the window
The default is the full record from 1968. Shortening it is the honest way to test a claim, because most arguments for silver rest on a start date chosen after the fact and the calculator lets you check which one they picked.
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Read the drawdown before the return
The worst peak-to-trough fall is the number that decides whether a position is holdable. A mix that returned more and fell 70% on the way is not the same product as one that returned less and fell 30%.
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Compare the line against both pure holdings
The chart plots your split against 100% gold and 100% silver over the same window, so you can see whether the blend actually sat between them or tracked one of them closely.
What each input means
The window matters more than the split. Two windows on this pair usually differ more than two splits do.
- Gold and silver split
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The proportion of the position in each metal, rebalanced at the start and then left alone. A 70/30 mix drifts as prices move, which is what the line shows rather than a continuously rebalanced abstraction.
Where to find it Whatever you are considering. If a dealer suggested a split, put theirs in first.
- Window
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The start and end months. The gold series begins in April 1968 and silver in January 1968, and both run to the most recent month-end close.
Where to find it Pick the period you actually care about, then try a different one. The difference between two windows on this pair is usually larger than the difference between two splits.
- Starting amount
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The sum to run through the series. It scales everything linearly, so it changes the dollar figures and not the percentages or the drawdown.
Where to find it The amount you are considering moving.
How the split is calculated
The position is set once at the start of the window and held to the end of it, with no rebalancing along the way.
The calculator splits the starting amount between the two metals at the first month of the window, then carries both positions forward on monthly closes without rebalancing. Return is the total change across the window, the annualised figure is the geometric mean of the monthly returns, and the drawdown is the deepest peak-to-trough fall measured on month-end values. Both price series are our own monthly closes, republished as downloadable CSVs so the arithmetic can be checked against the same numbers we used.
ending value = (start × gold share × gold multiple) + (start × silver share × silver multiple)
- multiple
- End-of-window price divided by start-of-window price for that metal
- share
- The proportion set on the slider, applied once at the start
- drawdown
- The largest fall from a running peak to a subsequent trough, month-end to month-end
What this comparison leaves out
- Every cost of holding metal in an IRA. Setup, administration, storage and the dealer markup all come off this, and our fee calculator prices them.
- The premium over spot on physical coins, which runs higher on silver than on gold as a share of the purchase.
- Storage volume, since a dollar of silver takes roughly eighty times the space of a dollar of gold and depositories price accordingly.
- Anything inside a month, because month-end closes cannot see a spike or a crash that started and ended between two of them.
- Any forecast, because past behaviour of the ratio is not a prediction of the next move in it.
Three splits, run across 58 years
The two pure holdings and the blend most often suggested when silver comes up on a sales call.
All gold, full record
The baseline run, taking $10,000 from April 1968 to August 2026.
- Split
- 100% gold
- Window
- 1968 to 2026
- Start
- $10,000
Gold rose from $39.10 to $4,562.75, a multiple of about 117.
That is a compound rate of roughly 8.5% a year across 58 years, and it includes the twenty-year decline from 1980 that most gold marketing leaves out.
All silver, same window
The other end of the slider, over the identical period.
- Split
- 100% silver
- Window
- 1968 to 2026
- Start
- $10,000
Silver rose from $1.96 to $70.26, a multiple of about 36.
A third of gold's multiple, with materially deeper falls along the way. Silver's 1980 collapse after the Hunt brothers' corner took it down about 90% and it did not recover that nominal level for four decades.
A 70/30 blend
The split most often suggested when silver comes up on a sales call.
- Split
- 70% gold, 30% silver
- Window
- 1968 to 2026
- Start
- $10,000
Between the two, closer to gold, with a deeper worst drawdown than gold alone.
The blend gives up return against pure gold and takes on extra drawdown. That trade can still be worth making if you have a view on the ratio, and it should be made knowing which direction each number moved.
The record behind both metals
Four figures cover the two price series, the volatility gap and the rule that decides what can go in the account.
- $39.10 to $4,563 Gold, April 1968 to August 2026
701 monthly closes, recomputed from the publisher's own file and republished as a CSV you can download and check.
- $1.96 to $70.26 Silver, January 1968 to August 2026
704 monthly closes over the same period. The two series are the whole input to this calculator.
- Roughly 2× Silver's volatility against gold
Measured on monthly returns across the full record. It is the reason a silver sleeve widens the swing in an account balance more than its share of the position suggests.
- 99.9% Minimum silver fineness for an IRA
Set by 26 U.S. Code 408(m)(3), which is a stricter bar than the 99.5% gold requires. Silver Eagles and most one-ounce rounds clear it, and sterling and junk silver do not.
What people get wrong about silver
The first two are about what silver is, and the second two are about what this calculator is measuring.
Is silver just a cheaper version of gold?
No, it is a different asset, with a large industrial demand component, so it responds to manufacturing cycles in a way gold does not. That is why it falls harder in a recession while gold often does not, and the two do not move together in the periods when a hedge is supposed to work.
Does the gold-silver ratio always revert to its average?
No, it has no fixed mean and no schedule. It has ranged from under 20 to over 100 since 1968, and buying silver because the ratio looks stretched is a real strategy with a real record, and the record includes long stretches where the ratio stayed stretched for a decade.
Does a larger silver share mean more upside?
No, it means more of both directions. Across the full record silver returned less than gold and fell further, which is the combination the drawdown figure exists to show. A larger silver share has produced a wider swing rather than a higher outcome.
Does this show what my gold IRA would have returned?
No, it prices the metal alone. A real gold IRA pays a setup fee, an annual administration charge, storage and a 5% to 8% dealer markup on the way in, and silver's lower price per ounce means the same dollar position takes far more physical space and costs more to store.
Gold vs silver questions
Is silver better than gold for a retirement account?
No, the long record does not support it. Across the full period since 1968 silver returned less than gold and fell considerably further, which is an unusual combination and not a favourable one. Silver's case rests on a view about the ratio or about industrial demand rather than on the long-run price record, and inside an IRA the extra volatility lands on a balance you are not trading.
Can I hold silver in a gold IRA?
Yes, and the account type is the same. 26 U.S. Code 408(m)(3) permits silver at 99.9% fineness or better, which covers American Silver Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs and most one-ounce bullion rounds and bars. Sterling flatware and pre-1965 US coinage do not qualify.
What is the gold-silver ratio telling me?
How many ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys, and it has run from under 20 to over 100 since 1968. Traders read a high ratio as silver being cheap relative to gold, and the record shows the ratio staying high for years at a time, so it is a relative-value observation rather than a timing signal.
Why does silver cost more to store?
Volume is the whole reason. At current prices a dollar of silver occupies roughly eighty times the space of a dollar of gold, and depositories charge for space. Several of the twelve custodians we priced apply a higher storage rate to silver positions for exactly that reason, which the fee calculator picks up.
Does this include the premium I pay on coins?
No. It runs spot against spot, so it measures the metal rather than the position. Silver premiums are typically a larger share of the purchase price than gold premiums, since fabricating a one-ounce silver coin costs a similar amount to fabricating a gold one against a fortieth of the metal value.
What happened to silver in 1980?
The Hunt brothers accumulated a position large enough to squeeze the market and silver reached about $50 in January 1980. The exchanges changed the margin rules, the corner collapsed, and the price fell roughly 90% inside a few months. That nominal level was not seen again for four decades, which is the single most useful fact about silver's drawdown record.