SLV – iShares Silver Trust

About SLV

SLV (iShares Silver Trust) is a physically backed silver ETF from iShares (BlackRock). It is not leveraged: it aims to follow its benchmark one-for-one. Its expense ratio is 0.5% a year, according to both the issuer and Yahoo Finance's fund profile.

What it tracks

SLV holds silver bullion in vaults and tracks the LBMA Silver Price, less the trust's expenses.

What to keep in mind

Silver is used in industry as well as held as a precious metal, and its price has historically been more volatile than gold's, so SLV can move more than the gold funds on the same day.

Bullion, futures and miners

Commodity ETFs reach their market in different ways. Bullion funds such as GLD, IAU and SLV hold the physical metal in vaults, so their value follows the metal price less expenses. Futures funds such as USO hold contracts that must be rolled before they expire, which can make returns drift from the spot price. Miners' funds such as GDX hold company shares, which add company and stock-market risk on top of the metal price.

On this page

The SLV price above comes from the US regular trading session via Yahoo Finance and may be delayed; it updates automatically while this page is open. The chart switches between 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 1 year, and the 1-week, 1-month and 1-year returns are price returns adjusted for share splits, not including distributions. The table below compares SLV with the other funds in the same category, and you can set a free price alert to be notified when SLV crosses a level you choose.

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