The 2010 Small Silver Sweepstakes update

Checking in on the state of play in our sweepstakes challenge, as we take nine small silver players and compare their 2010 Year To Date performance to how silver-the-metal is doing via the silver ETF (SLV).

(click to enlarge)

This update shows the field has been shaken up considerably in recent weeks. Our top player is now Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v), a company that has been up'n'around the top echelons ever since we started the series in the 2009 season. But second place deserves a decent mention, as US Silver (USA.v) has made a strong move forward on the back of a decent earnings report recently (and we suspect, some of the larger newsletters putting its name forward as a possible investement). I took a good hard look at the USA.v earnings release and in general I liked what I saw. The high cash cost is still an issue but this can play in favour of those investors who think silver is going much higher from here and can look to USA.v for great leverage. That one is up to you to decide so DYODD, dude.

Meanwhile, MAG Silver (MAG.to), though treading water somewhat recently, has held on to the bronze medal spot. Next comes our benchmark SLV, which means all the others left to mention have not performed as well as their main product in 2010 (so far at least).

A final thought: The range shown in this update is the smallest ever, with just 36% between the best and the worst performers. Also, only two of the 10 tickers are in negative territory now, which is probably good.

The 2010 Small Silver Sweepstakes

In 2009 we ran a whole series that compared nine different "small silvers" and also the silver ETF, (SLV) to see which company had the best 2009 perfromance (the winner was EDR.to).

So now that 2010 is nearly a quarter old, it's time to see how the same companies have been getting on so far this year. Here's the chart:

click to enlarge
(or steal for your bullboard post, and as usual there's no need at all
to give links to the original...i mean, why should a dumbass like
you start pretending to be polite after all these years, eh?)

In first place is MAG Silver (MAG.to), which is a bit of a zero-to-hero story as last year it was one of the worst performers. Next comes Fortuna Silver (FVI.to) that's also batting 20%+ win so far this year. Bronze medal position is currently held by Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v).

Then after that comes our benchmark, the silver ETF (SLV), that marks spot silver for us pretty accurately. So all the other stocks, so far this year at least, haven't managed to outperform their main metal product. Also, they're all in plenty negative territory so far this year. For sure we'd expect that from a scummydog like ECU Silver (ECU.to), but tail-ender First Majestic's (FR.to) year to date has been poor.

We'll check on further developments in the small silver sweepstakes in a few weeks' time. Mojitos served, the end.