The 'Small Silvers' 2011 sweepstakes August update

I keep forgetting to do this end-month update thingy, but today I remembered so here it is. We track nine "small silver" companies against the silver ETF (SLV) gold ETF (GLD) (thank you quick reader SS) to see how they get on every year, starting January 1st.. Chart please!

 (click to enlarge)

Top spot is still kept by First Majestic (FR.to), with Endeavour Silver (EDR.to) close behind in 2nd. Notably, both of those have U.S. listings folks....something to consider, no?

Then comes the bullion ticker, the silver ETF (SLV) gold ETF (GLD) that supplies our benchmark. Basically, if your miner can't beat out the metal then it's not supplying the necessary leverage to offset the risk and should be considered underperforming to date. This applies to the next four stocks, Fortuna (FVI.to), IMPACT (IPT.v), Great Panther (GPR.to) and U.S. Silver (USA.v) even though there is a decent mitigation for those, namely they're making a profit year to date.

And so to the dogs. MAG Silver (MAG.to) has been crappy this year and not helped by its new rounds of insider selling (a very bad habit at that company and telling of its true take-out chances). ECU Silver (ECU.to) is a laughable excuse for a silver mining company and needs no extra here, as only true fools play this one. Finally, bottom of the pile is Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) after its well-documented snafu at Santa Ana, Puno. 

If I remember we'll do this again end September. Toodle pip!

The 'Small Silvers' 2011 sweepstakes March update

The end of one month, the beginning of another and we make our regular check-in on "the small silvers", that band of junior Ag miners we're tracking to see which makes the best fist of 2011. Here's the updated chart:

 click to enlarge

So after a great month IMPACT Silver (IPT.v) moves into number one spot and we're left wondering exactly why IPT.v insists on using block capitals for its corporate title. Anyway, IPT.v is chased closely by Great Panther (GPR.to) and third place goes to big, swaggering FR.to. 

After that, only Endeavour Silver (EDR.to) beats out our benchmark, the silver ETF (SLV) so all other are officially considered as underperformers right now. None more so than ECU silver (ECU.to) and it beggars belief that a silver stock can be 20% down with the metal doing what it's been doing so far in 2011. Bill Murphy, Wistar Holt, all the other paid pumpers at GATA and not to mention chief paid shiller Mexico Mike Kachanovsky, your true stock picking ability and your shame is on display for all to see. Reap what you sow.

Chart of the day is....

...the first look in 2011 of our 'Small Silvers' comparative chart:

For those new round here, we run nine small silver companies against the silver ETF (SLV) and see how they get on compared to each other over the course a calendar year. So far in 2011, Great Panther (GPR.to) is leading the pack, followed by Impact Silver (IPT.v in a clear second place. Then come a bunch of securities including our benchmark SLV and after all those, the laggards.

Oh looky look, ECU Silver (ECU.to) is the worst performing of the lot! Hoodathunkit? Not Mexico Scamster and Paid Shiller Mike, that's for sure. How the devil can a silver producer be down 9% in a year when the metal is simply flying? The answer is, of course, that BS scams are found out eventually. DYODD.

The 'Small Silvers' 2010 sweepstakes November update

The end of another month (wow, just one to go) and here's how our nine small silver stocks, along with our benchmark comparative ticker of the silver bullion ETF (SLV) has developed these last thirty days.

(click to enlarge or steal for your paranoid tinfoilhat bullboard...wouldn't be the first time and you never bother to say thankyou, do you?)

Still streaking out in the lead is U.S Silver (USA.v) which looks a racing certainty for the title this year. Second place is pretty much defined too, with First Majestic continuing to be strong as an ox. Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) has been better-than-the-rest all year and shows no sign of losing that while the money continues to pour into the sector.

The big difference to this month's chart is that every single name is now positive on the year, perhaps the most telling fact of the silver sector right now as even the dogs get bought. Also, our benchmark ETF (SLV) beats out just three or the names now and apart from Impact (IPT.v) at the bottom, it's not beating them out by much. And they wonder why The IKN Weekly has been so bullish since the end of summer? I mean, even Wistar and MexMike are going to escape from this year with more money thanks to ECU.to's recent perk-up.....it's a generous market, this one.

The 'Small Silvers' 2010 sweepstakes October update

The end of October brings our latest update for our "small silvers", the stocks in the sector racing to see who gets to add the most in 2010. Here's the updated chart:

U.S. Silver (USA.v) is still way out in the lead and looking good for the 2010 crown. Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) also had a strong October and moved into 2nd spot, with 3rd filled by the continued outperformance in First Majestic (FM.to). Then comes FVI.to which makes up the four small silvers that have beaten silver the metal this year (SLV as accurate proxy).

Underperforming silver are MAG.to, GPR.to and EDR.to. Then the tail end Charlies of ECU.to (shockah!) and IPT.v that are now both at breakeven for the year give or take a tenth of a point.

The 'Small Silvers' 2010 sweepstakes September update

The end of the month is in and so we catch up on the performance of our basket of small silver stocks, as promised in the last update dated August 31. So here we go:

 It's safe to say that the silver stocks we follow had a very good September all told, but some are doing better than others. Top performance by quite some way now is from U.S. Silver (USA.v) with over 100% racked up this year and looking good for the 2010 full year prize now. We applaud this stock and all of those who were smart enough to buy some. 

First Majestic (FR.to) had a superb September and has moved smartly into second place (up 70% or so YTD) on the back of strong fundies results. Bear Creek (BCM.v) is in the bronze medal spot, up 60% approx. Then comes Fortuna Silver (FVI.to) up 40% YTD and then, surprisingly, the silver ETF (SLV) in 5th spot, which means there are still a whole bunch of these stocks that supposedly offer leverage to the metal that are lagging Ag. In the case of MAG Silver (MAG.to) in 6th the difference is tiny, but the four stocks underneath (EDR.to) (GPR.to) (ECU.to) (IPT.v) have far fewer excuses for their poor performances.

So, catch you all end of October for the next update in the race. Please be having nice day. Thank you.

Small Silvers, year to date update (August)

To make things a little more orderly, we're going to update on our regularly tracked basket of 10 silver tickers at the end of each month. Come December we'll have the winning winner, but until then here's how they stand in chart form.

(click to enlarge and make easier to read)

Leading the pack is still U.S. Silver (USA.v) (we applaud) but the biggest change we see on the list now is a more general one. Plenty of our small silver names have gone into the green on the year and are also beating out our benchmark silver ETF (SLV) ticker that tracks the metal itself accurately. So we now have the following five officially doing well in 2010:

1) U.S. Silver (USA.v)
2) Bear Creek (BCM.v)
3) MAG Silver (MAG.to)
4) First Majestic (FR.to)
5) Fortuna Silver (FVI.to)

Then (just behind FVI) comes SLV, with under that the four tickers still in the red for 2010. The rolecall of shame is:

7) Endeavour (EDR.to)
8) ECU Silver (ECU.to)
9) Impact (IPT.v)
10) Great Panther (GPR.to)

So congratulations to that paragon of the mining community Mexico Mike Kachanovsky, as his paycheck providers at ECU aren't in last place any longer and have only lost their shareholders nine percent or so this year. It must make your unrelenting paid pumpage of this dog seem all worthwhile, Mikey.

Next update end September.

Chart of the day is....

....the small silvers year-to-date update.

Into the eighth month of the year and the silver junior sector is still well and truly beaten down. Of our nine company stocks only two are showing a percentage gain on the year, they the only two beating out our benchmark SLV, the bullion ETF and a good proxy to the metal itself.

So top spot is held by US Silver (USA.v) with number two MAG Silver (MAG.to), which has put on nearly 15% this week and rushed up. Then in thrird spot is SLV. Then all others are net negative the year.

Small Silvers, year to date update

So after running a pretty sad looking five day chart on the small silvers earlier this week, your humble scribe gets a "Hey, how they doing YTD, Otto? How about an update?" mail from reader 'PT' yesterday. Yep can do, we haven't updated this one in a while, so here goes:

click to enlarge

Top spot is held by US Silver (USA.v). Although only 15% up YTD and way off the kind of returns this little basket of small silver producers were returning last year, that's a pretty fair performance in the face of some serious sector headwinds.

Number two post is significant. The silver bullion ETF (SLV) has outperformed all the producers on the list bar USA.v, which doesn't bode well at all, really. Third and fourth (well, a virtual tie) come MAG Silver (MAG.to) (MVG) and Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v).

All the rest are showing negative so far this year. Gulp. Worst of the lot is Great Panther (GPR.to), down over 20%. This goes to show you exactly how much stock scamster Jonathan Lebed knows.