Mr Patel says: “Several things are going on here. Firstly the silver price going into September bottomed, showing quite a variation against gold. At the end of August, silver looked cheap, so people piled in but by mid-September a lot of people took profits and sold out.”
Platinum and palladium are predominantly mined in South Africa and Russia, which can lead to concentration of risks, he says. While labour tensions in the former have been an issue, the worst seems to be over, while in Russia the government’s massive stockpile of palladium has dwindled.
So, is it just about price?
Mr de Bunsen says: “The key things we look at are structure and counterparty risks, price, and liquidity or trading costs. We reassure ourselves that we are holding the physical metal and not taking on any unwanted credit or counterparty risk.”
Sam Shaw is a freelance journalist
ETPS
THE TOP SELLERS
Gold
db Physical Gold ETCs, listed in London and Switzerland.
$461.1m (£286.5m) of assets under management
$169.8m year-to-date inflows
$4.6m in inflows in September
Silver
ETFs Physical Silver
$122.7m year-to-date inflows
$35.7m in outflows in September
Platinum
Platinum Source P-ETC
£134.3M year-to-date inflows
$6m in inflows for September
Palladium
Palladium Source P-ETC
$51.9m year-to-date inflows
$2.7m in inflows in September
