Silver a 'Cheaper Entry Point' for Investors

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Silver bar and coins

While the price of gold has captured attention lately, setting new record highs, silver is a more affordable alternative for many investors considering a place for metals in their portfolio.

Silver offers a much cheaper entry point, according to Lou Grasso of Millennium Futures. "It's worth taking a look at," he added, noting that silver still has room to run.

Grasso believes silver, now priced about $19 an ounce, has lagged behind gold (on a percentage increase basis) and could rise to between $22 and $25 an ounce.

Julian Andre, CFO of OpVest, said investing in gold is typically a deflationary measure, but that's been tempered because it's been keeping pace with the American dollar.

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“When you look at recent trading, there was a large decoupling between the dollar and gold," he added. "We saw gold go up and the dollar go up at the same time."

Nontheless, gold continues to be not only the so-called pretty sister, but the one that many investors turn to in dicey times.

“Gold has a place in almost every investment portfolio as a hedge or safety mechanism,” Burton Rothberg, Ph.D., a former senior trader with Commodities Corporation, told CNBC in August. Rothberg has invested in the gold markets for decades.

Aside from gold and silver, other metals have dropped in price recently. Copper is down 20 percent in the six weeks and the CRB commodity price index fell about 10 percent.

Andre said investing outright in copper and other metals tied to industrial use is a bit risky in the short term, because of a slowdown in demand, especially in China, which is trying to manage explosive economic growth and contain inflation.

Rather than focusing on individual metals, Andre recommended base-metal ETFs. They are "strong now", he added. “That’s [those metals] are going to come back. Look to ETFs, including Powershares DBB.”

Learn about investing in classic cars in our "Anything But Stocks" segment, Thursday, May 20 at 11am ET on 'The Call."

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Correction: An earlier version of this report misidentified the Powershares ETF.