Silver’s brilliant year validates longtime bugs' enthusiasm

Ned Naylor-Leyland has been all-in on silver for 18 years, earning derision along the way from fellow investors favoring the more glamorous gold. Now, with silver’s price skyrocketing 51% this year, he’s got reason to feel vindicated.

The manager of the $1-billion Merian Gold and Silver Fund in London proudly calls himself a “silver bug,” a term describing an investor whose fervor for the precious metal is more extreme than the typical bullion enthusiast’s. The bugs foresee a crash of the fiat cash system in the aftermath of unprecedented monetary stimulus, putting silver back in play as a viable currency. Their core tenet is that gold’s cheaper, more volatile cousin will continue surging in value.

“I’ve been waiting since 2002 for the inevitable demise of this monetary system,” Naylor-Leyland said. “I’ve been standing there waving on the top of a hill for the last 20 years, and suddenly everyone’s pointing at me saying, ‘That man’s a genius.’”