The gold silver ratio, and what it does not tell you

It is one division, and the inputs matter more than the output

Take the gold price, divide by the silver price. That is the whole calculation. Because it is a ratio, it moves when either side moves, and silver moves more: it is a smaller market with a larger industrial share, so a given piece of news shifts it further. Most of what looks like the ratio doing something is silver doing something.

The two claims it is asked to support, and cannot

The first is that a high ratio means silver is cheap and due to catch up. That treats a long-run average as a level the number must return to, and a ratio between two freely traded assets has no such obligation. The second is that the ratio forecasts a turn in either metal. It is a quotient of two prices, so it contains nothing the two prices do not already contain, and a quotient cannot lead the things it is made of.

What it is genuinely useful for

Comparison over time, on the same basis. Because it is unitless it strips out the currency and lets you ask whether gold is expensive relative to silver today against its own history, which is a narrower and more honest question than whether either is expensive. Read it as a description of the present, not a prediction.

Reading it from perpetuals rather than spot

The numbers on this page come from perpetual futures on gold and silver rather than from a spot dealer, which is a different object and worth naming. A perpetual tracks spot through a funding payment rather than being a claim on metal, so it can sit slightly above or below. For a ratio the difference is smaller still, because any drift common to both sides divides out.

Live, right now, on this page

Gold and silver, live, from one call. The ratio is the division of the two mid prices and nothing else. Read at 2026-09-23 02:12 UTC; accurate as of that time and not afterwards.

Common questions