Checking in on the state of play in our sweepstakes challenge, as we take nine small silver players and compare their 2010 Year To Date performance to how silver-the-metal is doing via the silver ETF (SLV).
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This update shows the field has been shaken up considerably in recent weeks. Our top player is now Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v), a company that has been up’n’around the top echelons ever since we started the series in the 2009 season. But second place deserves a decent mention, as US Silver (USA.v) has made a strong move forward on the back of a decent earnings report recently (and we suspect, some of the larger newsletters putting its name forward as a possible investement). I took a good hard look at the USA.v earnings release and in general I liked what I saw. The high cash cost is still an issue but this can play in favour of those investors who think silver is going much higher from here and can look to USA.v for great leverage. That one is up to you to decide so DYODD, dude.
Meanwhile, MAG Silver (MAG.to), though treading water somewhat recently, has held on to the bronze medal spot. Next comes our benchmark SLV, which means all the others left to mention have not performed as well as their main product in 2010 (so far at least).
A final thought: The range shown in this update is the smallest ever, with just 36% between the best and the worst performers. Also, only two of the 10 tickers are in negative territory now, which is probably good.