Social media Reddit investor crowd still have silver in their sights   

A 122,000-strong community of so-called silver 'stackers' hope to corner the market and bring down what they say is an unjust banking system

Silver stackers ay that by buying up bars and coins, they can jack up prices by 100% or even 1,000%, to the point where they can call the shots against the so-called bullion banks, the large financial institutions which lead trade in precious metals. 

Kerry Kraker, 56, has worked in kitchens all his life. Since March he's spent about $100 (€85) a week – half his spare cash – on silver coins. 

He's part of a growing social media movement who say they are buying bars and coins for protection from a coming age of inflation.

Thanks to a community of like-minded silver 'stackers' gathering on social-media platform Reddit, Mr Kraker says he also feels empowered. 

"They are so encouraging and so convinced in the changes they can cause," Mr Kraker, who lost his home in the financial crisis, told Reuters. 

Inspired by Reddit forum WallStreetBets, some of the 122,000-strong community hope to corner the market and bring down what they say is an unjust banking system. 

Market professionals say that is unlikely to succeed – there is plenty of silver, and central bankers in the US and Europe expect inflation to stay in low single-digits.

But bankers aren't getting through to this group. 

Reddit community

The core of the movement is a Reddit community called Wall Street Silver, formed in January at the time WallStreetBets was marshalling an uprising of ordinary people against the financial elites, through coordinated buying of company shares.

The group's founder, Ivan Bayoukhi, is a 24-year old former car salesman living with his parents in Alberta, Canada. Silver costs about $26 an ounce. 

Stackers think the price will rise as inflation erodes the value of currencies, demand for silver rises, and supplies run short. 

Some say that by buying up bars and coins, they can jack up prices by 100% or even 1,000%, to the point where they can call the shots against the so-called bullion banks, the large financial institutions which lead trade in precious metals. 

"In a year or two we will have millions of people in the movement," Mr Bayoukhi told Reuters. "And then it will be over for the bullion banks."

Prices of silver and gold, which are traditionally seen as safe stores of wealth, have risen since 2019: gold is up about 40% and silver about 70% since then. 

The silver stackers are joining millions worldwide who believe currencies are vulnerable – a fear that has grown as governments borrowed and printed money in the pandemic.  

Michael Mesaric, who runs the world's largest gold and silver refiner – Valcambi, in Switzerland – says the 1,000 ounce bars of silver used in the wholesale market are plentiful: for small investors to think they can corner the market is "entirely wrong". 

Analysts at companies that trade the metal, think predictions of $1,000 an ounce are out of this world.

Redditors are unmoved. 

Mr Kraker, the restaurant worker, has begun reading obsessively about inflation, money supply and other economic data. 

"There is a monster around the corner," he said. "I'm trying to sharpen my stick."