27 March 1980: Silver Thursday
The Hunt brothers, who had tried to corner the silver market, could not meet a margin call as prices collapsed. Silver had hit about $50 an ounce in January, but by this day it was trading around a fifth of that. The brothers' troubles threatened their brokers and banks, prompting a rescue loan. The Hunts eventually went bankrupt. Cornering a market is easier to start than to finish.
The lesson: Leverage and concentration together can destroy even the largest fortunes remarkably quickly.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Silver (oz) at the start of 1990 → $11,538 today, vs $19,429 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 1990, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 11.5 times the money, but $7,890 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Silver (oz) teaches: Silver behaves like gold with leverage, amplifying the same macro story in both directions; volatility that large makes entry price matter enormously.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $5.20 | $11,538 | $19,429 |
| 1995 | $4.80 | $12,500 | $14,783 |
| 2000 | $5.30 | $11,321 | $4,626 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Silver (oz)? Every starting year and the full story →
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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