Credit: Jurii / CC-BY-SA 3.0

A while ago, silver prices were slowly surging in an undetected manner. However, its counterpart, gold, outshone the white metal regardless of its better performance and huge profits.

For precious metals, October is a bit weak month, although the silver market weakness has been fixed up to a certain extent. The silver prices dropped about 7.4%, displaying heavy losses for just a handful of trading sessions.

Silver is more volatile than gold, but it has fascinated many investors, who think it has outdone gold on several occasions. In 2012, the metal climbed more than 17% relative to gold’s 11%. In 2009 and 2010, the white metal was up by 47% and 82% relatively. On every occasion, silver profits have surpassed gold, and it also turns into steep losses because of its hefty volatility.

Silver might be a beaten-down metal, but it well-off shows its historical highs. For those interested in buying silver, here are a few options:

• iShares Silver Trust (SLV): Without a doubt, it’s the most popular option physically-backed fund, having over $10 billion in assets and trades more than 12 million times each day.

• Silver Miners ETF (SIL): This ETF is more volatile than the actual metal itself.  It invests in companies that support the silver mining industry and gets less affected by metals daily movements.

• UltraShort Silver Fund (ZSL): With a -200% leverage, this ETF invests in silver futures contracts helping you do your bearish silver sentiment.