PLTM vs SLV

PLTMBGraniteShares Platinum Trust

SLVBiShares Silver Trust

In short

PLTM Platinum, in a vault, sliced into shares. PLTM holds allocated bullion and charges 0.50% a year, undercutting the older platinum trust on fee, which is most of what separates two funds holding the same metal.

SLV Silver, unbundled: real bars sitting with a custodian, a share price that shadows the LBMA Silver Price less a 0.50% fee. Trading since 2006 and one of the busiest commodity funds on the tape, it's the default way people put silver in a brokerage account.

Stated mandate

PLTM The Trust seeks to reflect the price of platinum, less its expenses, through allocated physical platinum bullion.

SLV The Trust seeks to reflect the performance of silver prices before its expenses and liabilities. Its assets consist primarily of silver held by a custodian.

Why people hold it

• PLTM At 0.50% a year it is the cheaper of the two US physical platinum trusts, and it sits under the median fee for physical commodity funds.
• Allocated bars, not futures contracts: no roll calendar, no contango math, just platinum held for the trust.graniteshares.com
• Simple mandate kept tightly since its 2018 launch: the platinum price less expenses, and one of the closer trackers among physical metal funds.

• SLV The deep end of the silver pool: running since 2006, a multi-billion-dollar trust, and very actively traded, which is what keeps spreads tight and the options market busy.
• Metal, not machinery. Assets are physical silver held by a custodian and priced off the LBMA Silver Price. No futures roll, no miner earnings, no swap counterparty.sec.gov
• 0.50% a year, under the typical physical-metal trust, and the design is about as plain as it gets: bullion price minus expenses, tracked closely.

Worth knowing

• PLTM One metal, one line of exposure. Platinum moves in its own lane and can swing hard, with nothing else inside the fund to cushion it.
• No income here. Expenses are met out of the metal, so each share represents a slightly smaller slice of platinum as the years pass.
• Volume is moderate rather than mega-trust deep, so spreads and limit orders matter more when you trade in size.

• SLV SIVR runs the same physical-silver idea for 0.30%. The extra fee here buys size and trading depth, not different metal.
• No income. Bullion pays nothing, and the trustee sells silver to cover expenses, so the metal behind each share slowly shrinks.sec.gov
• One metal, one price. Nothing inside the trust cushions a silver drawdown, and silver is a jumpy market by nature.

Full PLTM profile⁠

Full SLV profile⁠