Silver futures stood at $59.16 an ounce on October 13, down 1.63 percent on the day, according to Armenpress’s report on NYMEX metals prices. That is roughly half of the $121.62 record that the Investing News Network and the price-history site MetalCharts both date to January 29. The slide leaves the metal about $62 an ounce below its high, even as a large silver fund still shows a gain over twelve months. Sorting out which price is being compared with which is the first step in reading the decline.
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For savers wondering whether the slide is a buying chance for an IRA, the first job is to separate a fall in the metal from a loss in any particular account. A metal that has dropped by half from a peak can still sit above where it was a year earlier, and a fund bought partway down has a return of its own. The sections below set the October 13 futures price, the January record and a silver fund’s own results side by side.
Silver’s one-day drop against gold and platinum
Armenpress reported silver futures down 1.63 percent to $59.16 for October 13 in a dispatch datelined New York the next day. The same report had gold futures down 0.31 percent to $4,152.90 and platinum futures down 2.00 percent to $1,671.70. Silver’s percentage loss was more than five times gold’s, and only platinum fell faster among the three metals.
The ratio between the two famous metals tells the same story from another side. At those futures prices, one ounce of gold bought about 70 ounces of silver, from $4,152.90 divided by $59.16. A larger ratio means silver is cheaper against gold. The report gives no earlier ratio for comparison, so the figure marks where the two stood on one day rather than a trend.
Armenpress presents the numbers as a down day for the NYMEX metals and does not label them settlement prices. A close and an intraday quote can differ by several cents on a metal near $60, and the difference matters if a number is going into a contract or a tax record.
The January record, and what it measures
Lauren Kelly of the Investing News Network wrote that the silver all-time high was $121.62, set on January 29, 2026, in a piece published on Nasdaq.com on February 25. The same article also refers to a high above $120 on January 28, so the exact day is less firm than the price. MetalCharts agrees on the figure and the date, and the two sources together put the record in the last days of January.
MetalCharts attributes the $121.62 figure to the spot and London basis and notes that COMEX futures printed an intraday peak near $121.7 the same day. It labels the record nominal and approximate and publishes no separate settlement price for the day. That makes the headline comparison between a spot record and a futures quote a close but not exact one.
Measured against the futures peak of about $121.7, the October 13 price of $59.16 is $62.54 lower, a drop of 51.4 percent. Measured against the spot record, it is $62.46 lower, or 51.4 percent. The two methods agree to the cent in percentage terms, so the choice of yardstick does not change the picture: silver gave back about half its value in under nine months.
What a silver fund shows
The iShares Silver Trust reported a net asset value of $52.8152 a share on October 14, with total net assets of $28.90 billion. Its net asset value total return for the year through October 13 was minus 16.70 percent. A fund down about 17 percent for 2026, against a metal roughly half off its record, shows how far silver climbed early in the year and how much of that climb has been reversed.
The same fund page lists a one-year total return of 30.86 percent, but that figure is dated September 30, a different day from the other numbers. The two returns therefore cannot be netted against each other. They can be read together as a rough outline: a saver who held the fund for twelve months to the end of September was well ahead, and one who bought at the start of 2026 was behind by mid-October.
Percentage moves shrink in dollar terms as the price falls. A 1.63 percent decline on silver at $59.16 is about $1 an ounce. The same percentage at the January record of $121.62 would have been about $2 an ounce. Day-to-day swings that looked dramatic in dollar terms near the top are smaller in dollar terms now, which is one reason a falling price can feel calmer than the percentages suggest.
Silver in a retirement account: the IRS rule on what counts
Buying physical silver inside an IRA runs into a specific rule. The IRS page on collectibles in individually directed plan accounts lists what is excluded from the collectibles definition: certain gold, silver or platinum coins described in 31 U.S.C. 5112, coins issued under state law, and bullion of a required fineness that a bank or approved non-bank trustee holds in physical possession. The page refers readers to Internal Revenue Code section 408(m) for the details of fineness.
That puts custody and form ahead of price. A saver comparing a coin, a bar and a fund share is comparing three different things, each quoted at a different moment: futures at $59.16 on October 13, a fund share valued at $52.8152 on October 14, and a record set in January. Which of them an IRA may hold, and through whom, is settled by the tax code, not by the quote.
Against $121.62 in January, the $59.16 quote of October 13 shows how quickly a metal can lose half its price. The same fund page that shows the long decline also shows a 30.86 percent twelve-month return, and both numbers are true. A buying decision rests on which date a saver starts counting from and which price the account actually pays.
Silver is down half. Is that a reason to buy?
The detail that gets missed is the condition on the incentive: Lear Capital offers a $500 account credit with a precious metals purchase, and the credit requires that purchase. Lear Capital also helps protect your retirement with gold and silver and sends a free 2026 Gold IRA Kit covering how silver fits an IRA.
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This article was prepared with AI assistance from cited public sources and reviewed before publication.
