EXACT-MONTH MULTI-METAL COMPARISON
Which metal led—and what path did it take?
All three series are monthly averages from one World Bank workbook and are matched by calendar month. Indexing each metal to 100 compares percentage paths without pretending one ounce of silver equals one ounce of gold or platinum.
Interpretation boundary: the chart compares nominal monthly-average price paths. It does not include product premiums, bid/ask spreads, storage, financing, taxes, FX effects or inflation. The strongest historical endpoint is not automatically the best future holding.
READ THE SAME CHART CORRECTLY
Indexed return and drawdown answer different questions
Indexed performance
Resets each metal to 100 at the selected start month. It answers which percentage path grew more, not which metal had the higher dollar price per ounce.
Drawdown
Measures each metal below its own running peak. It shows path stress that an endpoint return can hide, but monthly averages can smooth sharper daily declines.
Volatility
Annualizes sample dispersion of adjacent monthly log changes. It describes this historical sample; it is not a forecast or a complete measure of investment risk.
WHY THE PATHS DIVERGE
Three metals, three overlapping but unequal demand systems
Gold combines monetary, reserve, jewelry, technology and investment roles. Silver adds large industrial uses alongside jewelry and investment demand. Platinum has substantial autocatalyst and industrial exposure, concentrated mine supply, recycling and substitution dynamics. A shared USD-per-troy-ounce unit makes exact-month price comparison possible; it does not make the underlying markets economically identical.
Range choice matters. A ten-year chart begins from a different price regime than the full history, so leadership, volatility and maximum drawdown can change when the starting month changes. The tool preserves that state in the URL so a cited comparison can be reproduced.
METHOD AND LIMITS
One workbook, exact months and no filled gaps
GoldObserve uses the retained World Bank Commodity Price Data monthly workbook under CC BY 4.0. Gold, silver and platinum observations are joined only when all three share the same calendar month. Each line is normalized independently from that selected range's first matched observation; no interpolation, forward filling or synthetic live quote is inserted.
The workbook represents latest-vintage nominal monthly averages and can revise older values. Silver also carries documented early-series method breaks. Physical products add premiums, spreads, fabrication, storage, financing and taxes, while non-USD investors also face exchange-rate effects. None of those costs appear in this chart.
RELATED RESEARCH
Move from the three-metal overview to a narrower question
QUESTIONS
Precious-metals performance FAQ
How does GoldObserve compare gold, silver and platinum?
GoldObserve matches all three World Bank monthly-average series by exact calendar month and resets each selected-range starting value to 100. This compares percentage paths without treating their absolute prices as interchangeable.
Does the highest historical return identify the best metal to buy?
No. Endpoint leadership depends on the chosen start and end months. It does not account for future conditions, personal constraints, product costs, taxes or portfolio objectives.
Why show drawdown as well as return?
Two assets can finish with similar returns but expose holders to very different declines along the way. Drawdown measures each metal below its own running monthly-average peak.
Are these live spot prices?
No. They are nominal monthly averages from the retained World Bank Commodity Price Data workbook. Live spot references, futures settlements and dealer quotes answer different questions.