After the last 12 months of craziness traders can be forgiven if they've become inured to moves in precious metals. To those who swore off semi-precious silver last summer it's time to rue the day: Silver has rather quietly staged a more than 20% rally since the beginning of 2012.

According to Michael Purves, chief market strategist at BGC Financial, silver is apt to warrant more attention. "Silver is a poor man's gold and it's also very volatile," he says. "I think a lot of that volatility will be skewed to the upside".

And by "upside," he means a move to all time nominal highs. The semi-precious is "setting up for something more powerful; we could see $50 later this year," he states.

[link to finance.yahoo.com]