In this week’s Q&A podcast from FundCalibre, Ned Naylor-Leyland, Manager of the Jupiter Gold & Silver fund, dives into the dynamics driving gold and silver markets today. He explains the recent market swings caused by margin trading, Fed policy signals and investor enthusiasm.
Ned covers how physical ownership mitigates counterparty risk and why mining companies present a compelling investment opportunity. Ned also highlights silver’s critical industrial uses and explains why gold and silver remain essential portfolio assets for the long term.
Why you should listen to the interview: By combining insights on metals, miners and market cycles, this episode equips listeners to navigate volatility thoughtfully, invest with conviction, and recognise opportunities in both physical assets and listed mining equities.
This interview was recorded on 9 February 2026. Please note, answers are edited and condensed for clarity. To gain a fuller understanding and clearer context, please listen to the full interview.
Interview highlights:
Market volatility and setting the scene
“If we rewind slightly further back to the year before, gold attracted a lot of leverage from sophisticated hedge funds and trend-following investors. Silver, on the other hand, saw enormous excitement in January, with people buying not just physical silver but bullion.
“Then the Fed nomination came out, and the market wondered if the Fed would be less accommodative than expected. Gold and silver react instantly to this. Dovish policies push them up, hawkish ones push them down.
“What happened was a very brief, but painful trend reversal for leveraged investors, triggering liquidations. From my perspective, this is positive. It clears out the overly excited players. Then there are the long-term stackers, who own physical metal and mining stocks. This is no surprise to them, and the market resets for the next phase.
“The last group, those not yet invested, may see this as a signal to finally enter gold and silver. And they’ve been waiting for an entry point and what we saw 10 days ago was a moment which I think they’ve mischaracterised.
“They’ve looked at it and thought this is all over, we don’t need to worry about it. But when we get back through that $5,500 an ounce — which I believe it will do in relatively short order — that will be the moment those people start to think, wait a minute”
The relationship between gold and silver
“The first thing to say is that gold and silver directionally are the same thing, silver is also an industrial metal, but they move together. In other words, gold up, silver up; gold down, silver down.
“With both gold and silver, you’re short politicians. You’re saying I want to be short my local currency and the behaviour of politicians. But with silver, you are also long conductivity. So you’re saying I want to be both short the politicians and long the future, through tech, et cetera.
“I think it’s also fair to say that because people now like things to move around a lot more than they did in the past, so silver has become more exciting for investors to jump in on. But you have to be aware that there will be accentuated volatility, leverage sizzle that goes with silver over and above gold because it moves around more.”
Where will gold go from here?
“When when gold goes up, it’s measuring how much your currencies are going down. What you tend to find is the trend is what you want to watch. So whatever direction gold moved, in sterling in our case, absent a change in policy – and I don’t think any of us are expecting that – then you should expect similar next year.
“Now that’s quite a big number. So if you work out what gold did last year, then I’m suggesting there’s nothing unreasonable. It’s suggesting a similar sort of behaviour next year.”
Worrying about counterparty risk
“So the best way to run physical gold and silver is not in my fund. It’s yourself. But if you want to own it on the screen in whatever way, or in a portfolio, there are myriad different ways you can express ownership of one times the gold price, one times the silver price. All that matters to me, therefore, is worrying about the counterparty risk.
“So that leads me away from exchange traded products and towards what are called bullion trusts, which is what we own in the fund. And they are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So they’re covered by the Securities Act, the physical gold and silver is held outside the banking system. It is just a de-risking process.
“I feel the same way about mining companies, which is I don’t feel like I need to be in Africa or Central Asia or whatever. Now, maybe occasionally we miss something because we narrow our universe to what we call Tier 1 and Tier 2 jurisdictions.
“Everything about this is de-risk first. Be very, very focused on what might go wrong. Really think about that a lot. Think about the overall spread of instruments you own.”
Are investors too late to the party?
“To answer your question: are you too late? I’m going to refer to the point I made earlier, which is, unless you think that central bankers and governments are effectively going to go from cutting and being accommodative in the monetary system to being hawkish and raising interest rates, then no, you’re not too late. It’s always that, it’s always to do with that. So it is a long cycle observation.
“Yes, it’s clear that gold and silver diversify, but short-term the price of silver got overbought because of leverage. But as for these metals in people’s portfolios, short-term overbought, but very clearly under-owned at a portfolio level for investors globally.
Conclusion: This interview offers a rare insider perspective on the gold and silver markets. Ned breaks down complex market movements, explains why physical metals and mining companies matter and reveals why recent volatility creates opportunity rather than risk.
Past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. You may not get back the amount originally invested, and tax rules can change over time. The writer’s views are their own and do not constitute financial advice.
This information should not be relied upon by retail clients or investment professionals. Reference to any particular investment does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell the investment.
Main image: chris-stenger-CMAuG9NQXNc-unsplash
