Silver Basis Monitor
Real-time basis and co-basis between the LBMA silver fix and COMEX front-month silver futures. Updated every 15 minutes during U.S. market hours.
Current Silver Basis
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What is the Silver Basis?
The silver basis is the difference between the futures price and the spot price of silver. A positive basis (contango) is the normal condition. A negative basis (backwardation) signals that holders prefer physical metal over paper promises. Silver backwardation is rarer than gold backwardation and historically a stronger paper-physical decoupling signal — see Forum #24 on the January 30, 2026 silver crash.
Methodology
Basis = front-month COMEX silver futures price − LBMA silver fix. Co-basis = LBMA silver fix − front-month COMEX silver futures price. The monitor samples both quotes on a 15-minute cadence during U.S. market hours and plots the full forward curve across /SI delivery months.
Silver backwardation is historically rarer than gold backwardation. When it occurs, it has been a stronger paper-physical decoupling signal because silver's smaller market depth and lower inventory-to-flow ratio make a physical squeeze harder to paper over.
Data Sources
- Spot price
- LBMA silver fix and intraday tape
- Futures price
- CME front-month silver futures (/SI) and full forward curve
- Update cadence
- Every 15 minutes during U.S. market hours
- Historical retention
- Daily readings retained continuously since instrument launch
How to Interpret
Contango (positive basis) is the normal silver market condition. Persistent backwardation in silver is rare in the modern era and has coincided with episodes of acute physical scarcity — the January 30, 2026 silver crash analyzed in Forum #24 is a recent example.
Because silver's industrial demand floor is harder to dislodge than gold's monetary demand floor, silver backwardation tends to resolve through abrupt price gaps rather than gradual basis recovery. The monitor is designed to capture both the basis condition and the timing of those resolutions.
How to Cite
Researchers, journalists, and analysts citing this instrument are welcome to use the formats below. Replace [date of retrieval] with the date you retrieved the reading.
Prose
New Austrian Economics, Silver Basis Monitor, retrieved [date of retrieval], https://newaustrianeconomics.com/toolkit/silver-basis
Academic (APA)
New Austrian Economics. (2026). Silver Basis Monitor [Data analysis tool]. Retrieved [date of retrieval] from https://newaustrianeconomics.com/toolkit/silver-basis
One-liner
per the Silver Basis Monitor at newaustrianeconomics.com