Traditionally when stock investors wanted to capitalize on a move in silver prices, they did so by purchasing shares of the silver mining companies (CDE, SSRI etc.). In more recent years there have been companies such as Silver Wheaton (SLW) that have become popular as they have purchase agreements that give them a steady supply of silver without the mining risks. Since mining stocks are volatile and subject to company risk as well as silver price risk and stock market risk it's natural for investors to want to diversify their holdings by using a Silver Mining ETF.

SIL - Global X Silver Miners ETF features the top miners that concentrate primarily on silver mining as well as the silver stream company Silver Wheaton which is one of it's largest holdings (currently 12% of the fund). As the name implies it is a Global Fund with silver stocks from around the world, with the largest holdings in Canada, Mexico and the United States with lesser holdings in Russia and Peru.

The annual expense ratio is .65% (65 basis points) and the average daily trading volume is several hundred thousand shares which is quite good considering the ETF just started trading on 4/19/2010.

Looking at the performance of SIL since inception compared to SLV you can see that SLV has generally outperformed the silver mining ETF.  Normally silver mining companies will outperform during strong advances and under perform during declines but that has not been the case in recent months.

SIL VS SLV Since Inception Of SLV

 
Daily chart beginning on SIL first trading day.

Comparing SIL to the Gold and Silver Index (XAU) however, you can see that SIL has sharply outperformed since inception.  So if you had chosen to be in mining stocks it certainly would've been a good choice.

Daily chart beginning on SIL first trading day.

SLV  |  SIVR  |  DBS  |  USV  |  AGQ  |  ZSL  |  SIL