Silver has been an incredibly interesting commodity to follow throughout the year. In the beginning of the year, and through the first half, the commodity was on a strong bullish run. However, since July, we've seen declines. Now, there seems to be no telling where the price of the precious metal is going to go from here. Today, we'll talk about the larger determining factors with regard to the gains and losses we've seen throughout the year and a couple of key stories that binary options traders should be watching when trading the commodity ahead.

Why Silver Has Been On Such A Wild Ride This Year

As mentioned above, Silver saw incredible gains for the first half of the year, but has been running on declines since. Here are the factors that have driven movement in the price of the commodity throughout the year…

Economic And Market Fears – Early in the year, the global market and global economy seemed to run into a brick wall. With oil prices on lows, the energy sector was struggling. Commodities had been struggling as a whole fro some time. Then, on the first trading session of the new year, the Chinese market spiraled out of control. Of course, with China being the world's second largest economy, the Chinese market crash led to massive declines globally.

At the same time all of this was happening, there were widespread economic concerns. The United States, Japan, Europe, China, the UK, and several other economies simply weren't performing to the extent that they should have been.

All of this combined led to big changes in the investors' mindset. Soon, investors started clammoring, looking for safe haven assets to keep their money safe. With precious metals being one of the strongest safe havens throughout history, the demand for silver skyrocketed. As a result, the price of the commodity climbed.

Economic Turn Around – Throughout the first half of the year, silver saw big gains as economic fears seemed to dictate what happened in the market. However, during this time, central banks around the world were working to patch their struggling economies.

In July, we started to see strong economic improvements around the world. Most of the world's larger economies that were in a concerning state finally showed some signs of progress. At the same time, oil started to head upward as OPEC continued to work toward an agreement, one that was reached just a couple of months later.

All of this combined increased the average investor's appetite for risk. With gains to be had in the market again, we've seen global indices heading up. In order for investors to free up money to get involved in these gains, they've been selling their safe haven assets. Unfortunately, this has led to a decline in demand for silver, causing the price of the precious metal to fall.

What Binary Options Traders Should Be Watching Ahead

While it seems as though the market has fully recovered and economic conditions are on the rise, things can change quickly. In fact, there are two big stories at the moment that have the potential to topple markets and send economies spiraling out of control. Ultimately, this could lead to a reverse in directions for silver. Those stories include…

• Brexit – First and foremost, the Brexit is starting to pop up in news again. Lately, more EU leaders are jumping on the band wagon, pushing for a hard Brexit. If this happens, we could see massive changes in the UK and European economies. The affects of a hard Brexit would likely hit the global economy pretty hard in time, causing big movement in silver. So, keep an eye on this story as it develops.

• Donald Trump – Throughout his campaign President-elect Donald Trump has been stating that he would be changing trade agreements and making other massive changes that could cause movement in the global economy. Keep a close eye on the moves he makes as they will likely affect the price of silver ahead.

What Do You Think?

Where do you think silver is headed moving forward? Join the discussion in the comments below.

[Image Courtesy of Flickr]