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Goldman Sachs is flagging a wave of client activity in the silver options market that it believes could pour fuel on an already scorching gold rally. The bank reports a notable uptick in call option buying from clients placing bets that silver will hit $90 per ounce in the coming months, a level the metal briefly touched earlier this year before pulling back.
Silver was trading around $69.40 per ounce as of August 21, 2026. That’s up more than 78% year-over-year, which sounds impressive until you remember it was flirting with $90 to $91 back in January and February. The options market suggests plenty of traders think a return trip is on the table.
The silver-gold feedback loop
Goldman’s thesis is straightforward but worth unpacking. Silver is gold’s more volatile, more emotional sibling. When money floods into silver call options, it creates what’s essentially a self-reinforcing cycle. Market makers who sell those calls need to hedge their exposure by buying the underlying asset, which pushes prices higher, which makes the calls more valuable, which attracts more buyers.
Goldman highlights that this options-driven momentum doesn’t stay confined to silver. Because precious metals tend to move in correlation, aggressive silver positioning tends to drag gold along for the ride. The bank maintains its end-of-2026 gold targets between $4,900 and $5,400 per ounce. For silver specifically, Goldman’s projections call for average prices between $85 and $100 in 2026.
Not just Goldman making the call
Citi is singing a similar tune. The bank reiterated its silver forecast in an August 12 report, maintaining a near-term target of $75 and a 6-to-12-month target of $90.
The bullish case for precious metals rests on several pillars. Central bank gold purchases continue at an elevated pace, a trend that accelerated after the freezing of Russian reserves in 2022 prompted reserve managers worldwide to rethink their dollar-heavy allocations. ETF inflows into gold and silver products have added another layer of persistent demand.
Silver carries an extra card that gold doesn’t: industrial demand. The metal is a critical input for solar panels, electronics, and electric vehicle components. On the supply side, silver mining output has struggled to keep pace with demand growth, and new mine development takes years to translate into production.
What the options market is really saying
The concentration of call buying at the $90 strike is telling. With silver currently around $69.40, a move to $90 would represent roughly a 30% gain. The metal gained over 78% in the past year alone.
Goldman emphasizes that silver’s liquidity profile amplifies these moves. The silver market is significantly smaller than gold’s, meaning the same dollar amount of buying pressure moves the needle much further. This dynamic cuts both ways. Traders who rode the metal up to $90 in early 2026 watched it shed more than 20% of its value over the following months.
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