Gold-silver ratio, Feb. 1 -- Gold prices have surged 73% in a year, but this performance gets eclipsed by the sharp 171% gains delivered by silver during this period, despite the pullback seen in prices over the last two trading sessions that ended January 30.

Silver rate cracked 27% on Friday to trade around $84, and gold tumbled 9% and hovered at $4,865 as investors were spooked by US President Donald Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as chair of the US Federal Reserve.

According to the data by The Conversation, silver's spectacular gain had come with 36% "annualised volatility", which measures how much a stock price varies over one year. This was nearly double that of gold's 20% volatility over the same period.

What it signals is th...