Poor man's gold may be an investor's treasure

Silver's not so much a poor man's gold anymore and investors may soon realize that the white metal's the real treasure.

True, at $17 per ounce, silver is cheap -- trading around 60 times less than gold's record price of more than $1,100. But year to date, it's climbed 52% in value compared with gold's rise of around 25%, according to data from FactSet Research.

Silver is a precious metal, after all, one that has historically outperformed gold in a bull market and doubles as an industrial metal -- and supplies of it are depleting at a much more rapid pace. (more)