Silver Linings: Top picks in silver stocks

The Aden sisters notes, "These two are the strongest silver stocks by far. They're at new highs and have room to rise further."

Adrian Day, editor of The Global Analyst, also turns to Silver Standard as his latest buy. He explains, "SSRI as a pure silver company, holding much of its cash in the form of silver bullion, and with no hedges, is particularly leveraged to the price of silver." He also points to the company's well thought-out business plan, and great growth profile.

He notes that the company has over 1.3 billion ounces of silver resources in a dozen properties around the world, including Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Canada and Australia. This provides its with "the largest silver resources of any pure silver company."

In addition to its silver holdings, the advisor points to two additional "critical assets". He notes, "The company has a super-strong balance sheet, with $300 million in cash, marketable securities and silver bullion, with no debt. This is a dramatic reversal from a few years ago, when the company, without revenues, had to go to the equity markets several times to raise money."

The company's other valuable asset, he notes is its people, including president and CEO Robert Quartermain who Day notes is a "hands-on geologist."

He notes, "If the silver price stays at current levels-let alone advances further-we can easily see SSRI trade at $50 a share or more before the end of the year. And that's a conservative estimate."

Commodity expert Ivan Martchev, editor of the recently-launched Vital Resources, adds, "Among metals, silver is my current favorite based on its potential for outsized moves."

The advisors holds 5% of his model portfolio in the silver exchange traded fund, iShares Silver Trust (ASE: SLV), and recommends that investors not yet positioned in silver should buy this trust now.

As for individual stocks, his favorite is Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW), which he calls, "a silver play on steroids." He explains, "Silver Wheaton enjoys relatively fixed acquisition costs of $3.90 per ounce. Major silver producers own shares in Silver Wheaton. Contractually, they give their silver to the company at below-market prices as their Silver Wheaton shares appreciate."

He notes, "I'm bullish on silver because of extremely low inventories and inelastic substitution for many industrial processes. A leveraged silver bet like Silver Wheaton makes a good portfolio holding at these levels."