What Is PSLV? Sprott Physical Silver Trust

PSLV is the Sprott Physical Silver Trust, a closed-end fund that holds allocated, fully paid physical silver bullion stored in a secure vault. Each unit represents a claim on a specific amount of stored metal, so buying PSLV is a way to gain direct exposure to the silver price without personally storing or insuring bars. It launched in November 2010.

It is important to understand that PSLV is not a conventional 1940-Act ETF. It is a closed-end trust that lists on the NYSE and trades like a fund, but has a fixed unit structure. That structure lets its market price drift to a premium or discount relative to the net asset value of the silver it holds, a behavior traditional open-ended ETFs largely avoid.

Approximate weights as of mid-2026; refresh quarterly from Sprott Asset Management's fund page. Each ticker links to its individual stock guide in Walnut.

PSLV's holdings are almost entirely physical silver, held as London Good Delivery bars in a secure vault, alongside a small cash balance to cover expenses. There are no equities, futures contracts, or derivatives involved. The trust holds hundreds of millions of ounces of metal, backing roughly 19 billion dollars in assets.

Sprott emphasizes that the silver is allocated and fully paid, meaning specific bars are attributed to the trust rather than held on an unallocated, pooled basis. This is a central part of PSLV's pitch: investors are meant to own audited physical metal, and large holders can request redemption for actual bars subject to minimum sizes.

The most common comparison is with iShares' SLV, the largest silver fund. Both track the silver price, but SLV is a larger grantor trust that generally trades very close to its NAV, while PSLV is a Sprott closed-end trust that emphasizes allocated, redeemable bullion and can trade at a visible premium or discount.

Against buying physical coins or bars directly, PSLV removes the hassle of storage, insurance, and dealer spreads, and it trades instantly on an exchange. The trade-off is the roughly 0.6% annual fee and the premium-or-discount dynamic. Which approach fits depends on whether you value convenience, allocation, or the lowest possible cost.

PSLV's return comes entirely from the silver price and its premium or discount to NAV, with no income to cushion it. Silver is historically more volatile than gold, driven by both investment demand and industrial uses like solar panels and electronics, so PSLV can post large moves in either direction.

The outlook is really a view on silver itself: monetary demand as an inflation or crisis hedge, industrial demand from clean-energy and electronics manufacturing, and the direction of the dollar and real interest rates. PSLV is a clean way to express that view, but it inherits all of silver's volatility.

PSLV carries a specific structural risk that broad funds do not: because it is a closed-end trust, its market price can diverge from the value of its silver. Buying when units trade at a large premium means paying more than the metal is worth, and that premium can shrink even if silver holds steady, hurting returns.

On top of that, PSLV is a single-commodity holding with no diversification. Its entire value rides on silver, an asset with no cash flow and sharp price swings. That concentration makes it useful as a hedge or tactical position but ill-suited as a core holding, and investors should size it accordingly.

PSLV may fit investors who want direct, physically backed silver exposure, whether as a portfolio hedge, an inflation play, or a tactical commodity bet, and who accept that silver pays no income and can be highly volatile. It is generally a small satellite position, not a core holding. Walnut is not an investment adviser; whether PSLV fits depends on your goals, risk tolerance, and existing commodity exposure.

PSLV trades on the NYSE and is available on major brokerages including Robinhood, Fidelity, Schwab, and Public, many of which support fractional shares. Watch the premium or discount to NAV before buying, and once you own it, connect your brokerage to Walnut to track PSLV alongside the rest of your portfolio.

PSLV is a way to own physical silver without a vault or futures. Its edge over SLV is that its bullion is allocated and audited, and large holders can redeem for real metal. The trade-offs are a premium or discount to NAV and a fee near 0.6%. It is a tactical, single-commodity holding, not a diversified core position.

Whether PSLV is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, concentration, and what would have to be true for it to outperform from here in is PSLV a buy?

PSLV yields 0% (no yield) as of mid-2026, paid by passing through the dividends of its underlying holdings. For the payout schedule, history, and how the distributions are taxed, see PSLV dividend: yield and schedule.