Mumbai: Wealth managers and strategists have one message for investors sitting on hefty gains from the tearaway rally in gold and silver: take money off the table. With both the precious metals having more than doubled in the past 18 months in a record-breaking run-up, pulling in a wave of new investors, the risk-reward may be stretched to hold an outsized bet, they said.

“If you bought gold and silver over the past year and a half, this is the time to take profits and be a fence sitter,” said Sahil Kapoor, head – Products, and market strategist, DSP Mutual Fund.

Over the past 18 months, gold has been up 101% in dollar terms and 116% in rupee terms. Silver has surged 167% in dollar terms and 198% in rupee terms.

While international silver has dropped 36.63% and gold is down 7.8% from their recent lifetime highs in January 2026, the lower prices may not warrant major fresh allocations at this juncture.

“Precious metals are priced to perfection after the sharp run-up in prices we saw over the last couple of years,” said Akshay Chinchalkar, managing partner and head of strategy, The Wealth Company. Chinchalkar recommends waiting for a “big crack” before deploying lump-sum funds and prefers that investors use Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) – a staggered form of deployment – to build gold exposure.

Gold and silver have rallied mainly on safe-haven demand, driven by simmering geopolitical tensions, aggressive US trade policies, inflationary pressures and sustained central-bank buying. Silver’s surge, however, goes beyond its role as a store of value: the metal’s expanding industrial demand – from solar panels and electric vehicles to AI-related technologies that have seen swelling investment in recent years – has also fuelled its rise.
The strong rally prompted Indian investors, deprived of gains in equities here, to pump record sums over the past couple of months. Monthly inflows into gold and silver schemes topped equity funds for the first time in January. Precious-metal ETFs drew ₹33,503 crore during the month – more than double December’s ₹15,600 crore and higher than ₹24,029 crore into equity schemes. Flows into equity mutual funds dipped 14% in January from the previous month. Investors would be better off not crowding into these products, said strategists.

“New investors should not enter with large weights or allocate fresh funds at this time. At best, to avoid FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), start a token SIP, if you can’t control your urge to participate,” said Kapoor.