Easiest and most efficient ways to invest in silver on the stock market

I will list below the pros and cons of investing in silver via the stock market according to each symbol.

SLV : ishares Silver Trust

• PROS: Most liquid silver investment on the stock market. Tracks the spot price of silver per USD.
  
• CONS: The banks that regulate this fund are no other than Barclays and JP Morgan. JP Morgan is known is be a major manipulator in the price of silver and this ETF is one of their main vehicles on how they can do it. There is a risk that they may not have enough silver in the trust in case of a default. (You may not even own any silver at all!)

AGQ: Ultra Silver ProShares

• PROS: Fund seeks to track the performance of the silver spot market but doubled.
• CONS: Less liquid than SLV and the fund is subject to many risks. Custodian is Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., a large private bank with limited information. Also subject to volatility in the options/futures market. (See Understanding Leveraged 2X ETFs) This ETF has little volume compared to other instruments that follow the price of silver and the BID/ASK spreads may vary away from the price of the underlying asset it's supposed to follow.

PAAS: Pan American Silver (My preferred choice)

• PROS: A Silver mining company with many mines operating throughout Latin America and Mexico. Founded in 1994.
• CONS: Subject to many things including political climate, mine status, etc. For more imformation be sure to visit their SEC Form 10-K.

There are many other silver companies such as SLW (Silver Wheaton) and SSRI (Silver Standard Resources), but they are riskier and are more speculative in nature. SLW has alot of debt and may not be able to sustain their growth. SSRI on the other hand has many silver properties are royalties but does not have a good cash flow. It is currently developing a mine for the first time but it is questionable whether or not it will be satisfactory. Transitioning to a silver mining company will be challenging.